Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday held discussions with the senior management of one of the world’s leading Information Technology companies in Bangalore.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe met the chief mentor and founder, Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited N.R. Narayan Murthy and Chief Executive Officer, Nandan Nilekani during a visit to Infosys Technologies.  The discussion was in line with government plans to seek Indian assistance for IT development in Sri Lanka.  Bangalore is considered Asia’s equivalent of the Silicon Valley and many IT companies in the city are world leaders in software.  Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda who is currently in New Delhi told reporters that the Government hopes to reach an understanding with the Indian authorities to obtain Indian experience and expertise in IT.

Minister Moragoda pointed out that in order to take computer education to rural areas.  Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh are successfully implementing a pilot project called “Smart College” in 1,000 rural schools.  He said that Lanka could learn from Indian experience and follow their example to develop a similar program.