Jayantha Kelegama
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Deshamanya Deshamanya (; ; Pride of the Nation) is the second-highest national honour of Sri Lanka awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka as a civil honour. It is awarded for "''highly meritorious service''", and is conventionally used as a title or prefi ...
Jayantha Kelegama (1928–2005) was a
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
n
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
. He belongs to the first generation of economists in the post-independent Sri Lanka.


Family

Kelegama married Padmini and they had two sons; one of them was Sri Lankan economist Dr. Saman Kelegama.


Education

After graduating from the
University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...
with a degree in economics, Kelegama joined the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka The Central Bank of Sri Lanka ( CBSL; ), known until 1985 as the Central Bank of Ceylon, is the central bank of Sri Lanka. It was established in 1950 under the Monetary Law Act No.58 of 1949 (MLA) and in terms of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Ac ...
in the early-1950s with the first batch of officers which included
Gamani Corea Deshamanya Gamani Corea (4 November 1925 – 3 November 2013) was a Sri Lankan economist, civil servant and diplomat. He was also the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and Under-Secretary-General of the ...
, Warnasena Rasaputra, among others. He proceeded to
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
for post graduate studies under a Central Bank scholarship thereafter.


Career

After completing his doctorate in 1957, Kelegama returned to Sri Lanka and re-joined the Central Bank. He was seconded as the Senior Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Trade in 1960 and in 1963 he was appointed as the Director of Economic Research in the Ministry of Finance – a post he held till 1966. It was during the 1960s that Kelegama together with P.B. Karandawala played a crucial role in formulating budgets of the 1960–1965 government. Kelegama served under three Finance Ministers during that time: T.B. Ilangaratne,
Felix Dias Bandaranaike Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike ( Sinhala:ෆීලික්ස් ඩයස් බණඩාරනායක) (5 November 1930 – 26 June 1985) was a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, who served as Cabinet Minister of Finance, Parliamentary Secre ...
, and Dr. N.M. Perera. He was instrumental in establishing the People’s Bank and the
Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited, also known as Sri Lanka Insurance is the largest and strongest composite insurance provider in Sri Lanka. It is the first and only insurance company in Sri Lanka to be assigned a prime AAA− rating for In ...
in the early 1960s with the then Finance Minister, T.B. Ilangartna. He was also instrumental in introducing the Business Turnover Tax. He contributed to the preparation of budgets of the former Finance Minister, U.B. Wanninayake during 1965–1967. He became the first Professor of Economics at Vidyalankara after it was converted from a Pirivena to a University in the late 1950s by Prime Minister,
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (8 January 1899 – 26 September 1959), also known as "The Silver Bell of Asia" (ආසියාවේ රිදී සීනුව), was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as the fourth Prime Minister of ...
’s government. He with a few others pioneered the teaching of Economics in Sinhala at the University of Vidyalankara after swabasha was introduced. His contemporaries at Vidyalankara were K. Dharmasena, Tilak Ratnakara, Kamal Karunanayake, among others. During this period, he wrote many articles and made extensive contributions to the Ceylon Economist and to the news papers. Other contributors to Ceylon Economist at that time were I.D.S. Weerawardena, F.R. Jayasuriya, A.D.V.de S. Indraratna, H.A.de S. Gunasekera, Buddhadasa Hewavitharana, among others. In 1968, he was appointed as the Director-General of Commerce under the
Dudley Senanayake Dudley Shelton Senanayake (Sinhala language, Sinhala: ඩඩ්ලි ශෙල්ටන් සේනානායක: ; 19 June 1911 – 13 April 1973), was a Sri Lankan wikt:statesman, statesman who thrice served as Prime Minister of C ...
government and served in that position for two years. During 1970–1977, he served as the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of External & Internal Trade with T.B. Ilangaratne as the Minister under the
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (; ; ; 17 April 1916 – 10 October 2000), commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan politician. She was the List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government, world's first fe ...
government. State Trading Corporation, Sri Lanka Tractor Corporation, etc., were new initiatives at that time.


Economic consultancy at UN Agencies

During 1977–1990 he pursued a career outside Sri Lanka serving in various international organizations such as
UNCTAD UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...
,
FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...
, and ESCAP as an economic consultant.


