By Syed Altefat Hossain
DHAKA, Dec 27, 2018 (BSS)-The Access to Information (a2i) Programme of
the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has won eight international awards in
different categories and a national award this year for different digital
innovations.
Bangladesh has won the world’s most prestigious award “World Summit on
Information Society (WSIS) Prize-2018” in ICT sector for fifth time in a row
for two innovative projects of a2i.
The a2i programme won the award for the Muktopaath
(www.muktopaath.gov.bd), which can play an important role in educating and
training youths, women, professionals and overseas workers. Using the
platform, anyone can take general, technical, vocational and life oriented
education.
Apart from this, a2i and Bangladesh Police were awarded another WSIS
Prize jointly for “Online Police Clearance Certificate Management System”
which was made with the assistance from service innovation fund of a2i and
implemented by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The then project director of the a2i Program Kabir Bin Anwar, now
secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, received the award for Muktopaath
while Deputy Inspector General of Police Harun Ur Rashid and Additional DIG
(ICT) Md Ruhul Amin received the award for “Online Police Clearance
Certificate Management System” on March 20, 2018 at a function held at the
headquarters of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva,
Switzerland.
According to the a2i officials, the Muktopaath was also bestowed with the
PIB-Sohel Samad Memorial Award-2018. A2i’s Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury
received the award on September 5, 2018 at a function held at the seminar
room of PIB in the city.
The a2i programme has won “International Invention Innovation and
Technology Exhibition” (ITEX) Award 2018 in three different innovation
categories on May 12. For the very first time, a2i participated in the
exhibition held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center in Malaysia and won two
gold and one silver awards.
The a2i received gold awards for the innovation project “Centralized
Nebulizing System” in the ‘Biotechnology, Health and fitness’ category and
for “Fuel from Plastic” in the ‘Environmental, Renewable Energy’ category.
The a2i also received one silver award in the ‘Special care and Child care’
category for a project titled “Portable Infant Incubator”.
A total of 62 innovations out of more than 1000 innovations and
technological designs from 23 different countries received the Gold Award and
73 the Silver Award.
The ‘EkSheba’ platform of a2i has won the Award of Merit at the 18th
prestigious Asia Pacific ICT Alliance APICTA Award 2018 held at Guangzhou in
China on October 13.
e-service Specialist of the a2i Mohammad Ashraful Amin received the
award from Guangzhou Province Economic and Information Commission deputy
director Shen Zhixiong and APICTA Awards chief judge professor Gansen Zhao.
This year, a total of 17 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh,
Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore,
Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, participated in the APICTA Award, popularly
known as Oscars in the ICT arena.
The a2i has received the ‘President Award’ of the Open Group of India for
the second time for implementing ‘EkSeba’ Software Solution.
A2i got the award in ‘Enterprise Architecture Enabled Government
Transformation’ category of an international competition on innovation held
at the hotel of Indian city of Bengaluru on February 22, 2018.
Secretary of the Ministry of ICT, India, Shri Ajay Sawhney and former
government official of India J Satyanarayana handed over the award to a2i’s
Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury.
In every year, Open Group of India organizes the conference and
competition on Global Innovation and Excellence.
A2i’s National Consultant for Accessibility Vashkar Bhattacharjee, a
visually impaired Bangladeshi national, has been awarded the UNESCO/Emir
Jaber al Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah Prize for Digital Empowerment of Persons
with Disabilities (2018-19) by developing the country’s first ‘Accessible
Dictionary’.
Bhattacharjee received the prestigious award as the ever first
Bangladeshi from the representative of the Kuwaiti Government Sheikh Mubarak
Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at a ceremony organised in observance of the
International Day of Persons with Disabilities at UNESCO Headquarters on
December 3, 2018.