About Us
Our Story
Arutha was created to formalise Default LK, a volunteer-run economic education platform launched during Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic crisis. In a time of widespread misunderstanding and misinformation, Default LK stepped in to share accurate, timely insights into the crisis—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).
Research Interests: Taxes, Parliament and Policymaking
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).
Research Interests: Chinese Debt, China-Sri Lanka relations, public finance
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
Thisuri Rojie Ekanayake
Programme and Research Officer
Rojie is a researcher who has worked at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute and Verite Research and was a Research Assistant at the Institute of Policy Studies Sri Lanka. Rojie holds a BA Economics from the University of Colombo and an MSc Economics from the University of Leeds where she was a Commonwealth Scholar (2022/23).
Research Interests: Political economy, social issues and labour
Yenuli Ranaweera
Research Assistant
Yenuli is a research assistant at Arutha. She is also a new graduate with a BSc. Economics and Finance from the University of London.
Research Interests: Labour and debt
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.
Hari TV
