Nov 29 (EN) SL has issued a series of evacuation orders down river as reservoirs continue to spill from heavy rains unleashed by Cyclone Ditwah which has left 69 killed and over 200,000 people were hit with 18,000 displaced. Flood water is the Colombo and Gampaha districts are still rising and many have been already evacuated. Ja-Ela and Gampaha towns are under water and water level in Negambo can rise further as water level in more..

Nov 29 (NW) Cyclonic Storm Ditwah is centered near latitude 9.0°N and longitude 80.8°E, about 70 km Northwest of Trincomalee at 11.30 p.m. on 28th Nov. It is very likely to move north-northwestwards and reach near Tamil Nadu coast, India by 30th Nov. The general public is kindly requested to be attentive about future advisories issued by the Dept of Meteorology in this regard. Prevailing rainy weather condition will be considerably reduced by tomorrow (30th). more..

Nov 29 (FT) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake directed District Secretaries and District Development Committee Chairpersons to proceed with rescue and relief operations without allowing funding concerns to slow response efforts, as severe flooding continues across several districts. Speaking at a virtual briefing with district officials, Prez said Rs. 1.2 billion has already been released for disaster relief and a further Rs. 30 billion has been set aside in the 2025 Budget for emergency needs. more..

Nov 29 (EN) SL govt has invited SL expatriates living abroad and foreign nationals to support national disaster relief efforts with announcing accounts to remit money. The govt announced said Sri Lankans residing overseas and foreign nationals may contribute to relief efforts for those affected by the current disaster situation in the country. “To streamline the process, two separate accounts have been established to accept donations in more..

Nov 29 (AD) Ministry of Health have declared a state of emergency within the health sector for one week until December 4 in order to ensure uninterrupted health services to the public. Accordingly, due to the disaster situation caused by Cyclone Ditwah, the Ministry has issued a special circular signed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, Dr. Anil Jasinghe. According to the circular, all leave of health sector staff has been cancelled until further notice. more..

Nov 29 (Island) National Transport Commission (NTC) issued a special advisory to bus crews nationwide as adverse weather continued to disrupt major roads and public transport services. In its directive, NTC instructed drivers and conductors to strictly follow police orders in areas where roadblocks have been imposed due to flooding or landslides. The commission warned that buses must not enter areas with poor visibility or unclear road alignment, noting that several routes more..

Nov 29 (NW) Opposition MP Shanakiyan Rasamanikkam has called on Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake to issue an immediate official circular or gazette granting clear authority to govt officials to act during the ongoing disaster situation, warning that delays are worsening the suffering of affected communities. Speaking after a special meeting chaired by Prez with the participation of opposition party leaders, Rasamanikkam said discussions focused on urgent measures needed to more..

Nov 29 (FT) Central Bank of SL (CBSL) Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on Wednesday provided a detailed breakdown of Sri Lanka’s external debt servicing outlook, noting that the country would see an overturn in its payments, which is considered good. Responding to a question posed at the post-Monetary Policy Review meeting media briefing, he noted that said external interest payments alone amount to about $ 2.75 billion this year, inclusive of other related obligations. more..

Nov 29 (AD) Sri Lanka Tourism has designated a responsible officer to handle inquiries regarding foreign tourists affected by the current disaster situation. A diplomatic briefing was held today at the PM’s Office under the leadership of PM Harini Amarasuriya and the Minister Vijitha Herath, with the participation of Colombo-based Heads of Mission, to update them on the govt’s ongoing emergency flood relief more..

Nov 29 (ST) Sri Lanka has advanced to Tier Two in the Global Cybersecurity Index, alongside countries such as China, Canada, Austria, and Switzerland. Dr. Kanishka Karunasena, Acting CEO of SL Computer Emergency Reporting Team (SLCERT), addressing the cybersecurity conference held recently, noted the strategic progress of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, which focuses on four main pillars. Establishing the legal and administrative framework for cybersecurity—including more..

Nov 29 (Island) SJB MP Mohamed Ismail Muththu Mohamed announced yesterday, in Parliament, that he is resigning from his position as a MP. He has submitted his letter of resignation to the Secretary-General of Parliament, Kushani Rohanadeera. Accordingly, the Secretary-General has informed the Chairman of the Election Commission, by letter, that a vacancy has arisen in the Tenth Parliament, with effect from yesterday, due to the resignation of Mohamed Ismail Muththu Mohamed. more..

