Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy inaugurated the process on Wednesday by registering a SIM for himself.
“Bangladesh is the second country in the world to introduce this and I am proud of it,” he told a ceremony at the telecoms ministry.
A SIM card by state-owned operator Teletalk was issued to Joy, the prime minister’s son and her adviser.
Read more: Bangladesh starts trial for biometric SIM registration
The Election Commission (EC) will hand over smart National Identity (NID) cards to 96.2 million voters by June next year.
"We are working with an objective of giving smartcards to voters on the Independence Day on March 26 (2016). If we fail, we will at least start distribution of smartcards on that day by handing over symbolic cards," Secretary of EC Secretariat M Sirajul Islam told BSS.
EC earlier signed a contract with a French company for manufacturing and distributing nine crore smartcards.
Read more: BD: 96.2m smart NIDs to be disbursed by June 2016
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday inaugurated a state police-citizen portal, enabling tech-savvy people to send their complaints online to the authorities.
“Through the portal, a citizen sitting at home can avail a number of services at a click of the mouse. There is no need to go to any police station,” the chief minister said.
All the 531 police stations in the state have been linked through the online portal www.citizenportal-op.gov.in.
Read more: BD: Odisha Police goes online to receive complaints
Internet is an amazing technological innovation that has revolutionised the entire range of economic, social and personal interactions. Internet merges notable features of traditional media like broadcasting and telecommunications. Internet has removed the barriers to information access and communication in ways that has never been experienced before in human history.
Internet is a uniquely universal platform that uses the same standards in every country. Every user can interact with every other user regardless of geographic location. Open access to the Internet has revolutionised lifestyles. Economic impact made by the Internet over the past decades has been quite massive. Research by the World Bank in 2009 found that for every 10 percentage point increase in the number of high-speed internet connections in developing countries, there was an increase of 1.3 percentage points in economic growth.
The government will pass a digital security law to stop misuse of internet, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.
She said this while inaugurating the observance of Internet Week in a video conference on Saturday evening.
The PM urged not to use the internet in unsocial activities and militancy. She also urged not to make any derogative comment on religion in the internet.