By The Pulseline News Desk
India is stepping up efforts to deepen its relationship with Sri Lanka by expanding cooperation beyond traditional diplomatic and economic engagement, with education, culture, agriculture, science and technology increasingly becoming important areas of bilateral collaboration.
The latest indication of this broader approach has come through the India-Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF), which has approved 13 projects worth approximately Rs. 21 million aimed at strengthening cooperation and people-to-people links between the two countries.
The projects were approved at the foundation’s 41st Board of Directors meeting held in New Delhi on August 28, co-chaired by Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Mahishini Colonne and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha.
The scale of interest in the foundation’s programmes also points to growing demand for closer engagement between the two countries at the institutional and community levels.
More than 500 proposals were received by the ISLF’s Colombo Secretariat. Following a vetting process, 137 proposals were shortlisted, with 20 eventually placed before the board and 13 receiving approval.
The New Delhi Secretariat, meanwhile, had received 149 proposals from Indian nationals despite not issuing a formal call for proposals ahead of the meeting due to financial constraints.
The strong response has prompted the foundation to consider ways of expanding its financial capacity. The board has highlighted the importance of strengthening the Corpus Fund, which would enable the ISLF to support a larger number of initiatives and create more opportunities for exchanges between citizens of the two countries.
The development comes as India continues to place considerable emphasis on strengthening its longstanding relationship with Sri Lanka across multiple sectors.
While economic cooperation, infrastructure development, energy, connectivity and security remain key components of the bilateral relationship, New Delhi has increasingly sought to reinforce the relationship through direct links between institutions and people.
The ISLF provides an important platform for that strategy.
Established in 1998 through an agreement between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments, the foundation was created to promote bilateral cooperation in economic, scientific, educational, technical and cultural fields.
Over the years, its programmes have facilitated exchanges involving students, academics, researchers, professionals and artists, giving the bilateral relationship a dimension that extends beyond government-to-government ties.
The latest proposals cover sectors that have direct relevance to Sri Lanka’s development needs while also creating avenues for Indian institutions and professionals to engage more closely with their Sri Lankan counterparts.
Education and scientific cooperation, in particular, offer opportunities to build longer-term institutional relationships, while cultural initiatives can reinforce historical and social connections between the two countries.
The growing number of applications from both sides suggests that there is considerable interest in such engagement.
For India, strengthening these people-to-people connections also provides a means of ensuring that its relationship with Sri Lanka is anchored not only in strategic interests but also in wider public engagement.
The push comes against the backdrop of increasingly close India-Sri Lanka relations, with both countries seeking to expand cooperation across economic, development, security and connectivity areas.
The foundation’s growing demand therefore reflects a broader trend: India’s engagement with Sri Lanka is increasingly moving beyond high-level diplomatic initiatives towards building a wider network of institutional and societal relationships.
The challenge now will be to provide the financial resources needed to meet that demand. An expanded Corpus Fund could allow the ISLF to approve more projects and broaden participation, potentially making people-to-people exchanges a more significant pillar of India-Sri Lanka relations.
As Colombo and New Delhi continue to strengthen their bilateral partnership, initiatives such as those supported by the ISLF could become increasingly important in translating diplomatic goodwill into sustained links between the people of the two countries.
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