Nov 29 (CI) After nearly 20 days of SL appearing unimpressive in Rawalpindi, they are one win away from going home with a tri-series trophy when they face Pakistan in the final. SL were winless in the 3-match ODI series against Pakistan, and appeared on the brink of early elimination with a thrashing at Zimbabwe's hands midway through the tri-series. But they roared back in their final two group games, first dispatching Zimbabwe by nine wickets before edging Pakistan out in Thursday's thriller. more..

Nov 29 (DM) While Sri Lanka maintains the cleanest economic footprint in South Asia in terms of carbon intensity, its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grew at a faster rate than its major regional peers in 2024, according to new data released by the European Commission. The GHG Emissions of All World Countries 2025 report, released by the Joint Research Centre, reveals that SL’s total emissions surged by 6% year-on-year in 2024 to reach 37.17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. more..

Nov 29 (AD) National Water Supply & Drainage Board (NWSDB) says several of its water sources and purification plants have been submerged due to the prevailing flood situation. Chairman Chandana Bandara noted that since several of its water sources are flooded, it is currently impossible to operate the pumps. He added that many water purification plants have also been submerged, and as a result, more..

Nov 29 (DN) Sri Lanka is set to mark a major milestone in its sporting history as a 15-member powerlifting delegation travelled to Thailand to compete at the prestigious Pro League World Powerlifting Championship taking place from 27-30 November in Bangkok, Thailand. This is the first time Sri Lanka will field such a large and diverse group of athletes on a professional league platform, reflecting the rapid growth and rising competitiveness of powerlifting in the country. more..

Nov 29 (ST) For the first time in the country’s history, four newly appointed President’s Counsels have taken oaths in the Supreme Court without the use of pen and paper, after placing their signatures electronically before a full bench presided over by Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena. The newly sworn in President’s Counsels are four Additional Solicitor Generals (ASGs) of the AG’s Dept – Hiranjan Peiris, Azard Navavi, Lakmali Karunanayake and Sudarshana De Silva. more..

Nov 29 (ST) Dept of Wildlife Conservation will continue the controversial elephant drives despite some setbacks, including animals returning to areas from which they are ejected. This is because elephants prefer their home range over designated protected areas. Animals can’t be confined to certain areas, hoping they will adapt. Wildlife officers said that despite setbacks and complications, they are under pressure from more..

Nov 29 (CI) India and Sri Lanka are set to play a five-match T20I series in the second half of December in India, just before the start of the WPL in January 2026. The series will be played from December 21 to 30, with the first two games in Visakhapatnam and the last three in Thiruvananthapuram. The WPL will then start from January 9 in Navi Mumbai before moving to Vadodara for the second half, even though no SL player is in any of the five WPL squads. more..

Nov 29 (Island) SJB Gampaha District MP Prasad Siriwardana last week levelled a series of serious allegations, in Parliament, against Deputy Minister of Digital Technology Eranga Weeraratne, accusing him of presiding over a major conflict of interest involving two private technology firms. Siriwardana told the House that Omobio (Pvt) Ltd., and Eimsky Business Solutions (Pvt) Ltd., companies chaired by Weeraratne, had secured contracts for two major govt projects. more..

Nov 29 (FT) Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture, and Fortune Media announced the 25 winners of this year’s Fortune World’s Best Workplace list. Organisations on this list are remarkable for delivering an exceptional employee experience despite the challenges of global scale and complexity. To be eligible for the list, organisations must have 5,000 or more global employees. This year, organisations earned a higher rank for their ability to outperform their peers more..

Nov 29 (FT) The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) will hold a webinar on the 2 December 2025 at the Colombo Club, Taj Samudra. The event primarily focuses on the theme, Managing Public Finance: The South Asian Experience and aims to bring together officials, scholars, representatives from leading think tanks, and related field experts. Pathfinder Chairman Bernard Goonetilleke will deliver the opening remarks. The key resource persons for the event include; more..

