DHAKA, Oct 06, 2018 (BSS) – With an aim to give a new thrust in the growth of IT based entrepreneurship, the country’s leading youth organisation Young Bangla and global tech giant Microsoft’s Bangladesh chapter today pledged to open up a unique platform for providing the potential start-ups with all sorts of assistance.
At the final day of a four day summit, started on 2nd October at IEB auditorium in the capital, a total of five start up groups were awarded with cheques worth Taka 5 lakh each, alongside other required support for their expansion in the future.
Titled, as Young Bangla Microsoft Summit, the event saw over 250 aspiring teams from different parts of the country contesting for securing a slot of the top five.
Surviving through a rigorous scrutiny, a total of twenty teams presented their ideas today in front of an expert panel of judges. The panel included Radwan Mujib Siddiq, trustee, Center for Research and Information (CRI), Nasrul Hamid Bipu, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Sonia Bashir Kabir, Managing Director for Microsoft Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Laos and Sabbir Bin Shams, Executive Director, CRI.
The winning ideas include, developing Software for Bangla sign language (team BSL), Connecting veterinary doctors with rural farmers (Gorur doctor), Using urban farming technologies to supplement traditional farming (Micro Beats), making lives better for older citizens (Blaze Warrior) and introducing a bicycle service titled CHOLO to evade traffic in city street (finance Wizard).
Attending the event, Radwan Mujib Siddiq, trustee of Center for Research and Information, that works as secretariat of Young Bangla, said: “We always intend to work to build a bridge between the youths and the policymakers so that voices of the rising generation gets properly reflected in national policies.”
“In our childhood, Microsoft was very much popular with us like what facebook or twitter meant for this generation,” he said adding that the inclusion of MS with YB has opened up a new world of opportunity for the grassroots of the country.
In reference to a view held by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on streamlining of marginalized community, he expressed high optimism that this joint platform would surely make a mark in the fulfilment of the arduous task to build a Bangladesh with no discrimination and ensuring equality for all.
Sonia Basir Kabir said as many as 100 volunteers, actively engaged as campus ambassadors, in different educational institutions, under the network will be lifted up to Microsoft’s brand ambassador.
Mentioning the effective role played by the labs, set up under YB-MS partnership, in seven districts, she added a number of lives have been empowered due to the spread of ICT based education due to such labs.