New system to issue passport causes people to suffer

Shifting of responsibility to passport offices from post offices for passport dealing is causing much inconvenience to the people as they are now being deprived of getting smooth services which they had received from their nearest post offices, passport seekers alleged.

The sufferings of the people seeking passport are mounting as the 'one stop service' earlier provided by the post offices stopped on March 1 this year that was shifted to a few number of passport offices, they said.

Earlier, on August 14, 2008 all post offices in the county started taking applications and provided passports to the applicants that had significantly reduced public sufferings in getting passport.

But, from March 1, this year, Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and written passport (only for certain period) are being provided by the Dhaka and other nine regional passport offices in the country that are not enough to provide passports against the number of the applicants.

As a result, people have to go to the designated passport offices crossing long distances from their living areas and consuming their valuable time force them to spend extra money for communication.

"I came to the Dhaka passport office at 8.30 am and had to wait till 3.30 pm to submit application to the counter, " said an applicant on condition of anonymity.

He said there was no rush in the post offices for submitting applications and collecting passports due to decentralisation of the charges.

Visiting Dhaka GPO yesterday this correspondent found people expressing their dissatisfactions as they failed to get passport forms from the GOP.

They said they were free from the 'middlemen's menace' in post offices. They feared that they might fall prey to the middlemen in passport offices.

They urged the government to reshifts the charges to the post offices to reduce public sufferings.

"I am disappointed over the decision. I will have to wait in a long queue at passport office which was notably absent in post offices," said Noman, a private service-holder who came to Dhaka GPO yesterday to collect passport forms.

The Department of Passport and Immigration will set up to more 34 passport centres in the country. Maintaining the new centres, it requires recruitment of 2,800 persons, said a concerned official.

"We are ready to provide services to the people if the government again gives us that responsibility to receive applications and deliver them passports, " Mobasherur Rahman, Director General (DG) of Postal Department said this to The New Nation yesterday.

He said the existing manpower of the post offices were enough and they were fully capable to deal with the matter as they already had that experiences.

He said they already had 81 computers and fingerprint scanners. We just need to buy only required number of cameras, he added.

If the passport department installs softwear to the post offices computers for MRP, it would be easily possible to provide smooth and prompt services to the applicants, he said.

He said the concerned ministry was considering to give permission to Uttara, Gulshan and Dhaka Sadar Post offices to receive applications and issue MRP.

About 60 thousand passports were delivered through post offices.

They have also deposited Tk one crore 20 lakh to the government exchequer as service charges of Tk 200 against an application, said an official at Dhaka GOP yesterday.

- Talha Bin Habib

Source: http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/06/30/news0555.htm

