Public Affairs

Aflatoxin in Dried Fish: What Sri Lankan Consumers Should Know

Aflatoxin in Dried Fish: What Sri Lankan Consumers Should Know

Dried fish is an affordable and familiar source of protein in Sri Lanka, but a new peer-reviewed scientific review has highlighted an often-overlooked food-safety risk: toxins produced by certain moulds when fish, feed or dried products are handled and stored under poor conditions. The finding does not mean Sri Lankan dried fish is unsafe, but it gives consumers, traders and regulators good reason to pay closer attention to drying, moisture and storage.

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Graduate Unemployment in Sri Lanka: Are Degrees Keeping Up With AI?

Graduate Unemployment in Sri Lanka: Are Degrees Keeping Up With AI?

A university degree once appeared to offer a fairly clear path into professional work. That path is becoming less certain. An IMF Finance & Development report warns that a record number of young people are entering developing-country labour markets just as AI, slower economic growth and skills gaps are changing the jobs available to new graduates.

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Social Media Addiction in Children: Why It Is So Hard to Log Off

Social Media Addiction in Children: Why It Is So Hard to Log Off

Why can a child spend an hour scrolling without noticing the time? UNICEF explains that many social-media features are deliberately designed to keep people engaged. Understanding those design tricks can help parents, schools and policymakers protect children’s attention without treating technology itself as the enemy.

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PISA 2025 Reading Decline: What Sri Lanka Should Learn Now

PISA 2025 Reading Decline: What Sri Lanka Should Learn Now

The newest PISA results show reading and mathematics performance falling to record lows across OECD countries. The worrying part is not simply lower test marks. Students are becoming more likely to rush through difficult texts, give quick wrong answers and struggle to sustain attention. Sri Lanka is not part of PISA 2025, but that does not make this someone else’s problem.

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Sugar Labels Sri Lanka: Are We Reading Before We Eat?

Sugar Labels Sri Lanka: Are We Reading Before We Eat?

Sri Lanka already uses colour-coded sugar warnings on many packaged foods and drinks. Yet many of us still choose food by taste, habit or brand without checking what the packet is telling us. In a country with a growing diabetes burden, learning to read sugar labels is becoming a basic health skill.

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AI Risks 2026: Why the Debate Has Moved Beyond Hallucinations

AI Risks 2026: Why the Debate Has Moved Beyond Hallucinations

The AI safety debate has moved quickly from chatbots making factual mistakes to warnings about cyberattacks, autonomous agents and systems becoming difficult to control. A major MIT-linked study of 272 experts helps separate the risks we already understand from the catastrophic possibilities we are still struggling to measure.

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