The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has proposed to set up Sinhala and Hindi language departments in several Indian and Sri Lankan universities.

The proposal was made by ICCR President Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who also proposed to increase the number of ICCR scholarships for Buddhist studies.

The proposals were conveyed to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena when Dr. Sahasrabuddhe called on the former at the Temple Trees yesterday (27 March).

The Premier thanked the ICCR President for granting hundreds of scholarships to Sri Lankan students, musicians and artists, and for sponsoring cultural and musical exchanges between the two countries over the years. 

He said the ICCR’s programmes for Youth Leadership Training were of immense use to enhance leadership skills of young professionals and parliamentarians.

The Prime Minister further requested the ICCR President to make arrangements for exchange programmes for crafts artisans, so that they could learn from new innovative craft skills developed by artisans in the two countries.

Dr. Sahasrabuddhe said he inaugurated the first meeting of Sri Lankan Alumni of ICCR to ensure continued interaction between those who benefitted from ICCR tradition of enriching skills and academic excellence, adding that those students who have studied in India will pursue bright careers in their home country and will also spread the light of education and knowledge tradition in India.

He added that ICCR provides a large number of scholarships to students to enable them to pursue education in over 43,000 colleges under over 1,100 universities at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral research levels.

High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay and Additional Secretaries of Prime Minister’s Office Mahinda Gunaratne and Deepa Liyanage also took part in the discussion.