Introduction

The use of information and communication technology has been playing a vital role in the 21st century due to globalization and the government is encouraged to adapting with the coming future. The democratic government has declared the Vision 2021 in the election manifesto which targets establishment of a resourceful and modern country by 2021 through effective use of information and communication technology-a "Digital Bangladesh". THE term "Digital Bangladesh" was first used by Bangladesh Awami League immediately before 2009 election. It was probably used at that time as a "nice-sounding political slogan". Making digital Bangladesh means use of digital gadgets and technology in all possible fields. Any country can do it by importing the appliances, where the suppliers at their own initiative would commission those and keep running, if, only if, they get the money. Then materializing digital Bangladesh within five or ten years would not be very difficult. One can do it even in two years, if one has vast money. Digital Bangladesh does not only mean the broad use of computers, perhaps it means the modern philosophy of effective and useful use of technology in terms of implementing the promises in education, health, job placement, poverty reduction etc. Therefore, the government underscores a changing attitude, positive thinking and innovative ideas for the success of Digital Bangladesh. This study helps To know about the concept of Digital Bangladesh, To know about the Pros and cons of Digital Bangladesh, To identify the sectors has been digitized and operated digitally, To know about the future of Digital Bangladesh, To investigate whether digital Bangladesh is just a mere dream or it is real.

This report represents the Digital Bangladesh and will generate an idea of digitizing sectors in the whole country. This report will help to:

Businessmen Individual Management of a company Students

This assignment has been made possible through the direct and indirect cooperation guidance of various people whom we wish to express my sincere appreciation & gratitude. First with the limitless humility, we would like to thank "GOD", for bestowing us with all the favorable circumstances and keeping us in high spirits. With the deep sense of gratitude, we express my sincere thanks to Md. Shahidul Islam Fakir for giving us this practical report. Data were collected from secondary sources such as various journals, internet and book.

Philosophy of Digital Bangladesh

The philosophy of Digital Bangladesh comprises ensuring peoples democracy and rights, transparency, accountability, establishing justice and ensuring delivery of government services in each door through maximum use of technology-with the ultimate goal to improve the daily lifestyle of general people. Governments Digital Bangladesh includes all classes of people and does not discriminate people in terms of technology. Hence, government have emphasized on the four elements of Digital Bangladesh Vision which are human resource development, people involvement, civil services and use of information technology in business.

Vision of Digital Bangladesh

Today the entire world is gradually becoming a digital planet. Almost every state is heading towards a knowledge-based society and Bangladesh cannot stay away from the advantage out of it. So the ultimate goal of digital Bangladesh is to be an e-state that means all its activities of governance, commerce, education, agriculture etc. will be powered by computer and internet where people can use and access the Information and communication technology and will get a developed life, free from crime, corruption, misrule and face the challenges of the 21st century. The following table highlights the goal or objective of digital Bangladesh:

Goals/Objectives of Digital Bangladesh Sector Government Business Academe Media Description The goals are to ensure human rights, legal services, social equity, productivity, integrity, law and order, etc. for the people through the automation and deployment of ICTs. The goal is to have a knowledge economy that enables industries to create higher value added wealth. In the process, national income will increase. The goal is digitization as a pathway to economic success, quality education, public health and government transparency. Its goal is transparency in the government using modern and digital technologies. All citizens will have access to internet and enjoy modern facilities. With this, they will have all the information available to them. Economic empowerment of the citizen. Bangladesh, as a developed country, will use digital technology, increase equal distribution of opportunity and poverty free. The goal is a poverty-free Bangladesh through the strategic use of ICT, good Governance and zero corruption. The goal is to give people the right information at the right time without distortion so that they can make the right decision.

IT Specialists

Civil Society

Prospects of Digital Bangladesh

"Digital Bangladesh" is currently the most commonly used words in politics, media, among the intellectuals and the civil societies. Since our Prime Minister in her party's election manifesto pledged to develop a digital Bangladesh by 2021, it has given a great hope to the citizens of Bangladesh. Not too many people understood the concept of digital Bangladesh but they believed it, as something related to information technology. It has been widely accepted by a good number of young voters, believing that the concept of Digital Bangladesh will solve most of our national crisis involving corruption, unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and price-hike. Even though without knowing Bangladesh has already gone through a bit of experience on digitization through few national level of ICT projects, such as, Chittagong Customs Automation System, selection process of teletalk mobile user through internet, project initiated by the previous government on machine-readable digital passport system and finally the successful computerization of national voter ID. To keep promise of establishing digital Bangladesh our prime minister gives all her effort which helps to establish Bangladesh as a digital country. The followings are highlighted the reasons why we go for Digital Bangladesh and how we can say that Bangladesh is become a digital country so that it can compete economically in the global marketplace:

