Dec 8 (EN) SL’s Export Development Board (EDB) has begun damage assessments of exporters most affected by Cyclone Ditwah, and will launch a relief and recovery program, it said. “These measures focus on minimizing disruptions to export operations to ensure a steady flow of goods and services to international markets,” EDB said. Efforts are being made to mitigate the adverse impact on production capacity, safeguarding the ability of exporters to maintain output levels, the trade body said. more..

Dec 8 (CT) At least 35 school students and 10 teachers were reported dead in the Kandy District alone as a result of the recent floods and landslides. Director of Education Nihal Alahakoon said one school student had also been killed in the Matale District, while casualty figures from Nuwara Eliya District were still being compiled. He added that there was, as yet, no confirmed data on the number of missing school students and teachers, as field assessments were still ongoing in several more..

Dec 8 (FT) Finance Ministry has announced a wide-ranging financial support program for households and businesses hit by Cyclone Ditwah, as the Govt moves to stabilise communities and prevent deeper economic scarring from the country’s worst natural disaster in years. The relief scheme adds fiscal pressure at a time when the Treasury is attempting to consolidate public finances under the IMF program. more..

Dec 8 (Island) Switzerland has delivered a consignment of essential WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) relief equipment and personnel to support Sri Lanka’s disaster response efforts following recent extreme weather conditions. The cargo, which arrived at the BIA on Saturday (6), was officially handed over by a visiting Swiss WASH Mission delegation led by Mr Martin Bölsterli, Team Leader of the WASH Mission, and Ms Yvonne Josy Müller, Senior Coordinator of the Mission. more..

Dec 8 (CT) A Myanmar Air Force Y-8 transport aircraft carrying humanitarian assistance arrived at the Katunayake Air Force Base on 6 Dec to support displaced communities affected by the ongoing severe weather conditions. The consignment includes sanitation materials, medical supplies, and other essential relief items intended for families impacted by flooding and adverse weather across the island. A delegation from the Govt of Myanmar accompanied the shipment. more..

Dec 8 (FT) International Finance Corporation (IFC) South Asia Regional Director Imad Fakhoury has urged SL to move beyond economic stabilisation and decisively enter a phase of competitive, private sector-led growth, warning that the Govt’s limited fiscal room makes sustained reforms and private capital mobilisation indispensable. Delivering the keynote at the Investment Point of View session of more..

Dec 8 (CT) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake instructed officials to prepare the farmers in the Anuradhapura District whose paddy cultivation was destroyed due to floods to re-cultivate during the upcoming Maha Season. Highlighting the need for all relevant institutions to work in proper coordination, treating this as a national necessity, Prez instructed the authorities to provide compensation to farmers without delay and to ensure temporary irrigation water supply more..

Dec 8 (AD) SL Police stated that a telecom service provider has requested the IGP to inform the public about the risk of damage to telecommunication cables that have been exposed in several areas due to the prevailing adverse weather conditions. According to the company, essential communication cables including fiber optic and copper lines have been damaged or exposed in public areas as a result of the severe disaster situation affecting many parts of the island. more..

Dec 8 (DM) Health authorities are facing a massive challenge in preventing spoiled and unsafe food from reaching markets in the aftermath of the recent extreme weather conditions that caused widespread flooding across SL. With livestock farms in several districts washed away or severely damaged, many cattle, goats, pigs, and poultry have reportedly died. This prompts fears that some individuals may attempt to sell meat obtained from dead animals to unsuspecting buyers. more..

Dec 8 (NW) Sri Lanka will receive full support from the United Nations (UN) for recovery and reconstruction following the recent extreme weather disaster, the UN Resident Representative in Sri Lanka Mark Andrew said on Monday. He made the pledge during a meeting with Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath at the ministry. Andrew said the UN has decided to provide an initial US$ 4.5 million under its Emergency Response Fund to support immediate relief for affected communities. more..

