Sri Lanka to drop colonial Ceylon from official names

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is to officially drop the name Ceylon from titles of government institutions by bringing in legislative changes, Xinhua reports.

"The cabinet has decided to change the names of all public enterprises that begin with `Ceylon` with the word `Sri Lanka`," the information department said Thursday.

Accordingly institutions such as the Ceylon Electricity Board and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation will have Sri Lanka in place of Ceylon.

In ancient times, Sri Lanka was known by a variety of names. The island was known as Ceylon as a British crown colony. Its official name has been changed to Sri Lanka since 1972.

IANS