BIZ

Plan to provide NLDB & Milco to Amul, scrapped – Namal

Published

6 months ago

December 19, 2024

editor

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Namal Karunaratne has assured that the government has decided not to move forward with the previous administration’s proposal to lease farms and milk distribution centres owned by the National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and Milco Ltd. to India’s Amul Milk Cooperative.

The deputy minister said this in Parliament yesterday (Dec. 18) in response to a question raised by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Hesha Withanage.

“The previous Government attempted to hand over all NLDB farms and the Milco company to Amul and another local company. This was strongly opposed by the Farmers’ Federation. As someone who was directly involved in these efforts, I can confirm our stance on this matter. The plan to award these assets to a low bidder has been halted, and none of them will be handed over to the proposed entities,” he said.

In July this year, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera jointly submitted a Cabinet paper proposing to lease farms owned by Milco and NLDB to India’s Amul milk cooperative for a period of 99 years. An assessment valued Milco and NLDB assets at Rs. 90 billion, while the Highland brand name was valued at Rs. 2 billion.

BIZ

Standard egg prices to be announced daily via SMS

Published

2 days ago

June 20, 2025

editor

Chairman of the All-Ceylon Egg Producers’ Association, R.M. Sarath Rathnayake has said new measures to announce daily standardized egg prices will be introduced from next Monday (June 23) to ensure fair pricing for consumers.

The prices covering wholesale, retail, and intermediary rates will be communicated daily at 5.00am via SMS to small, medium, and large-scale egg producers, as well as bakery owners, food manufacturers, and hotels through the number 070-7030700.

He warned of recent practices where eggs were bought at Rs.15-18 and stockpiled, stating such actions will no longer be tolerated.

He also criticized groups posing as “egg associations” without actual farming experience.

The cost of producing an egg is around Rs.28 for large farms, Rs.29-30 for medium range farms, and Rs.32 for small-scale producers, he further said.

BIZ

16 bn. Apple, Facebook, Google passwords exposed

Published

2 days ago

June 20, 2025

editor

A staggering 16 billion passwords to Apple, Facebook, Google, and various US government services have been leaked online, triggering global security alerts in what experts are calling the most significant data breach in history.

The mammoth security breach has forced Google to urge billions of users to change their passwords immediately.

At the same time, the FBI has issued warnings to Americans about opening suspicious links in SMS messages.

Cybersecurity experts at Cybernews, who investigated the breach, discovered a whopping 30 exposed datasets containing between tens of millions and over 3.5 billion records each.

Perhaps most alarmingly, researchers confirmed that nearly all these exposed datasets contain previously unreported information, making this an entirely fresh security crisis.

“This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation,” the researchers said via Forbes this week.

(news.com.au)

BIZ

New chairman appointed to CSE

Published

3 days ago

June 19, 2025

editor

Dimuthu Abeyesekera has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE).

The CSE announced that Mr. Abeyesekera brings over 35 years of experience in the capital markets and has served on the CSE Board for the past six years.

He currently serves as the Director/CEO of Asha Securities Ltd, which is affiliated with Phillip Capital Singapore, a specialized financial services organization managing assets worth over US$ 35 billion with a network of offices around the world.

Abeysekera also currently serves as the Director at Asha Financial Services Ltd, a specialised margin Trading Company in Colombo.