Verité Research

26/05/2026

Statistics show that youth mental health has worsened over recent years. Our speaker, Kiara, talks about her research in trying to understand the causes and new types of interventions that could respond to the emerging crisis.

Kiara Wickremasinghe is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research. Her PhD in Anthropology at SOAS University of London focused on Open Dialogue, a social network approach to psychiatric crisis care, as part of an ESRC-funded research project. She also trained and worked as an Open Dialogue practitioner within the NHS.

With a background in geography, music, and anthropology, Kiara is also an opera singer, violinist, and composer. Her current research explores operatic storytelling as a response to Sri Lanka’s youth mental health crisis.

Register: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/yd5QDiCREB

26/05/2026

25/05/2026

Sri Lanka's EPF is bigger than any bank in the country - nearly 15% of GDP. And yet it tells the people whose money it holds far less than any of those banks tell their customers.

Every private-sector worker in Sri Lanka is required by law to contribute to the EPF. They can't withdraw their savings at will, they don't get a say in how the fund is managed, and the only protection they have is the fund's own transparency.

Our new research brief benchmarks the EPF against listed companies, commercial banks, unit trusts, and international standards. It discloses less, in less detail, less often, and with less timeliness than all of them.

Full brief is here: https://www.veriteresearch.org/publication/the-employment-provident-fund-in-sri-lanka-a-comparative-assessment-of-the-adequacy-of-information-disclosure/

25/05/2026

25/05/2026

Today, ahead of World No To***co Day on 31 May, our Executive Director Dr. Nishan de Mel took a striking anomaly to the press.

Through Sri Lanka's economic crisis, taxes on virtually every good rose. Cigarette tax rates actually fell.

Correcting that - bringing rates up to the WHO benchmark of 75%, with no change in the retail price - would generate an additional Rs.17.3 billion in revenue this year alone, a policy move that improves public health and public finances at the same time.

National Authority on To***co & Alcohol ADIC World Health Organization (WHO)

***coDay

25/05/2026

21/05/2026

Today's the day.

Thanks to everyone who's registered for this week's VThink with Malinda Meegoda. Looking forward to a sharp conversation on a topic that genuinely matters right now.

See you there.

🔴 For decades, nuclear proliferation and power relations has loomed over nations. The Doomsday Clock - a measure of how close humanity is to man-made global catastrophe - presently stands at 85 seconds to midnight.

This week’s VThink takes a closer look at one of the modern world’s most delicate balances and the systems built to hold it together. Malinda Meegoda explores institutions, power relations, and whether history has come close to unfolding differently.

Malinda Meegoda is a Global Network Member of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). He also works as the Programme Lead in the International Economics Team at Verité Research.

👉 Register: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/FQV0yVV6Vf

19/05/2026

🔴 For decades, nuclear proliferation and power relations has loomed over nations. The Doomsday Clock - a measure of how close humanity is to man-made global catastrophe - presently stands at 85 seconds to midnight.

This week’s VThink takes a closer look at one of the modern world’s most delicate balances and the systems built to hold it together. Malinda Meegoda explores institutions, power relations, and whether history has come close to unfolding differently.

Malinda Meegoda is a Global Network Member of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). He also works as the Programme Lead in the International Economics Team at Verité Research.

👉 Register: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/FQV0yVV6Vf

18/05/2026

Fuel prices. The dollar. And where the economy goes from here.

Three of the biggest questions hanging over Sri Lanka right now - and the subject of this week's Way Forward on Rupavahini.

Our Executive Director, Dr. Nishan de Mel, joins the panel alongside Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe and economic analyst Dhananath Fernando.

Moderated by Chamara Wijewickrama.

🗓️ Today (18), 10 PM on Rupavahini.

15/05/2026

🔴 𝐈𝐬 𝐒𝐫𝐢 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐚'𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐚𝐱 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝?

The government increased the withholding tax in Sri Lanka last year from 5% to 10%.

However, even the new rate is extremely low compared to other countries.

See where Sri Lanka ranks globally and how WHT defers from other taxes below.

👉 For a deep understanding read our blog on https://www.publicfinance.lk/en/topics/sri-lanka-s-withholding-tax-remains-among-the-lowest-in-the-world-1778226446