Dec 8 (CT) More than 100,000 State documents have been damaged due to the recent disaster, according to Director General of the Dept of National Archives Nadeera Rupasinghe. She said records belonging to a wide range of State institutions—including courts, police stations, hospitals, Divisional Secretariats, local authorities, govt depts & schools—have been affected. She warned that decades-old Court records, more..

Dec 8 (DM) Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) have uncovered an illegal racket involving the processing and distribution of flood-damaged rice deemed unfit for consumption in the Harispattuwa area of the Kandy District. According to Pradeep Boralessa, President of the Public Health Inspectors’ Union, officers seized 1,000 kilograms of contaminated rice during the operation. He said inspections and surveillance are continuing nationwide to detect similar fraudulent activities. more..

Dec 8 (Island) A hotel chef was arrested with 15 birds on Saturday (6) in connection with the theft of 32 exotic birds from the Dehiwala National Zoological Garden over two months ago. The suspect, a 24-year-old resident of Nedimala, Dehiwala, was remanded. The birds were taken into custody at the BIA while being smuggled into the country and handed to the Dehiwala Zoo for safekeeping under a court order. On 4 Oct, they were stolen while being in the custody of zoo. more..

Dec 8 (ISland) A major drug consignment with a street value of over Rs. 200 million was seized off the Kalpitiya coast in a coordinated operation by the Navy and the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB). Investigations have revealed that the drug haul belongs to a prominent Lankan trafficker operating from India. Five suspects, including a father and son, are now in custody. PNB chief DIG Ashoka Dharmasena said the operation had been carried out with the help of the Navy. more..

Dec 8 (DM) Approximately 12,000 kilograms of meat stored at a livestock farm in the Anuradhapura District was sealed after authorities found it unfit for human consumption, Public Health Inspectors’ (PHI) Union said. The stock is believed to have deteriorated due to floodwaters entering the facility and a power outage that disrupted refrigeration. The issue came to light following a complaint lodged with the Disaster Management Hotline (1926), operated under the Health & Media Ministry. more..

Dec 8 (TM) Medicine Regulatory Authority (NMRA) is to charge a fee of $50 on all pharmaceutical import applications it receives and assesses, as it had forgone $23,950 in income last year by not charging a fee for each application, NMRA Chairperson Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama said. “Last year we received 1,173 applications for sample imports, and out of these, only 694 licences were approved. Previously the fee was only more..

Dec 8 (AD) A special District Coordinating Committee meeting, convened today, to review the damage caused to the agricultural sector in the Nuwara Eliya District due to Cyclone Ditwah and to discuss the urgent measures required at the Nuwara Eliya DS. The meeting was chaired by Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake, with the participation of the relevant responsible officials. Due to adverse weather conditions, a total of 1,421 hectares of vegetable cultivation in the Nuwara Eliya more..

Dec 8 (EN) Sri Lanka’s tea manufacturing capacity has not been harmed by Cyclone Ditwah, even though some tea-growing areas in the Uva and the Central Province were hit, the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association has said. Trading activities at the Colombo Tea Auctions will continue, but with a revised calendar, the private sector tea industry body said. “The damage was largely confined to specific roads, resulting in temporary disruptions to transportation,” it said in a statement. more..

Dec 8 (DM) Road Development Authority (RDA) will need at least one and half years to reconstruct major bridges damaged in the recent disasters triggered by cyclone Ditwah, an official said yesterday. Director General of the RDA Wimal Kandambi said that major roads affected by the floods and landslides would be rebuilt in the span of three months. However, he said that nearly 40 bridges had been damaged extensively and a time frame of 18 months would be required to restore them. more..

Dec 8 (DM) Claiming that the opposition had kept mum on the warnings of an impending cyclone for two weeks from Nov 12 as they claimed, Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe said today the opposition must be sued for failing to inform the govt of the warning of an impending cyclone if they were aware of it from Nov 12. He told reporters that the govt had not received any prior warnings of a cyclone issued by Met Dept or Irrigation Dept on Nov 12 as claimed by the opposition. more..