CellBazaar, a face of Digital Bangladesh

The concept of "Brand Bangladesh" has been discussed a lot in recent times -- in seminars, articles and research. Bangladeshi technology entrepreneurs can be crucial in this effort. For the last three years I have been watching a fascinating initiative -- CellBazaar, which can be an excellent example of "Digital Bangladesh" and is a part of the government's vision for Bangladesh 2020. Originally designed as a classroom project at MIT, CellBazaar team has been working in Bangladesh for four years. CellBazaar service (http://www.cellbazaar.com) allows people to buy and sell over mobile phones or computers. Anyone with a computer and internet, as well as 24 million Grameenphone users through their mobile phones are taking advantages of this service. Users can buy agricultural products, such as rice, fish, chicken, as well as large scale items like car, motorcycle, TV, fridge, apartment, land, etc. People can also offer services such as language tutoring (very relevant for migrants going abroad). The service is customer focused, who post items for sale, delete items after they are sold, and even adjust their own prices if they fail to get a buyer. For the first time, the producers of agricultural products can directly negotiate price with buyers and agro-processors. More than a million people have already used the CellBazaar service in Bangladesh.

E-payment for Digital Bangladesh

The emergence of E-commerce has created newer types of needs in response to newer types of relationship between parties of transaction. Beyond the buyer-seller relationships, peer-to-peer payment system has emerged to allow individuals to email payments to each other. But credit card has remained the dominant form of E-payment on the Internet. In an online credit card

transaction, the transacting parties never see each other. So it requires special authentication which was not needed previously in cash or cheque payments. Other forms of online payments are (1) digital cash, (2) online stored value such as debit card, (3) digital accumulating balance payment, (4) digital chequeing accounts etc. There are many payment options like Paypal, VISA, Mastercard, Digicash etc.So that customer do not have to carry a lot of cash in his her pocket. At present many of the shopping complex facilitate master card, VISA, credit card etc. to transact. As a result people can remain free from all danger like hijacking, losing money etc.

UP info centre solving social problems

Entrepreneurs of different information centres are regularly sharing and exchanging information with local administrations through online blogs to offer public necessary solutions to many social problems like polygamy, dowry and unemployment. During a recent visit to different information centres in Narayanganj district, the news agency correspondent found people standing there in queues to get information on various services, including agriculture, education and health. Some people were waiting to collect different government's forms downloaded for them by the UISCs operators. Many also came to get results of different public examinations. Some information centres in Narayanganj were also used as effective media for recruiting necessary staff for the district administration to carry out different duties during the past population census. National Project Director of the Access to Information (A2I) Programme of the Prime Minister Office Nazrul Islam Khan now 4,500 people out of the 9,000 entrepreneurs of the UISCs are regularly writing for the blogs, offering public necessary information and solutions to many issues Narayanganj Deputy Commissioner Md Shamsur Rahman said the centres are playing important role in solving social problems when various types of services are also generating more income for the operators of the UISCs. Consultant of the A2I Programme of the Prime Minister Office Manik Mahmud said online blogs of the UISCs are designed to make it effective for solving different problem of rural people. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 11, 2010 launched the information centres at 4501 unions with auspicious aims of establishing an information super highway, providing people easy access to basic services and information about agriculture, health, education, legal aid, human rights and employment.

Mobile Banking through UISC

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 5 May among Local Government Division (LGD), UNDP supported Access to Information (A2I) Programme of the Prime Minister's Office and Mercantile Bank Limited for introducing branchless mobile banking to reach banking services to the rural people. Mercantile Bank Limited will introduce branchless mobile banking in 50 union information service centers as pilot programme to provide banking facilities to the grassroots level in the country. The remaining UISCs will be brought under the programme in phases. All banking facilities including opening of bank account, cash withdrawal and depositing of money and receiving remittances will be available through the mobile banking. Union Information Service Centers (UISCs) have been set up in 4501 Union Parishads across the

country to bring rural people under the information technology network for developing their lives and livelihood.

Launching e-book of textbooks at primary, secondary levels

Government formally launched e-book, a digitized compilation of primary and secondary textbooks, opening a new horizon of easy access to text books through Internet. At least 106 textbooks of primary and secondary levels have been converted to e-books, electronic version of textbooks, published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) and uploaded on www.ebook.gov.bd with the technical assistance of Access to Information (A2I) of Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The e-book will eliminate all fear of hampering learning due to delay in getting textbooks. E-book is readable by digital devices like computer, e-book reader, mobile phone, PDA, CD and iPad. The e-book will be very helpful especially for the expatriate Bangladeshi students to take preparation for primary terminal, Junior Secondary Certificate and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations from abroad. The students could use the ebook easily as presently 40 percent of the country's schools have computer facilities and the government has taken initiative to establish multimedia classroom at 20,500 secondary schools. The students with weak eyesight can read the e-book easily by make the font bigger on the computer screen. Thirty-three books of primary level and 73 books of secondary level have been converted to e-books and uploaded on the website.