Honorary positions

He, together with H.N.S. Karunatileke and A.D.V. de S. Indraratna formed the Sri Lanka Economic Association in 1985 where he served as the Vice President from 1985–1991. In 1994/1995, he served as the Chairman of the Tea Commission and during 1996–2002 he served as the Chancellor of the Rajarata University. He was the first Chancellor of the Rajarata University.


Humanitarian works

During the 1990s, he played a key role in two leading humanitarian organizations, viz., the Cancer Society and Sahanaya and served as the Chairman in both these institutions for many years.


Approach to economic analysis

Kelegama belonged to the older generation of economists who were every much influenced by
Fabian socialism The Fabian Society () is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. Th ...
and
Keynesian economics Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomics, macroeconomic theories and Economic model, models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongl ...
. He stood at the
centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...
of the
political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...
in his economic thinking. He was a prolific writer with contributions to Ceylon Economist, Economic Review, Sri Lanka Economic Journal and to the newspapers. His papers on the rural economy of Sri Lanka and peasantry are still widely quoted by scholars. During the time of the globalization debate, he made many notable contributions on pros and cons of globalization to various journals. He delivered many lectures on economic topics of contemporary interest at various forums –
Philip Gunawardena Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist. A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyi ...
Memorial lecture, N.M. Perera Memorial lecture, etc. His thinking on economic issues was articulated in his weekly column to the Sunday Island under the name ''Kanes''. Under the column, many subjects ranging from:
globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
,
Washington Consensus The Washington Consensus is a set of ten economic policy prescriptions considered in the 1980s and 1990s to constitute the "standard" reform package promoted for Economic crisis, crisis-wracked developing country, developing countries by the Was ...
,
WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
, regional & bilateral
free trade agreements A free trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occu ...
, and domestic economic policy issues were discussed. He wrote this column from 1995–2005. The running theme on many of his articles on the domestic economy was that Sri Lanka is still not prepared for a total free market economy because of the not very strong supply base in the country, and until the supply base was adequately developed a mixed economy should be pursued. A
Keynesian Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
type of government initiated
fiscal stimulus In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative eas ...
was necessary, he argued, to develop the supply potential in the economy. In other words, he gave an alternative viewpoint to that of ardent advocates of a total free market economy who argued that with the free operation of the market forces, the supply base will automatically develop with minimum state intervention.


Awards

In recognition of his service to the Nation he was conferred with ''
Deshamanya Deshamanya (; ; Pride of the Nation) is the second-highest national honour of Sri Lanka awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka as a civil honour. It is awarded for "''highly meritorious service''", and is conventionally used as a title or prefi ...
'' by the government of Sri Lanka in 1994 and in recognition of his contribution to economic teaching and economic policy making he was conferred with ''Artha Shastra Shiromnai'' by the
University of Kelaniya The University of Kelaniya (UoK; , ) is a public university in Sri Lanka. Just outside the municipal limits of Colombo, in the city of Kelaniya, the university has two major institutions and seven faculties. History The University of Kelaniy ...
in 2002. He was posthumously awarded ''Trinity Lion'' by the
Trinity College, Kandy Trinity College, Kandy is a private Anglican boys' school located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It offers both day and boarding facilities. It was founded in 1872 by British Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, modelled on Britis ...
in 2013.


See also

*
List of Sri Lankan non-career Permanent Secretaries This is a list of Sri Lankan non-career Permanent Secretaries; they are from different professions. The list includes doctors, engineers, journalists, professional politicians, university lecturers, lawyers, journalists, defence officers, and pe ...


References


External links


Dr. Jayantha Kelegama





The Golden Era of Teaching Economics at the University of Kelaniya: 1960-1970

Kelaniya University Economics Department honours veterans, recognises young talent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelegama, Jayantha 1928 births 2005 deaths Sri Lankan economists Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy Alumni of Maliyadeva College Alumni of the University of Ceylon (Colombo) Alumni of the University of Oxford Sinhalese people Sri Lankan Buddhists Permanent secretaries of Sri Lanka Deshamanya