Smt. Shubha Mudgal a renowned vocalist in India presented an evening of north Indian classical, western classical and jazz fusion music on the 2nd of September at the Bishop’s College auditorium. Some well known artistes, Aneesh Pradhan on tabla, Murad Ali on sarangi, Sudhir Nayak on Harmonium, Merlin de Souza on Piano, Brennon Denfer on Guitar and Benoni Soans on drums accompanied her. The Foundation financed the holding of these musical performances in Colombo with the aim of showcasing a different aspect of India to Sri Lanka. The programme commenced with a welcome speech by Shri M.K Rasgotra, Board Member of the Foundation followed by the Speech of the Co-Chairperson Smt. Nirupama Rao. As the first part of the performance, Shubha Mudgal sang a few ragas and songs ranging from the famous Sufi poets of the medieval period to the modern literary figures of today. This was followed by a solo performance by Shubha Mudgal in which she sang some of her popular Hindi songs. Prof. J. Uyangoda, Board Member of the Foundation, gave the vote of thanks.



The Foundation assisted the Sri Pada National College of Patana by providing two resource persons from India for three years in the field of Carnatic Music and Bharathanatyam to set up an Aesthetic Unit at the College. This has given immense benefit to the College and its students as it is one of the 14 National Training Colleges in Sri Lanka with the primary objective of preparing schoolteachers to teach at primary and secondary levels.


India-Sri Lanka Foundation has taken the initiative with the assistance of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow, in consultation with the University of Kelaniya (U of K), to formulate a full-time MBA program of global standards for the U of K. It is intended to be an innovative and market oriented quality MBA program. A team of senior faculty members from both sides have visited the respective institutions and are working on the implementation of the said project. This project could involve a period of 2-3 years, which would encompass training faculty members of University of Kelaniya at the IIM-L training centres and exchange of faculty of IIM-L among others. The financial assistance for the initial exchange visits by the faculty members of both the institutions were provided by the Foundation.

The Foundation is providing financial support for the compilation of a panoramic history of India-Sri Lanka Relations starting from the pre-historic Ramayana period, the advent of Buddhism, the flow of Tamils into Sri Lanka and also the colonial period. Prof. S.D Muni of School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi is involved in the compilation of a fairly dependable chronology of the landmark developments in the Indo-Lanka relations. Prof. Muni is currently engaged in visiting sites both in India and Sri Lanka and collecting material from libraries and museums; consulting with archaeological experts in both the countries. The writing of the book will be started after the site visits and compilation work is completed.


The Foundation is funding a project in the field of Ayurveda by providing two Indian Ayurveda consultants to the Gampaha Ayurveda Institute in Sri Lanka over a period of 3 years to teach short-term academic courses at the postgraduate level.


One other major on-going project being undertaken by the Foundation relates to short-term secondment of young Sri Lankan journalists in Indian publishing houses to enable them to get practical experience in reporting and other fields of journalism. For the year 2003 we had selected three candidates from different newspapers in Sri Lanka who were deputed to Malayala Manorama and The Hindu. For year 2004 three journalists were selected and they are deputed to the Hindustan Times in Delhi and The Hindu.