Digital Bangladesh:

Dreams are real now A few days ago, my newly passed SSC girl suddenly asked me to buy a Teletalk SIM card. He said that now any student from any part of the country can apply for admission in any college from home through Teletalk SIM. Then I remembered how much trouble we had to go through in our time to apply for college admission. We went to each college and submitted the application, bought separate forms and stood in line for hours. There was no end to the cost and suffering. But nowadays, how easy it has become, the service has reached the doorsteps of the people. On the eve of the Ninth Parliamentary Election, the Hon'ble Prime Minister announced 'Digital Bangladesh' as ​​a certificate of change of days. At first, some people did not believe in Digital Bangladesh, but some people had doubts and suspicions about it. But the young generation of Bangladesh took the issue with confidence and expressed their unwavering support for the declaration. Digital Bangladesh is not a matter to be imposed from above, but a matter to come up from the grassroots. As a result, it has been proved that digital Bangladesh is not a myth. The Union Information and Service Center, now known as the Union Digital Center, was launched on November 11, 2010 in 4,548 unions across the country to bring government services to the marginalized. In women empowerment, it is mandatory to have one woman entrepreneur with one man in each digital center. From computer composing to various public and private schools and universities, these services provide 60 types of services daily including admission information, filling up of admission forms, birth registration, insurance, mobile banking, soil testing and fertilizer recommendations for agriculture, electricity bill payment, medical advice. . Passport and visa application process has started from some recently selected digital centers. Mobile banking services have been launched in 3008 centers. 20 lakh 22 thousand 438 workers who want to go abroad have registered in the online digital center. There are also a large number of women. As a result, the digital center has emerged as a hub for grassroots services. After the Union Parishad, 407 digital centers have been set up in 11 city corporations and 321 municipalities. According to the ICT Division and ATUI, an average of 4 million people receive services from these centers every month. Entrepreneurs have already earned Tk 140 crore from the digital center as A2I. The world's largest government website, National Information Window, now has 43,000 offices connected. More than 25,000 websites of ministries, departments, directorates, districts, upazilas and unions have been added to it. Through these websites various activities of the concerned office are going to be known. District e-service centers have been launched in all districts of the country on November 14, 2011. Of these, more than 6 lakh services have been provided through district e-service centers. Various services including land parcels are available from the e-service center within three days without the harassment of brokers. E-procurement has been introduced for contractors to submit tenders online. Many ministries are now calling for tenders online. Such initiatives are playing a role in preventing tender trade. Mobile court management system has been introduced to digitize court activities. Through this initiative, which is being launched on a small scale, all the documents of the mobile court are being kept online for storage and use. All records SA, CS, BRS and ledger copy are being digitized by the joint venture of Ministry of Land, District Administration and A2I Project. Of this, about five and a half crore ledgers have been digitized. Digital record room is going to be launched soon. Of this, 23 lakh 20 records have been provided in the digital system. A people-friendly e-filing system has been introduced in government offices to increase efficiency and transparency and speed up the execution process. At present, e-filing system has been introduced in 16 ministries-divisions-directorates including the Prime Minister's Office and in the offices of 64 Deputy Commissioners and Divisional Commissioners. Tier-III data centers have been set up in the ICT division to store digital information created as a result of digitization of various government activities. One of the goals in the implementation of Digital Bangladesh is the paperless office which can ensure this e-filing system. The Service Innovation Fund has been set up by A2I to encourage innovation and make innovative ideas a reality. Institutions and individuals at all levels in Bangladesh can submit innovative initiatives online at any time of the year in an easy way, reducing the amount of time, money and travel available to citizens by reducing the number of steps they take or using technology. Grants of up to a maximum of Rs. 25 lakhs are provided for selected ideas through a neutral selection system. Through the Service Innovation Fund, A2I is working to implement 180 innovative ideas, including multimedia talking books for visually impaired students, online police clearance certificates, online environmental clearances, age verification through mobile phones to prevent child marriage, and talking devices for the disabled. Multimedia Classrooms for Teachers-Students, Creating Multimedia Content by Teachers, Teacher Window, E-Book, Monitoring Dashboard and Digital Multimedia Talking Book are the motto of ‘Information Technology in Education, Not Information Technology Education’.

A models have been invented. Teachers trained in this model are creating useful content for students and using it in class. Where it is possible to conduct student-centered class activities. Multimedia classrooms have been set up in 23,331 secondary and 15,000 primary schools. More than 160,000 teachers and 1,750 master-trainers have been trained in multimedia content creation. Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed over all the digital books at primary level and Braille books and multimedia talking books to the visually impaired students at the official inauguration ceremony of the free book distribution program for students at Ganobhaban on 30 December 2016. A2I has created 'Agriculture Portal' under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture with the objective of providing extension services to the farmers in an effective and easy way by digitizing the agricultural extension services. The agriculture portal has been piloted and will be officially launched soon. The philosophical foundation of digital Bangladesh, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, snatched independence through a long struggle চোখে in whose eyes the nation saw a firm commitment to self-reliance. He showed the nation the dream of a golden Bengal. Similarly, his worthy daughter, Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has gifted the nation with her election manifesto 'Certificate of Change of Day'. After 50 years of independence, he has given a vision of where Bangladesh will go in 2021 and he has given it in his election manifesto called 'Vision 2021'. One of the goals of Vision 2021 is 'Digital Bangladesh', which in 2006 was just a dream, and today it is a reality.

Md. Mostafizur Rahman Author: Joint Secretary, Director, A2I Program, Prime Minister's Office