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Few days ago my daughter who just passed SSC suddenly asked me to buy a teletalk SIM card. He said, now any student from any part of the country can apply for admission to any college at home through Teletalk SIM. Then I remembered how much trouble we had to go through to apply for college admission in our time. We went to each college and applied, bought separate forms and stood in line for hours and submitted the forms. There was no end to the expense and suffering. But how easy these things have become these days, the service has reached the doorstep of the people.

On the eve of the 9th National Assembly elections, the Hon'ble Prime Minister announced 'Digital Bangladesh' as a sign of change. At first, some people did not believe the Digital Bangladesh issue properly, rather some had doubts and doubts about it. But the young generation of Bangladesh took the issue with confidence and expressed unwavering support to the announcement. Digital Bangladesh is not an issue imposed from above, rather it is an issue that emerges from the grassroots. As a result, it has been proved that Digital Bangladesh is not a myth.

'Union Information and Service Centres', now known as Union Digital Centres, were launched in 4,547 Unions across the country on 11 November 2010 to bring government services to marginalized communities. Empowerment of women mandates that every digital center has a woman entrepreneur along with a man. 60 types of daily services are available at these service centers, starting from computer composition, information related to admission to various public and private schools and universities, filling admission forms, birth registration, insurance, mobile banking, soil testing and fertilizer recommendation for agriculture, electricity bill payment, medical consultation. . Passport and visa application process has started from some selected digital centers recently. Mobile banking services have been launched in 3008 centers.20 lakh 22 thousand 436 workers who want to go abroad have registered online at the digital center. A large number of women are also among them. As a result, it appears that The Digital Center has emerged as a hub for grassroots services. After the Union Parishad, 407 digital centers have been launched in 11 city corporations and digital centers in 321 municipalities. According to the ICT Division and A2I, an average of 4 million people are availing services from these centers every month. According to E2I, entrepreneurs have earned 140 crore rupees from the digital center.407 digital centers have been launched in 11 city corporations and digital centers in 321 municipalities. According to the ICT Division and A2I, an average of 4 million people are availing services from these centers every month. According to E2I, entrepreneurs have earned 140 crore rupees from the digital center.407 digital centers have been launched in 11 city corporations and digital centers in 321 municipalities. According to the ICT Division and A2I, an average of 4 million people are availing services from these centers every month. According to E2I, entrepreneurs have earned 140 crore rupees from the digital center.

43,000 offices are now connected to the world's largest government website 'National Information Batayan'. More than 25 thousand websites of ministries, departments, directorates, districts, upazilas and unions have been added to it. Various activities of the respective offices are known through these websites. On November 14, 2011, district e-service centers were launched in all districts of the country. Out of this, more than 8 lakh services have been provided through the district e-service center. Various services including land deed are available from the e-service center within three days without the involvement of brokers.

E-procurement has been launched for contractors to submit tenders online. Now many ministries are inviting tenders online. Such initiatives are playing a role in preventing tender trade. Mobile court management system has been launched to digitize court proceedings. Through this initiative launched on a small scale, all documents of mobile courts are being kept online for storage and use. All records SA, CS, BRS and Khatian copies are being digitized in joint initiative of Ministry of Lands, District Administration and A2I project. Out of this, about five and a half crore khatians have been digitized. The digital record room is going to be launched very soon. Out of this 23 lakh 20 records have been provided in digital system.

People-friendly e-filing system has been launched to increase efficiency and transparency in government offices and speed up the process of execution of work. At present, e-filing system has been introduced in 16 ministries-departments-headquarters and 64 Deputy Commissioners' offices and Divisional Commissioner's offices, including the Prime Minister's office. A tier-three data center has been set up in the ICT Division to store the digital information created as a result of digitizing various government activities. One of the targets in the implementation of Digital Bangladesh is paperless office which this e-filing system can ensure.

The Service Innovation Fund is an initiative of A2i to encourage innovation and turn innovative ideas into reality. Organizations and individuals at all levels of Bangladesh can submit innovative initiatives online in an easy way any day of the year to reduce the amount of time, money and travel in receiving services by reducing excessive steps in receiving citizen services or using technology. A grant of up to 25 lakh rupees is awarded to selected ideas through an impartial selection process. Through Service Innovation Fund, ATUI is working to implement 170 innovative ideas including multimedia talking book for visually impaired students, online police clearance certificate, online environmental clearance, age verification through mobile phone to prevent child marriage, talking device for speech impaired students. 'IT is not education, Instead, models such as multimedia classrooms for teacher-students, teacher-generated multimedia content, teacher communication, e-books, monitoring dashboards and digital multimedia talking books have been developed under the motto 'Information Technology in Education'. Teachers trained in this model are creating content suitable for students and using it in class. Where it is becoming possible to conduct student-centered class activities. Multimedia classrooms have been set up in 23,331 secondary and 15,000 primary schools. More than 1,80,000 teachers and 1, 650 master-trainers trained in multimedia content creation. Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed over all the digital books and Braille books and multimedia talking books to the visually impaired students at the official inauguration of the free book distribution program at Ganabhaban on December 30, 2017. 'Krishi Portal' has been developed by A2I under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture to bring extension services to farmers in an efficient and easy way by digitizing agricultural extension services. The agriculture portal has been piloted and will be formally launched very soon. The philosophical foundation of Digital Bangladesh was won by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through a long struggle for independence—in whose eyes the nation saw a firm commitment to self-reliance. He showed the nation the dream of Golden Bengal. Likewise his privileged daughter Hon Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has gifted the nation with her election manifesto 'Certificate of Change of Change'. He gave a vision of where Bangladesh will go in 2021 after 50 years of independence and he gave the election manifesto as 'Vision 2021'. One of the goals of Vision 2021 is 'Digital Bangladesh', which was only a dream in 2008, and today it is a reality.

Md. Mostafizur Rahman

 Author: Joint Secretary, Director, A2I Programme, Prime Minister's Office