Internet powered globalisation

Internet powered globalisation By Shahidul K K Shuvra The rise of internet fuelled up the speed of globalisation and the network created among the people has been widened to make new world orders. Interconnectivity in the world, also regarded as a hyper-connectivity, supported people to implement their goals and involve other folks with their formed missions or new destiny they want to touch. Nowadays we are accepting that came out of internet from the military periphery delivered new economics of development, social ideas and we started abandoning individualist life being disconnected from society and people. Human productivity is on the rise than previously assumed. Internet backboned economy is a guard and forces to enter every where for achieving the growth and goal. Break up of the Soviet Union with the destruction of the communist dreams, massive acceptance of software and popularisation of gadgets, mammoth investment in setting up fibre-optic telecommunications, the urgency to outsource technical works to the developing countries by the richer West, cyber problems, social net working sites like facebook, Y2K and bugs have all inspired us to perceive the world differently. Economist Amartya Sen has noted that lack of communication and constrained media could be causes of famine in the some parts of the world. The Nobel Laureate economist showed in his research that despite having stocks of food, famine victims didn't get the food for poor communication infrastructure and journalists faced dearth of press freedom to project their distress through the media. So better communication is the first priority to prevent famine and alleviate poverty. This is another add to the contribution of internet that spread of terrorism is also connected to the cyber space. Deformed spread of globalisation boosted businesses of many, according to some thinkers terrorist attacks by fanatics is also connected to globalisation where internet played one of the prime roles. Devastative attack on the Twine Tower in US reportedly was done by cyber analysis, which was one of the parts of blueprint of the attack. Social and economic changes that are made possible through intersecting technologies, and power of better software installed hardware can enforce the world's catapulting process. Now any distinction can't be marked between day and night and West and East. In the new era there is no need for half of the world to sleep when rest of it is working. Both worlds can be bridged and there is no need to see barriers between them. One of the requirements of the Digital World is fixing same time of work together with ignoring the distance between day and night. Connecting all the parts of the world with lowering trade and political barriers and adding digital techs in doing business can revolutionise the desired development. Data entry company and call centres are acquainted with working at the same time of the two hemispheres of the world. Generally conceived distance between day and night first has to be removed before starting global services and businesses. Info-tech had taught us that the locality where one lives does not a matter. One can access information and set up communication from a village of a remote place with a friend doing the same from Africa . So anyone can be well connected in the cyberspace and can explore one's resources from anywhere in the world. ICT is now taking a faster turn in many countries. For the sake of survival the industrially and technologically developed world is eager to outsource works to the developing nations like ours. It is now almost universally true that free flow of information and penetration of ICTs at the grass root level changing social and economic conditions. However, globalisation and its one of the forces internet brought another horrible landscape of the world. Greater info and fastest communication facilities can invite more ghosts of exploitation. Neo-exploiters and multinational gangs can easily enter in these areas with the aid of info-tech and other communication tools that have been introduced. Unfortunately, the communication infrastructures can allow the capitalist and imperialist forces to move ahead with their mission of exploitation. Of course, a few of the deprived people get some benefits from such communication, but the outside capitalist force makes hundred times more profit. We have witnessed how the mobile phone companies, of course, they are multinationals gangs, taking out profit from our country. Internet powered globalisation is determining our fortune and future. Before the technology other historical components were controlling our destiny. We are stepping back from calling ourselves historical determinists. The course of technology involved globalization is re-naming the flow of history differently as technological determine. Technologies for spreading information could be called only man-made machines if these are without sufficient contents, innovations and better perspectives to win the world. Our country already branded as a Digital Bangladesh, second submarine cable is on the way and according to the recent budget much will be spent to develop IT infrastructure. But and unfortunately contents are out of headache and we still don't know what the innovation will run the tools of internet. My aforesaid internet powered globalisation yet to grip our nation. Gigantic multinational software companies are getting here businesses without investment, only a few staffs of them and partners are selling their products of crore taka, neither they are investing nor employing our software engineers with handsome salary. Mobile phone subscribers have no scope to escape from the net of telecommunication companies, they are in trap; by the name of SIM card registration and re-registration citizens information is in the hands of companies and it means the citizens information is available in the outside of our country, international counterparts of them are busy with the data for developing new products and marking module of next marketing strategy. http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=9&date=2010-06-25 http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=179187 The Independent 25 June 2010 * Shahidul K K Shuvra Editor of IT and Science pages The Independent 01715245459

