About Us

Our Story

Arutha was created to formalise Default LK, a volunteer-run economic education platform launched during Sri Lankaโ€™s 2022 economic crisis. In a time of widespread misunderstanding and misinformation, Default LK stepped in to share accurate, timely insights into the crisisโ€”explaining its causes, consequences, and possible solutions. Our goal has always been to help Sri Lankans understand how economics and public policy shape their daily lives. We believe in empowering people with knowledge to navigate and prevent future crises, thereby becoming more engaged citizens.


Our Team

Yolani Fernando

Executive Director

Yolani is the Executive Director of Arutha and leads the tax research stream. Yolani previously worked at the Ministry of Finance and served as the Senior Program Officer at the Asia Foundation. She holds a BSc in International Relations and a MA in Governance, Development and Public Policy from the Institute of Development Studies where she was a Chevening scholar (2022/23).

Umesh Moramudali

Director – Debt Research

Umesh is a lecturer and economist specialising in public finance and is currently attached to the University of Colombo. He previously worked at the Ministry of Finance as a Research Analyst and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce as a Senior Researcher. He has a MSc Economics from University of Warwick where he was a Chevening scholar (2018/19).

Rehana Thowfeek

Director – Civic Education

Rehana is an economist with an interest in political economy and public finance. She has previously worked at the Institute for Health Policy and Verite Research. At present she works for a US-based tech start up and is a Research Consultant of the Advocata Institute. She was a contributing writer on the Sri Lankan economy and business for Al Jazeera during the unfolding of the economic crisis. She holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Research Interests: Governance and public finance

Charuka Peiris

Programme and Research officer

Charuka is a Programme and Research officer with work experience at the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination (IMADR) and CINEC Campus. Prior to that, he served as a Research officer at the Presidential Commission for Election Reforms in Sri Lanka. Charuka holds a BA in International Studies from the University of Kelaniya and an MSc in International Relations from the Liverpool John Moores University.

Research Interests: Labour and debt

Shaheen Abdul Gani

Research Assistant

Shaheen is a Research Assistant at Arutha. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in International Relations from the University of Nottingham, where her research primarily focused on the root causes of Sri Lankaโ€™s 2022 economic crisis. Prior to joining Arutha, she gained experience at several policy and research organisations, including Hype Sri Lanka, Advocata Institute, and the Centre for a Smart Future.

Research Interests: Sri Lankan macroeconomic policy, China-Sri Lanka debt relations, and green finance

Shehara Ratnasinghe-Samarasekera

Communication and Education Outreach Consultant

Shehara is a communications consultant with an interest in short story writing and poetry. At present she works full time as an Assistant Public Relations Manager for a PR company based in India. She previously worked at Verite Research as a researcher. She was a freelance writer for Daily Mirror, The Morning and HI!! Magazine. She holds an MBA from SLIIT.

Research Interests: Social media, social issues and creative writing


Our Advisors

Prof. Mick Moore

Romali Tudawe

Dr. Gopakumar Thampi


Partnerships and Collaborations

Arutha strives to collaborate with like-minded organizations and initiatives to effectively engage in our research and civic education goals. Our previous and current partnerships can be seen below.

Factum
Patta History


Hari TV
Hashtag Generation