Palak for building knowledge-based society utilizing ICT

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DHAKA, Oct 13, 2019 (BSS) – State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak has underscored the need for building a knowledge-based society through the utilization of information and communication technology to face the challenge of the 4th industrial revolution.

“We have entered the fourth industrial revolution, where every day is changing, every moment is changing. Our focus should be on building a knowledge-based society,” he said.

The state minister was addressing the certification giving ceremony of the National Startup Camp of “Student to Startup: Chapter 2” at Sheikh Hasina National Youth Development Center in the city outskirts Savar on Saturday night.

Mentioning the country’s unprecedented development in ICT sector, Palak said benefits of Digital Bangladesh will be reached to everyone.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a special allocation of Taka 100 crore for the startups in the current fiscal for the first time.

Project Director (Joint-Secretary) of iDEA Project Syed Mojibul Huq, Deputy Project Director of iDEA Project Kazi Hosna Ara, Centre for Research and Information (CRI) Coordinator Tonmoy Ahmed, Student to Startup programme Coordinator Ashikur Rahman Rupok and the officials of ICT Division and campus ambassadors of ‘Young Bangla’ attended the ceremony.

In the national startup contest, the top 30 startups were selected by pitching on Saturday after a three-day national startup camp.

Among the top 30 startups, top 10 will be selected by the iDEA Project selection committee and each of them will receive a grant of Tk 10 lakh as ‘Bangabandhu Innovation Grant’.

Twenty more startups were also selected as runner-up to be groomed to make them matured.

After completion of grooming, if the startup meets the targeted improvement then the matured startups will also be funded.

Through an inauguration ceremony, the contest started its journey on September 15 last at ICT Tower, Agargaon in the city.

The promotional campaigns were organized in more than 100 academic institutions of the country and students registered through online registration process at the contest.

About 2500 Startups submitted their ideas at the contest while 75 startups has been selected preliminarily from university campuses through pitching round from 24 venues of 8 divisions and later they were invited to attend the National Startup Camp.

This time, more than 200 students of 75 startups participated in the national camp.

Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA) project of Bangladesh Computer Council under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division organized the contest in association with the leading youth platform ‘Young Bangla’ under ‘Centre for Research and Information (CRI) for the second time.

Details of iDEA project will be available into Startup Bangladesh website as follows- www.startupbangladesh.gov.bd .