What Nordic Leaders Can Learn From Narendra Modi

What Nordic Leaders Can Learn From Narendra Modi

By: Erik Solheim On Monday, 18 May, the world’s most popular politician will visit Norway. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be received by King Harald, promote Indian business, meet with the Indian diaspora and attend an India-Nordic prime ministers’ meeting. The Nordic prime ministers should listen carefully. They have a lot to learn from their Indian counterpart. Whilst Nordic prime ministers barely enjoy a domestic approval rating of 30 per cent, Modi stands at around 70 per cent i


Erik Solheim

Erik Solheim

Sri Lanka’s State Tamil Daily Editor Suspended Amid Major Fraud Probe

Sri Lanka’s State Tamil Daily Editor Suspended Amid Major Fraud Probe

R. Senthil Velavar, the Editor-in-Chief of Sri Lanka’s state-run Tamil daily Thinakaran, was suspended by Lake House management this week over allegations of financial misconduct, according to sources within the institution. The suspension follows an internal investigation into claims that Senthil Velavar misappropriated advertising revenue by personally collecting payments for advertisements but, instead of publishing the paid advertisements as contracted, allegedly replacing them with news co


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Cabinet Trust for India-Funded Jaffna Cultural Center Sparks Fears of Colombo Control

Cabinet Trust for India-Funded Jaffna Cultural Center Sparks Fears of Colombo Control

Sri Lanka's Cabinet last Monday approved the establishment of a trust fund to manage the Jaffna Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre, an 11-storey landmark built with approximately $12 million in Indian grant assistance — a move critics say effectively places a centre intended for Tamil cultural life under the influence of a Colombo ministry responsible for Buddhist, religious and cultural affairs, while marginalising the elected local authority on whose land the facility stands. The Cabinet decision,


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

UNP Questions President’s Personal Congratulations to Vijay, Citing Diplomatic Protocol

UNP Questions President’s Personal Congratulations to Vijay, Citing Diplomatic Protocol

Sri Lanka’s opposition United National Party (UNP) on Tuesday criticized President Anura Kumara Dissanayake for personally congratulating newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, arguing that the move departed from established diplomatic convention and raised questions about political selectivity. In a statement, the UNP said it was “surprising” that Sri Lanka’s Head of State had publicly extended congratulations to a foreign state-level leader, contending that such formal gestu


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Unafraid and Unbowed

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1 His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and chief shepherd of the Catholic flock in all of Sri Lanka, has recently marked fifty years in the sacred priesthood. As the highest-ranking prelate whose dominion spans the entire island, he now stands as a mighty voice crying for justice, calling upon the nations of the earth for interv


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran

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What Singapore’s Economic Blueprint Means for Sri Lanka — and How to Get There

What Singapore’s Economic Blueprint Means for Sri Lanka — and How to Get There

By Jeevan Thiyagaraja Singapore released its Economic Strategy Review on 13 May 2026 — a 32-recommendation blueprint built around three imperatives: sharpen competitive value, build agility, and embed resilience. At first glance, the two countries appear to occupy entirely different economic universes. Singapore is a mature, high-income city-state with USD 500 billion in GDP and decades of accumulated institutional capital. Sri Lanka is a lower-middle-income island of 22 million people, still e


Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

India to Fund New Four-Story Medical Complex at Mullaitivu Hospital

India to Fund New Four-Story Medical Complex at Mullaitivu Hospital

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka has begun implementation of a major Indian grant-funded healthcare project in Mullaitivu, where a new four-story medical ward complex will be built at the District General Hospital under a 600 million Sri Lankan rupee assistance package from the Government of India. The project follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha and Sri Lanka’s Acting Health Secretary Dr. W.K. Wickremasinghe during Indian Vice President C.P. Radh


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Open Letter to Vijay: Tread Carefully on Sri Lanka

Open Letter to Vijay: Tread Carefully on Sri Lanka

Dear Vijay, Heartiest congratulations on becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu! Now that you start governing one of India’s biggest and economically most developed states, plenty of problems, small and big, will crop up. You already mentioned the state’s fiscal mess after taking the oath of office. Unlike most chief ministers in India, you will be confronted now and then by matters affecting or involving a neighbouring country: Sri Lanka. This is where you need to exercise extreme cautio


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Gajendrakumar Urges Vijay to Declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day

Gajendrakumar Urges Vijay to Declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day

CHENNAI — Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), has formally urged newly sworn-in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day through an official resolution in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Mr. Ponnambalam sent the letter following Mr. Vijay's swearing-in on May 10 as Tamil Nadu's ninth chief minister — the first to lead a government formed by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, the party Mr.


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Our Reporter

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