The Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has won nine international awards in different categories and a national award this year for various digital innovations.
Bangladesh has won the world’s most prestigious award “World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Prize-2018” in ICT sector for fifth time in a row for two innovative projects of a2i.
The a2i programme won the award for the Muktopaath (www.muktopaath.gov.bd), which can play an important role in educating and training youths, women, professionals and overseas workers. Using the platform, anyone can avail general, technical, vocational and life oriented education.
In addition, a2i and Bangladesh Police were awarded another WSIS Prize jointly for “Online Police Clearance Certificate Management System” which was made with the assistance from service innovation fund of a2i and implemented by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The then project director of the a2i Program Kabir Bin Anwar, now secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, received the award for Muktopaath while Deputy Inspector General of Police Harun Ur Rashid and Additional DIG (ICT) Md Ruhul Amin received the award for “Online Police Clearance Certificate Management System” on March 20, 2018 at a function held at the headquarters of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to the a2i officials, the Muktopaath was also bestowed with the PIB-Sohel Samad Memorial Award-2018. A2i’s Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury received the award on September 5, 2018 at a function held at the seminar room of PIB in the city.
The a2i programme has won “International Invention Innovation and Technology Exhibition” (ITEX) Award 2018 in three different innovation categories on May 12. For the very first time, a2i participated in the exhibition held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia and bagged two gold and one silver awards.
The a2i received gold awards for the innovation project “Centralized Nebulizing System” in the ‘Biotechnology, Health and fitness’ category and for “Fuel from Plastic” in the ‘Environmental, Renewable Energy’ category.
The a2i also received one silver award in the ‘Special care and Child care’ category for a project titled “Portable Infant Incubator”.
Moreover, a2i’s digital health innovation - “Telemedicine project” - won the prize under Telemedicine Category at the 3rd Commonwealth Digital Health Awards 2018 held at Colombo, Sri Lanka between 11th and 12th October 2018.
A total of 62 innovations out of more than 1000 innovations and technological designs from 23 different countries received the Gold Award and 73 the Silver Award.
The ‘EkSheba’ platform of a2i has won the Award of Merit at the 18th prestigious Asia Pacific ICT Alliance APICTA Award 2018 held at Guangzhou in China on October 13.
e-service Specialist of the a2i Mohammad Ashraful Amin received the award from Guangzhou Province Economic and Information Commission deputy director Shen Zhixiong and APICTA Awards chief judge professor Gansen Zhao.
This year, a total of 17 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, participated in the APICTA Award, popularly known as Oscars in the ICT arena.
The a2i has received the ‘President Award’ of the Open Group of India for the second time for implementing ‘EkSeba’ Software Solution.
A2i received the award in ‘Enterprise Architecture Enabled Government Transformation’ category of an international competition on innovation held at the hotel of Indian city of Bengaluru on February 22, 2018.
Secretary of the Ministry of ICT, India, Shri Ajay Sawhney and former government official of India J Satyanarayana handed over the award to a2i’s Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury.
Every year, Open Group of India organises the conference and competition on Global Innovation and Excellence, reports BSS.
A2i’s National Consultant for Accessibility Vashkar Bhattacharjee, a visually impaired Bangladeshi national, has been awarded the UNESCO/Emir Jaber al Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah Prize for Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (2018-19) by developing the country’s first ‘Accessible Dictionary’.
Bhattacharjee received the prestigious award as the ever first Bangladeshi from the representative of the Kuwaiti Government Sheikh Mubarak Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at a ceremony organised in observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities at UNESCO Headquarters on December 3, 2018.