Re: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan

Dear Gentleman Ajoy, Thanks for enlightening me on 3 per cent. D.net can't defend itself with telling how much it earned from being involved with preparing the ICT Roadmap when it is boastfully telling on poverty alleviation by ICTs and it recites their commitments towards people for the interest of our nation. 3 per cent earning, as you told, is also much if we see the total allocated fund, which is so big. I can prepare more rich research paper only by 5,000 Taka (Five thousand Taka only). According to your claim of this letter D.net didn't write any chapter of the research paper means you earned 3 per cent of money without any works? Was it commission receiving business or it sold information for 3 per cent? Professional and dedicated persons should perform their earned duty whatever they are paid. If the payment was only 3 per cent, then why did you become partner of it? D.net was only research organization involved with making the paper where Spinnovation was an IT company, which might be associated with logistics, administrative and managerial works of the research. As far as I know it is not a research body. Whether Gov3 is a research establishment or not is ambiguous, and gov3 website claimed it changed name and business, but its given link of website is not working on my computer. It is so difficult to believe that British researchers can write such poor English with Bangla flavor. Furthermore, the ICT Roadmap didn't contain background analysis, elaborated discussion based on facts and figures and even it is written without sufficient paragraphs that a simple research paper should have. No need to be surprised with the release of my post by internet forum. They are very aware how I contributed in IT sector without thinking of 3 per cent. Best wishes, Shahidul K K Shuvra 01715245459 IT and Science Editor The Independent --- On Wed, 6/23/10, Ajoy K. Bose <ajoy@dnet.org.bd> wrote: From: Ajoy K. Bose <ajoy@dnet.org.bd> Subject: [BANGLA-IT] Re: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan To: bangla_ict@yahoogroups.com, "Sayeed Rahman" <banglait@gmail.com>, bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, ict_of_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com, bdresearchers@yahoogroups.com, voice-of-south@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 5:45 AM a. The contract for preparing ICT Roadmap was signed between Gov3 and the government of Bangladesh. Gov3 nominated Sppinovation, not D.Net, as its local representative. b. D.Net's role was very very small in the whole assignment, only providing relevant information about Bangladesh's ICT industry and sector as a whole. The assignment did not include any primary research. D.Net was not assigned to write any chapter or text of the ICT roadmap. The text is fully written by Gov3 people. c. The financial stake of D.Net in the project was less than 3% of th total budget. No fool will agree to write a report for that amount. How the rest 97% was distributed ( after spending), it is known to Gov3 and Spinnovation. If D.Net is responsible for poor quality of the report, its stake is only 3%. d. From the very beginning, there was a discomfort in participating in the assignment. Finally, when Gov3 did not accept our proposals for revision of the roadmap, we informed Gov3 about discontinuation of our association with the report. e. On March 1, 2009, D.Net informed about its decision about "disowning" the report in written to the relevant authority. One may ask relevant official in the government about the letter sent from D.Net. The local representative from Spinovation knows about this as the issue was discussed in presence of the representative of Spinnovation. f. We disagreed with many propositions of the ICT roadmap and suggested incorporation of the feedback from the audience, given in the national seminar. We were surprised by at least major two things mentioned the report: a. selling of BTCL, and text about "federal states" and we felt ashamed to be associated with Gov3. We repeatedly told Gov3 to revise report and add financial estimates and elaboration on the priority and strategy for implementation. But they did not listen to us. We hope this will clarify about the claim in the email. However, we are surprised that the online forums publish personal attacks and defamation on a shaky ground. Ajoy Kumar Bose Head, Institutional and Legal Affairs D.Net Shahidul Shuvra wrote: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan A review on National ICT Roadmap/Action Plan can be enough to evaluate the quality and performance of a research body in Bangladesh . D.net was one of the three organizations involved in preparing the ICT Roadmap, which was severely lambasted by IT pioneers of the country for poor quality. Sources informed us that D.net wrote the frail ICT Roadmap and it escaped the blame after making its counterparts Spinnovation and British firm Gov3 scapegoats. Especially, silently Spinnovation shouldered the blames which D.net should have shared. Going through the National ICT Roadmap is frustrating and this is one piece of evidence that D.net has no credibility to claim it is a professional research organization regarding ICTs. Nearly full of the Roadmap contains some worthless graphs and chats that mean the graphs and chats are added to enlarge its size of 79 pages. Sufficient analytical texts are not written to present the IT sector in front of the stakeholders and policy makers, who are already acquainted with the bottlenecks of the sector. The research paper can never be claimed as a basic, innovative and fundamental work. A simple hardware vendor in the IDB Bhaban knows more than all the contents of the research paper that is even not appropriated for laymen. Some graphs, facts and figures were ready matters and written for other projects. Two counterparts of D.net, Gov3 and Spinnovation, spoke to me before preparing the draft and I saw the previously developed raw matters before starting the research. I was requested to deliver some feedbacks to the involved organizations for successfully preparing the draft. The funded researchers free of cost had taken feedbacks from some IT stakeholders of the country. However, either they failed to understand the feedbacks or they were not able to go beyond cut and paste jobs. I didn't find any writer and experienced researcher in the consultation meetings of ICT Roadmap, especially from D.net. This paper does not even qualify for a thesis paper of a master degree student. How can the novice D.net prepare a paper for the nation? The merit of D.net produced other papers is as disappointing as ICT Roadmap. The ICT Roadmap has been written by pseudo-researchers whose analytical language and English are not up to the mark. Instead of English, you can tell the language was BANGLISH, which is available on the website of D.net. What the British firm Gov3 contributed in preparing the draft is not obvious. It may be a fact that the company only used for adding some international flavor and legitimate the paper. However, Gov3 firm doesn't exist anymore (please see www.gov3.net). After the rejection of the paper by IT pioneers, the then Chief Adviser office disqualified it as substandard work (the letter attached here). It was a waste of money provided by World Bank and it is also risky to allow international research organizations and their local counterparts to enter ministries and sensitive departments for research. Our important information can be stolen and licked out to those who are trying to detect our security loopholes to exploit the country. Indian controversial software company Satyam Computer Services had been banned from doing any off-shore work with the World Bank after discovering it covertly installed spy software inside the bank's headquarters to steal information. America and many European countries are reluctant to allow foreign researchers and their local agents to enter their ministries and confidential places. ICT Roadmap suggested upgrading divisions of federal states, which is not included in the constitution; in fact, it is contrary to the constitution. These foolish researchers might forget to delete/edit 'federal states' during the cut and paste of their research. As an IT editor, I should tell such ICT Roadmap can be written within one week without donation, fund and foreign support. Few dedicated IT experts here may not ask money to enrich any IT research. I am already prepared to provide more information and take challenges. Files and documents are attached with the post with a link of New Age: http://www.newagebd .com/2008/ sep/24/busi. html Shahidul K K Shuvra 01715245459 IT and Science Editor The Independent

