IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Aponjon, a mobile health messaging service for mothers and newborns, has launched two mobile phone apps for expectant mothers and adolescent girls to provide necessary health information services, ensuring healthy life.

The two mobile phone apps -- Aponjon Shogorbha and Aponjon Koishor -- have been developed to meet health needs of expectant mothers and adolescent girls, said Chief Executive Officer of D.net Dr Ananya Raihan at the launching function at Spectra Convention Centre in the capital on Thursday.

Speakers at an inception workshop on the e-Parliament Feasibility Study have underscored the importance of digital transformation in establishing a more inclusive, transparent, and citizen-centric Parliament in Bangladesh.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat (BPS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the Embassy of Switzerland. It was held in Dhaka on Thursday as part of the UNDP's Strengthening Institutions, Policies, and Services (SIPS) project, which supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality).

The 400-year old capital city Dhaka now ranks among cities with the worst air quality. Once its lifeline, the Buriganga is dying, and surrounding rivers are polluted and encroached. Despite big problems though, small interventions might be able to make it more liveable

If an architect is given a blank sketch paper to draw their dream version of a modern city, they may outline residential, business, school, hospital, office areas with spaces marked for parks, lakes, wide roads with pavement, and bicycle lanes. The design might be one of a zero-carbon smart city with clean air and water, integrated transport and utilities.

Recently, he encountered some problems in his brinjal cultivation.

“I visited the Union Information Service Centre (UISC) in Mohajanpur looking for a remedy to my problem,” Billal said.

At first look, the torching of a number of land or sub-registrars' offices across the country appears more likely to be linked to the countrywide arson and bomb attacks on roads and highways. But appearances can be deceptive. If the land documents can be destroyed, interested quarters, having their obnoxious interests crossing the apparent political divide, can lay claim on contentious lands and undisputed lands can be made contentious. Already, the country's courts are overburdened with land litigations which outnumber any other type of court cases. Now fresh claims and counter claims over lands will exacerbate the situation. Not a good prospect when the express intention of the administration is to resolve land disputes as early as possible and bring down the number to the minimum possible!

Smart City 2.0 represents the next phase in the evolution of urban development, characterized by integrating advanced technologies to enhance the efficiency, sustainability, and overall quality of life within a city. Building upon the foundations of the initial smart city concept, version 2.0 places a stronger emphasis on innovation, data-driven decision-making, and community engagement.

This evolution involves the seamless integration of cutting-edge technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and sustainable practices, to create urban environments that are not only technologically advanced but also inclusive, environmentally conscious, and economically vibrant.

Bangladesh has planned to develop a new national electronic database titled civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) from next year to record and document vital information of the people, including health data, for providing better services and for policy-making.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Thursday the government is not in a position to establish e-governance during its tenure due to time constraint and the lack of required preparations.

"Introducing e-governance in the public sector will not be possible during our time in office as the system demands a holistic approach and more time for a meaningful beginning," Mr Muhith told reporters at his ministry office while inaugurating the three-day Sylhet E-Commerce Fair and Digital Innovation Fair 2013 through a video conference.

"Digital Bangladesh" is an all-encompassing idea. It is not just e-commerce, e-education, or e-banking or e-governance. But among all the components e-governance is the most important for the initiative of "Digital Bangladesh."

This plan could not have come any sooner

One of the best initiatives that the government has taken over the last decade is Digital Bangladesh -- an initiative which plans to bring technologies with the specific aim to make the lives of the people of this country easier and better.

And, to a great extent, this dream of a Digital Bangladesh has been pushed closer and closer to reality, be it through greater internet penetration or the construction of Hi-Tech Parks across the nation.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase at a meeting held at the Cabinet Division with Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury in the chair approved a single bidder's proposal.

The tender proposal is titled 'Supply, installation, testing and commissioning of public network to connect government entity and provide application services on turnkey basis' which is being implemented under the project styled `Development of National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Government (Bangla.gov.net).

‘One Pay’ ‘One Service’ and ‘One Shop’ in one platform

Prime Minister’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy said, “The name of Bangladesh will be added to the list of top 50 countries in the United Nations’ (UN) e-governance development index by the next five years expanding and developing its digital services.

He came up with the remarks while addressing the program on the launching of e-government master plan report and A2i’s three citizen services at the city’s ICT tower yesterday.

“E-Governance will not be possible within our tenure and it will take a little more time… that was also not our target,” he said while inaugurating the three-day Sylhet E- Commerce Fair and Digital Innovation Fair 2013 through video conference from his secretariat office.

The government's online-based electronic procurement system is yet to gain a foothold among the people related to procurement and tendering process, as it has been introduced without sufficient training for the relevant persons. On the other hand, both the public and private stakeholders are largely not aware of the development.

The e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system became operational in October last year with a pilot programme involving Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Bangladesh Water Development Board, Planning Commission sources said.

Taxpayers including companies, will be able to pay income tax, value added tax and customs duties online after the launch of the electronic payment system, said an official of the NBR yesterday.

But initially, the taxpayers having accounts with banks that share Q cash ATM (automated teller machine) networks will get the scope to pay taxes online.

Most government offices are yet to introduce e-tendering though it is one of the priorities of the government's 'Digital Bangladesh' initiatives, sources said.

Over 70 per cent government works are still being done through the old system of inviting bids although the Prime Minister had instructed all the ministries to implement e-tendering system in 2011.

Officials said 1,000 ideas, 700 individual and 300 group, would be collected from ministries, directorates and departments and the apps would be developed under a Tk 8 crore Mobile Apps Development Project the ICT ministry launched in October.

The connection would come to Bangladesh from Pashchimbanga and Assam in India, he said, adding that the Indian project would also cover Nepal and Bhutan.

The minister said this while talking to reporters during a visit to the development work of hi-tech park in Kaliakoir of Gazipur.

Introducing e-governance in Bangladesh is a public demand to ensure good governance, corruption-free government, simplification of government functions, transparency and accountability of the government and effective delivery of public services at the people's doorstep. The demand also relates to decreasing the gap between the government and its citizens and ensuring some fundamental rights (right to information, freedom of speech and expression) of the people. One must not deny the fact that there have been some commendable initiatives taken by the present government in this direction in materialising one of its key election promises for establishing what it dubbed 'Digital Bangladesh'.