Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and power cuts

It was a solemn occasion. The dons at the Colombo University and its alumni association members were gathered for the 15th Annual Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration, at the BMICH in Colombo. The orator was none other than MillenniumIT-fame Tony Weerasinghe. The topic was ‘Up in the Cloud: Using Artificial Intelligence and Digitalisation to transform Sri Lanka to a developed country’.

The audience was sure that the event would proceed uninterrupted, as Colombo 7, where the BMICH is located, does not experience the scheduled power cuts. Even if it does, the generators at the BMICH will kick in, causing minimum interruption. But still the thought that regular power cuts could affect a talk on Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things was too ironical to handle.  

As expected, Tony was eloquent presenting his case. He talked about fitbit-type wearable technology and drone ambulances powered by Artificial Intelligence, which could effectively increase our lifespan from the current 65-80 years to over 100 years. 

Then he moved on to tell the story of his alternative trading platform, Ustocktrade, which could possibly wipe out Sri Lanka’s budget deficit. 

Ustocktrade, backed by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, allows you to trade securities listed on the US stock market. Now any Sri Lankan can trade stocks listed on the US stock market using Ustocktrade for US $ 1 per transaction. 

Tony wants 100,000 Sri Lankans to trade using Ustocktrade (the initial investment of US $ 500 will be provided and it is to be returned when a person makes US $ 1,000) and make US $ 100,000 each per annum to generate US $ 10 billion, which according to him, can easily wipe out Sri Lanka’s fiscal deficit.
Further, he pointed out how use of drone technology can solve a plethora of problems faced by Sri Lankan farmers, who are constantly battling droughts, floods, army worms and many other issues.

With due respect to Tony, these may be all great ideas that can disrupt the current setup and make Sri Lanka a developed nation. As a private sector tech entrepreneur, he has shown us how to transform these big ideas into reality. But for all of these to happen, Sri Lanka needs to get its basics right. In other words, we shouldn’t be worried about power cuts when listening to Tony Weerasinghe.

What we need to understand is that for the last two and half decades, the dynamics of Sri Lanka’s power crisis haven’t changed. Whenever there is less rainfall to the catchment areas, we have resorted to power cuts. If power cuts happened 20 years ago due to lack of rainfall and if the same is happening now, then there is a serious problem we need to address as a nation.  

In the modern world, 24-hour electricity is a basic need. If we haven’t figured that basic fact out, then there is no point in talking about free Wi-Fi, smart cities, smart classrooms or Google balloons.

Sri Lanka is a story of missed opportunities. Let’s try and get to the bottom of this claim, which for a change all Sri Lankans would agree. It simply means that we were either too early or too late. The main reason for this is not getting the basics right.

For example, when Sri Lanka’s economy was opened, we weren’t ready. The open economy was introduced in 1978 in response to the extremely inward-looking policies of the previous administration and was not an organic development. If it were to be done, we should have done it gradually, taking stock of its impact and adjusting ourselves the best possible way. 

We still proudly call ourselves the first Asian economy to embrace open economic policies. But where are we now? We have imposed thousands of para-tariffs to address the fallout from opening our economy without a plan, blocking the natural forward march of the economy. So there, we were too early.

In the case of Sir Lanka’s transformation to a service economy from an agriculture economy, we conveniently skipped the industrialization part only to experience its repercussions today. Our exports have hardly changed during the last 25 years and a considerable section of the country’s labour force is still stuck in the low-yielding agricultural sector. Attempts by consecutive governments to industrialize the nation have produced little results. So there, we were too late. 

The present administration’s push towards digitalisation of the economy should be applauded. But to attain that, consistent supply of countrywide electricity is vital. Hence, the policymakers should be careful not to put the cart before the horse again, which fittingly sums up Sri Lanka’s post-independence development formula.  

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