Re: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan

Dear Gentleman Ajoy, Thanks for enlightening me on 3 per cent. D.net can't defend itself with telling how much it earned from being involved with preparing the ICT Roadmap when it is boastfully telling on poverty alleviation by ICTs and it recites their commitments towards people for the interest of our nation. 3 per cent earning, as you told, is also much if we see the total allocated fund, which is so big. I can prepare more rich research paper only by 5,000 Taka (Five thousand Taka only). According to your claim of this letter D.net didn't write any chapter of the research paper means you earned 3 per cent of money without any works? Was it commission receiving business or it sold information for 3 per cent? Professional and dedicated persons should perform their earned duty whatever they are paid. If the payment was only 3 per cent, then why did you become partner of it? D.net was only research organization involved with making the paper where Spinnovation was an IT company, which might be associated with logistics, administrative and managerial works of the research. As far as I know it is not a research body. Whether Gov3 is a research establishment or not is ambiguous, and gov3 website claimed it changed name and business, but its given link of website is not working on my computer. It is so difficult to believe that British researchers can write such poor English with Bangla flavor. Furthermore, the ICT Roadmap didn't contain background analysis, elaborated discussion based on facts and figures and even it is written without sufficient paragraphs that a simple research paper should have. No need to be surprised with the release of my post by internet forum. They are very aware how I contributed in IT sector without thinking of 3 per cent. Best wishes, Shahidul K K Shuvra 01715245459 IT and Science Editor The Independent --- On Wed, 6/23/10, Ajoy K. Bose <ajoy@dnet.org.bd> wrote: From: Ajoy K. Bose <ajoy@dnet.org.bd> Subject: [BANGLA-IT] Re: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan To: bangla_ict@yahoogroups.com, "Sayeed Rahman" <banglait@gmail.com>, bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, ict_of_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com, bdresearchers@yahoogroups.com, voice-of-south@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 5:45 AM a. The contract for preparing ICT Roadmap was signed between Gov3 and the government of Bangladesh. Gov3 nominated Sppinovation, not D.Net, as its local representative. b. D.Net's role was very very small in the whole assignment, only providing relevant information about Bangladesh's ICT industry and sector as a whole. The assignment did not include any primary research. D.Net was not assigned to write any chapter or text of the ICT roadmap. The text is fully written by Gov3 people. c. The financial stake of D.Net in the project was less than 3% of th total budget. No fool will agree to write a report for that amount. How the rest 97% was distributed ( after spending), it is known to Gov3 and Spinnovation. If D.Net is responsible for poor quality of the report, its stake is only 3%. d. From the very beginning, there was a discomfort in participating in the assignment. Finally, when Gov3 did not accept our proposals for revision of the roadmap, we informed Gov3 about discontinuation of our association with the report. e. On March 1, 2009, D.Net informed about its decision about "disowning" the report in written to the relevant authority. One may ask relevant official in the government about the letter sent from D.Net. The local representative from Spinovation knows about this as the issue was discussed in presence of the representative of Spinnovation. f. We disagreed with many propositions of the ICT roadmap and suggested incorporation of the feedback from the audience, given in the national seminar. We were surprised by at least major two things mentioned the report: a. selling of BTCL, and text about "federal states" and we felt ashamed to be associated with Gov3. We repeatedly told Gov3 to revise report and add financial estimates and elaboration on the priority and strategy for implementation. But they did not listen to us. We hope this will clarify about the claim in the email. However, we are surprised that the online forums publish personal attacks and defamation