Nov 29 (FT) Sri Lanka’s largest-ever tourism survey was unveiled yesterday, offering policymakers and industry stakeholders a roadmap to shape marketing, product development, and future development. The initiative, conducted by the SLTDA with support from the Market Development Facility (MDF) of Australia, saw a 12-month national airport exit survey from July 2024 to June 2025 uncover detailed insights more..

Nov 29 (Island) NPP MPs and their Opposition counterparts spoke at length, in Parliament on Thursday, to demonstrate what they made out to be their disaster management skills. Opposition sought to teach the govt how to handle the current disaster situation more effectively, and the latter claimed that it was on top of the situation, and rescue and relief programmes were successfully underway. Going by the arguments and counterarguments put forth by the govt and the Opposition in Parliament, more..

Nov 29 (Island) Rural development is the single most powerful lever for inclusive growth in countries where a large share of the population lives outside cities. For SL—where a significant portion of people depend on village-based livelihoods—scaled rural renewal can raise productivity, reduce poverty, and broaden participation in the digital and export economies. Comparative lessons from India (mass rural connectivity), South Korea (Saemaul Undong community-driven modernisation), more..

Nov 29 (CT) Minus the SJB Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Sajith Premadasa, his party MPs and cadres, the all-Opposition (?) ‘Maha Jana Handa’ rally at Nugegoda, that too defying heavy seasonal rains but abiding by Police restrictions, should be seen only as Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. Plain and simple, there cannot be any strong Opposition capable of dethroning the incumbent ruling JVP-NPP and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, minus the SJB. It is equally true that, more..

Nov 29 (TM) The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has unsettled some of the deepest assumptions behind academic writing. For generations, authorship implied a direct and traceable link between the mind of the scholar and the words on the page. A researcher’s text, however imperfect, inconsistent, or rough, was considered a faithful representation of their intellectual labour. The originality of expression and the distinctiveness of style were taken as signs that a human more..

Nov 29 (DM) For more than a century, Ceylon Tea was not just an export crop, it was the main foreign exchange earner for the country. It was a national inheritance—an agricultural engine left behind by British planters who, whatever one may say of colonial exploitation, built an industrial and managerial system of extraordinary discipline. They did something else rarely acknowledged today: they trained Ceylonese (SL) superintendents more..

Nov 29 (GV) A few weeks ago I embarked on a 16 hour journey by air from Colombo to Toronto. I carried one book with me, a tradition I keep even when I go on a 10 minute drive. The book I had this time was Hasini Haputhanthri’s and Sujeewa de Silva’s Shared Sanctities, revised and enlarged second edition. With the very many books I have read over the years, especially on this genre of conserving and sharing a common ground for heritage, I found this work a moving and more..

Nov 29 (FT) Floods and landslides, people trapped on rooftops, vehicles submerged, residents without electricity or unable to cry out for help, cyclonic winds and endless rain thwarting rescue and relief operations. This is Sri Lanka today, facing a devastating natural calamity, one of the worst in decades. True to character, the entire country, especially ordinary folk, have responded admirably. Each and every one of us have demonstrated yet again our enormous resources of resilience. more..

Nov 29 (CT) For nearly half a century, LTL Holdings has been woven into the fabric of SL’s power sector, celebrated at times, scrutinised at others, but never irrelevant. What began as a modest transformer manufacturer has evolved into a multi-billion-rupee regional energy player, expanding in ways few State-linked enterprises have matched. Muthusamy Anandavel, Senior Vice President, reflects on LTL’s trajectory, its long and more..

Nov 29 (ST) Over the past two weekends, we examined in this column SL’s budgetary challenges. In response, one of our colleagues from Vietnam, Dr. Chien Nguyen—who completed his doctoral studies in SL—shared an interesting update in our WhatsApp group: “We have just reduced our VAT rate in Vietnam from 10 to 8%.” This news may come as a surprise to many in SL, where people face an 18% VAT in addition to several other indirect taxes on goods and services. more..

Nov 29 (ST) Many years ago in July 2006, I was part of a team of journalists, which included a veteran newspaper editor, visiting Poland on a Polish govt-sponsored trip to learn about the economy, business, culture and people. After arriving in Warsaw and having refreshed at a hotel, we were taken to a Polish restaurant and to my pleasant surprise, amidst the salt and pepper shakers, was our own Dilmah Tea on the table. It was a surreal moment and one of joy. Ceylon Tea is indeed more..