Dec 8 (DM) Counsel appearing for cricketer Chamika Karunaratne raised objections to a request by a female pilot who sought a court order to obtain a DNA report to establish the paternity of her child. The case filed by the female pilot against Karunaratne seeking an order directing him either to marry her or, failing that, to pay maintenance for the child, was taken up before court when counsel for the complainant made request for a DNA test. more..

Dec 8 (AD) A high-level national committee has been appointed to ensure the proper coordination and distribution of foreign humanitarian aid received for the population affected by the recent flood disaster in Sri Lanka. The announcement was made by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Aruna Jayasekara, during a special press briefing held at the DMC today. He stated that the committee will take necessary measures to ensure that all humanitarian assistance and equipment provided by more..

Dec 8 (DM) Cyclone Ditwah which hit SL recently has destroyed more than 600 prawn farms in the Puttalam District alone, bringing the livelihoods of many farmers into a standstill, the Fisheries Ministry said. The Ministry said this was revealed during a fact-finding mission in which Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekhar was engaged in the district over the weekend. Minister assured the prawn farmers in the district that the govt will assist them to rebuild their livelihoods. more..

Dec 8 (EN) InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd marked its listing on the Empower Board of Colombo Stock Exchange with a bell ringing ceremony. InsureMe is a digital insurance aggregator and a licensed broker regulated by the Insurance Regulatory Commission of SL (IRCSL). It operates with platforms such as DigiEye (Motor Claims Automation), DigiMed (Medical Claims Automation), and DigiEx (Corporate Expense & Reimbursement Automation). “InsureMe is one of the very few startups in SL more..

Dec 8 (EN) SL Customs is likely to see its 2025 revenue target exceeding by around 400 billion rupees, its Director General Seevali Arukgoda said, mainly led by taxes from imported vehicles. SL Customs has set a revenue target of 2,115 billion rupees for this year, 36.2% higher than last year’s 1,553 million rupees. However, it has already exceeded the target by 197 billion rupees to 2,312 billion rupees as of Sunday (7). “We expect the revenue to exceed by 400 billion rupees,” more..

Dec 8 (FT) Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Arjuna Herath said Sri Lanka is close to concluding negotiations with Sinopec on a major export-oriented investment project, with a final response from the Chinese energy giant expected within days. Speaking during a panel discussion last week at the SL Economic Summit, Herath clarified that the project stems from a tender initiated several years ago, prior to the current administration. more..

Dec 8 (AD) The death toll due to the adverse weather conditions experienced in the country in the past few days has climbed to 635, the DMC has confirmed. Highest number of deaths have been reported from the Kandy District, accounting for 234. At least 192 individuals remain missing as search and relief operations continue across multiple districts. A total of 1,776,103 individuals from 512,123 families in 25 districts have been affected by the effects of Cyclone Ditwah. more..

Dec 8 (AD) Jetstar will take off for the first time from Australia to SL in August next year, with the launch of the only direct low-cost service from Melbourne to the South Asian nation’s capital, Colombo. From 25 Aug 2026, Jetstar will become the first Australian airline to operate this route, flying three times a week between Melbourne and Colombo and offering more than 100,000 low-fare seats a year on the new route. This year-round service will be operated by Jetstar’s fleet of 11 widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners more..

Dec 8 (FT) The waters are receding and leaving behind the utter destruction that has been caused across most of Sri Lanka. Altered landscapes, lives shattered, a nation in shock and its infrastructure in ruin. It is thought that cyclone Ditwah and its fury has caused ten times the damage inflicted by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Initial estimates by the DMC indicates a reconstruction bill of between six to seven billon USD which is approximately 3 to 5% of GDP. more..

Dec 8 (FT) I am writing this series on my former colleagues of the Central Bank whose contribution to the economy, central banking, and the financial system has been known to those within the bank but relatively unknown to those outside. In my view, they are unsung heroes. Dr. A. G. Karunasena who left us last week was such an unsung hero. Armed with a first-class honours degree in economics with statistics and econometrics as specialty from Vidyalankara University, Karunasena joined more..