on a shaky ground. Ajoy Kumar Bose Head, Institutional and Legal Affairs D.Net Shahidul Shuvra wrote: D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan A review on National ICT Roadmap/Action Plan can be enough to evaluate the quality and performance of a research body in Bangladesh . D.net was one of the three organizations involved in preparing the ICT Roadmap, which was severely lambasted by IT pioneers of the country for poor quality. Sources informed us that D.net wrote the frail ICT Roadmap and it escaped the blame after making its counterparts Spinnovation and British firm Gov3 scapegoats. Especially, silently Spinnovation shouldered the blames which D.net should have shared. Going through the National ICT Roadmap is frustrating and this is one piece of evidence that D.net has no credibility to claim it is a professional research organization regarding ICTs. Nearly full of the Roadmap contains some worthless graphs and chats that mean the graphs and chats are added to enlarge its size of 79 pages. Sufficient analytical texts are not written to present the IT sector in front of the stakeholders and policy makers, who are already acquainted with the bottlenecks of the sector. The research paper can never be claimed as a basic, innovative and fundamental work. A simple hardware vendor in the IDB Bhaban knows more than all the contents of the research paper that is even not appropriated for laymen. Some graphs, facts and figures were ready matters and written for other projects. Two counterparts of D.net, Gov3 and Spinnovation, spoke to me before preparing the draft and I saw the previously developed raw matters before starting the research. I was requested to deliver some feedbacks to the involved organizations for successfully preparing the draft. The funded researchers free of cost had taken feedbacks from some IT stakeholders of the country. However, either they failed to understand the feedbacks or they were not able to go beyond cut and paste jobs. I didn't find any writer and experienced researcher in the consultation meetings of ICT Roadmap, especially from D.net. This paper does not even qualify for a thesis paper of a master degree student. How can the novice D.net prepare a paper for the nation? The merit of D.net produced other papers is as disappointing as ICT Roadmap. The ICT Roadmap has been written by pseudo-researchers whose analytical language and English are not up to the mark. Instead of English, you can tell the language was BANGLISH, which is available on the website of D.net. What the British firm Gov3 contributed in preparing the draft is not obvious. It may be a fact that the company only used for adding some international flavor and legitimate the paper. However, Gov3 firm doesn't exist anymore (please see www.gov3.net). After the rejection of the paper by IT pioneers, the then Chief Adviser office disqualified it as substandard work (the letter attached here). It was a waste of money provided by World Bank and it is also risky to allow international research organizations and their local counterparts to enter ministries and sensitive departments for research. Our important information can be stolen and licked out to those who are trying to detect our security loopholes to exploit the country. Indian controversial software company Satyam Computer Services had been banned from doing any off-shore work with the World Bank after discovering it covertly installed spy software inside the bank's headquarters to steal information. America and many European countries are reluctant to allow foreign researchers and their local agents to enter their ministries and confidential places. ICT Roadmap suggested upgrading divisions of federal states, which is not included in the constitution; in fact, it is contrary to the constitution. These foolish researchers might forget to delete/edit 'federal states' during the cut and paste of their research. As an IT editor, I should tell such ICT Roadmap can be written within one week without donation, fund and foreign support. Few dedicated IT experts here may not ask money to enrich any IT research. I am already prepared to provide more information and take challenges. Files and documents are attached with the post with a link of New Age: http://www.newagebd .com/2008/ sep/24/busi. html Shahidul K K Shuvra 01715245459 IT and Science Editor The Independent

