The Economist Magazine has ranked Sri Lanka amongst its most vulnerable states that have been worst affected economically by the coronavirus pandemic, as Colombo faces massive debt repayments this year. In its ranking of 66 states, using four ranking factors, Sri Lanka was ranked 61st …
Christian Drosten, who directs the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, was one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003. As the head of the German public health institute’s reference lab on coronaviruses, he has become the government’s go-to expert …
As Sri Lanka battles COVID-19 with its public health expertise and military might, it is gearing up for another imminent crisis — servicing its mounting external debt, of which $2.9 billion is due this year. Of the many economic side effects of the global pandemic, …
As Governments face the formidable challenge of protecting people from COVID-19, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has called on them to ensure human rights are not violated under the guise of exceptional or emergency measures. “Emergency powers should not be a weapon …
The SAARC Secretariat should play an active role in the region’s response to COVID-19, along with “someone in-charge”, according to Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. “I don’t know if it can be handled from Kathmandu alone. If you can, well and good. But …
Following his election as president of Sri Lanka in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has taken a strong stand against federalism and devolution of powers to protect the unitary structure of the state. In February 2020, the Gotabaya-led government also withdrew from the United Nations (UN) resolution …
The former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke to Palki Sharma, on the global leadership series on WION, about everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to the dire need of global leadership and on a lighter note about how he keeps himself busy with …
“DATES, JAGGERY?” asked the grocer, offering the main ingredients for brewing palm wine. His client bought the two, put them away with his onions and lentils before disappearing into a narrow alley in the suburbs of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. On March 21, …
Exactly a 100 year ago, Sri Lanka had the experience of going through a horrendous pandemic the Spanish flu or influenza, which claimed nearly 20,000 lives. The “fIu” claimed 50 to 100 million lives across the globe; hit the poor as well as the rich; …
As the lockdown nears the three-week mark, people want to know when the restrictions will be lifted. But it also matters how they are lifted. Nobody should kid themselves that this can be purely a technical matter left to scientists, doctors and economists. Lives and …