Use of ICT in teaching

Every human being is a lifelong student. But only some of them become teachers and teach others. So a teacher has to learn continuously and teach continuously throughout his/her life. ICT technology can be of immense help to a dynamic teacher because it can enhance the dual capacity of both learning and teaching quite easily and cheaply. Currently there is an umbrella project titled A2I (Access to Information) under which various developmental works are going on for spreading the use of ICT in Bangladesh and This project is financed by UNDP. Every six month a meeting is held under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister in order to monitor the progress in this front of ICT in general and all secretaries of all ministries have to be present there. One of the main thrust of this project is the use of ICT in the field of education. Rupees 3000 million (Almost 43 million dollar) has been allocated under this project to equip 30000 higher secondary schools with one lap-top and one projector for each school. At present there is a programme for setting up information centers with such internet facilities in the 4501 unions of the country. This programme has become very popular and already 1102 such information centers have been established by July, 2010. These centers make available various kinds of useful information to the villagers and enhance their capacity to solve their livelihood problems. Thus the role of ICT to promote mass education has a huge potentiality in Bangladesh.

Online investment registration system launched

Political stability to draw more investment from home and abroad for industrial growth in Bangladesh. Both domestic and foreign investment is a must for industrialization. So political stability and unity is essential to win investors' confidence. Thats why our government launching the online investment registration system of Board of Investment (BOI) in the city. Government was trying to ensure an atmosphere conducive to businesses, especially for the private sector growth. Online registration of the BOI would help create an enabling atmosphere for business and investment in the country. It will attract more investors from home and abroad and prop up the investment activities in particular. The new system will simplify investment registration procedures for local and foreign investors with a new online registration service system by reducing time and unnecessary documentation and hassle.

Online birth registration in Rajshahi

Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) is going to launch online birth registration program aimed at making the citys birth and death registration activities more effective and transparent . The city corporation has started a training course for the data entry operators for the first time where 30 persons are attending.

Use electronic voting system for next elections

Prime Minister reiterated her governments plans to introduce electronic voting system in the country to hold free, fair and neutral elections in future. E-voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote, storing the voting record in some database, and electronic means of counting votes The electronic voting system was successfully used in the mayoral elections in Chittagong City mayoral election on Jun 17, 2009, but the Election Commission is yet to seek opinions of all parties for introducing the system in general elections. Bangladesh needs to keep up with the pace of the modern technology and development. The commission has unanimously decided to consult the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and seek technical assistance of Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTC) for introducing the system in large scale.

Bangladesh among best spots for IT outsourcing

Bangladesh has carved its place among the world's best destinations for IT outsourcing, largely thanks to its low cost, according to a study by a leading research and consulting firm. Bangladesh usually offers an attractive cost proposition for the investors, as its low salary level and low-cost of living are ideal for jobs that are commoditized and have low risk. This is the first time that Bangladesh has been listed in the top ranking by any global research company on IT outsourcing and has been placed on par with China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam in Asia. Bangladesh has been ranked 'very good' in the criteria of cost, according to the Gartner findings while rating 'fair' in all criteria apart from the areas of language, infrastructure and data and IP security and privacy.

So from the above scenario it can be said that the prospects of digital Bangladesh is bright. Government has initiated lots of project to digitizing Bangladesh.

Digital Bangladesh is just a mere dream

Digital Bangladesh is just a dream; its not possible in real terms. The reason for calling it a dream is as follows: Our prime minister and other ministers of the present government sided with ECs decision and have spoken in favor of electronic voting to build digital Bangladesh. But all the responsible persons of the government and at the EC should seriously analyze the severe disadvantages of e-voting, even before thinking about it as an option for our voting system. The devices for e-voting need power and power backups given the electricity and power condition of Bangladesh. Also devices can fail and additional backups for the device have to be maintained. The security and hacking of the device and stored data are also serious concerns along with many others. In our country where the literacy rate is 53 per cent and where computer literacy rate is even less, such electronic ballots are definitely unreasonable and illogical. Whenever it is digital then to operate IT devices it is necessary to have enough electricity supply. But load shedding is a part and parcel in our daily life. So its not possible to be digitized until the load shedding problem will be solved. Though government initiated some project to digitalize the education sector, but to digitize education sector first need to change the structure. But at present there is no structure for digital education in Bangladesh at any level of the education. Students do not have better idea about the better use of information and communication technologies and gaining knowledge digitally. Only 6000 students gain formal knowledge among 200000 students in the public and private universities. The ratio of ICT scholars to the total population is 0.005 with growth rate of 0.0000375 which is very low. Only 2 persons per 1000 people get the internet facility with a negligible data transfer speed of 5 kbps. On average the number of teacher having digital knowledge is less than 1 in 27000 schools in our country. There is no interoperability framework enabling sharing of systems and information between different educational institutions. There is no dependable network infrastructure outside the capital although we have got the internet connection in 1993. Moreover we have electricity problem. We are having a power deficit of 2000 MW against a demand of 5000 MW daily.

 The user of the internet constitutes only 0.3% of the total population whereas digital Bangladesh cannot be possible without it being 100%. English literacy rate in our country is less than 1% of the total population whereas digital Bangladesh cannot be possible without it being 100%. From the above mentioned information and discussion our concept of the digital Bangladesh can be said to be only a mere dream or more precisely an impossible dream. If a countrys ICT sector is so poor as ours then how we can achieve an ICT supremacy within next 12 years, is a matter of doubt. Therefore the possibility of digital Bangladesh is 0% within the specified time period and if it continues like the present situation, digital Bangladesh will never be in existence within 200 years in the future.