[5] He received his secondary and primary education in Sri Lanka at Royal College, Colombo and St. Thomas' Preparatory School respectively.

[3] Kelegama joined the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) in 1990 and served as a research fellow until 1994, and was appointed executive director in 1995.

[10] While working at the IPS, Kelegama served on a number of Sri Lankan government boards and committees including; Industrial Development Board, National Enterprise Development Authority, Presidential Taxation Commission, 'Committee on Development and Management of Estates Leased out to Regional Plantation Companies, National Economic Council, National Development Trust Fund, Committee on Regional Trade Agreements of Sri Lanka, Joint Study Group: India – Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, * Independent South Asia Commission on Poverty Alleviation, * Fair Trading Commission, Industrial Task Force, Industrialization Commission, Human Resources Development Council, Public Enterprise Reform Commission' and Board of Investment of Sri Lanka(BOI).

He also served as the Chairperson of the "Regaining Sri Lanka" Policy Development Committees on Land Transport and Infrastructure Development from 2002 to 2004, Small and Medium Industrial Task Force to prepare the White Paper since 2001 to 2002, SAARC Research Network since 1998 to 2001 and Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group since 1997 to present.

[17][18] He was appointed as the Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Industrial Development (2002–2004) and was a member of the Sri Lankan official delegation to: ESCAP Annual Sessions in 1999 and 2000 in Bangkok, Thailand; WTO Ministerial Summit in Singapore in 1996 and in Hong Kong in 2005; 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2004; UNCTAD XI in São Paulo, Brazil in 2004; Doha Development Round in Qatar in 2006 among others.

He served on a number of boards in the Sri Lankan Blue chip and other companies including Singer (Sri Lanka) and its subsidiaries – Regnis Lanka, and Singer Finance, SC Securities, Colombo Stock Exchange, Sampath Bank, Centre for Private Sector Development and Five Year Apparel Sector Strategy Task Force.

[27] Posthumously, the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) named its state-of-the-art auditorium as the ‘Dr.

The special session reflected on the contributions of Kelegama, who dedicated his professional life to promoting South Asian integration.

[29] Kelegama was posthumously conferred the ICCR Distinguished Alumni Award by the Government of India at a ceremony in New Delhi on the 13th of April 2018.

The inaugural lecture was held on the theme ‘Managing Domestic and International Opportunities and Challenges for Stability and Growth’ and was delivered by the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Indrajit Coomaraswamy.