Bangladesh Government mulling e-voting in next JS polls: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the government is considering introducing the electronic voting system in the next parliamentary elections across the country to stop ballot rigging.
"We want to ensure every vote so that none can play with the rights of the voters," Hasina, also the president of the Awami League, said while addressing a discussion marking the 61st founding anniversary of the Awami League at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city yesterday.

"We will think whether the electronic voting system can be introduced in the next general elections," she said.

Refuting the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) allegations of vote rigging in the last week's Chittagong City Corporation election, Hasina posed a question if the elections were manipulated, then how the opposition-supported candidate won it.
She alleged that the opposition had no faith in the mandate of the voters.
Renewing her call upon the opposition leader to join the parliamentary session, Hasina said, "As the leader of the opposition, you (Khaleda) may place alternative budget in Parliament instead of outside."

"We will incorporate any proposal good for the people," she said.
Criticising the last government, she said, "they were busy with corruption, looting, violence and killing."
She came down heavily on the opposition as it threatened to topple out the government.
"BNP does not believe in democracy as it is not formed in a democratic way," she said, adding a military dictator, who assumed the state power illegally, formed the party.

Asking all the leaders and activists of the 14-party grand alliance reinvigorate the unity, Hasina said, "We have to be well organised and have to stand by the people."

"By making false propaganda, nobody can tarnish the image of the country as well as the Awami League," she said, adding Insha Allah, we would reach the achievements of independence to every door-step.

Portraying the success of the government, Hasina said that her government had helped in regaining the country's image in the international arena.

"After assuming office, we have freed the country from the claws of corruption and militancy, created by BNP-Jamaat alliance," she said.

Besides the prime minister, senior leaders of 14-party grand alliance also remembered the glorious activities of the Awami League which was at the forefront of all landmark movements for the nation's political and socio-cultural emancipation in the 1950s and 60s, the historic six-point autonomy movement in 1966 under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the war of independence in 1971.

The day was observed across the country in a befitting manner.
Earlier, on behalf of party and government, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu in the morning.
Besides the senior leaders, the ministers and advisers and lawmakers were present on the occasion.

The prime minister also cut a huge cake at her parliament office in the afternoon to celebrate the founding anniversary of the party.

Portraits of the leaders, who led the party during the six decades, were hung at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

A booklet featuring all historic events of the party's last 61 years was also published.
The party was launched on June 23, 1949 as Awami Muslim League with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani as president, Shamsul Haq of Tangail as general secretary, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman [then interned in jail] as joint secretary and Yar Mohammad Khan as treasurer.
The word 'Muslim' was dropped from its name in 1955 and the party evolved into the Awami League as a democratic and secular political party.

Presided over by AL presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, the meeting was also addressed by Suranjit Sen Gupta, Begum Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Mohammad Nasim, Ruhul Amin Hawlader of Jatiya Party, Dilip Barua of Sammabadi Dal, also industry minister and Rashed Khan Menon of Workers Party, among others.

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=179048

Bangladesh Machine Readable Passport Manpower Shortage

Work on the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and Machine Readable Visa (MRV) projects is not making progress due to lack of manpower, necessary equipment and infrastructure.
The Immigration and Passport Department could deliver only 2,500 MRP passports during the last two and a half month from 10 regional offices, including Dhaka. They received 38,000 applications for passports during this period. Only 400 passports are delivered daily.
IRIS Corporation Berhad (IRIS), a Malaysia-based company, was given responsibility of producing MRP with the assistance of the Bangladesh Army.

IRIS started processing MRP from April 1, 2010 in 10 regional passport offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshai, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur, Jessore, Comilla, Gopalganj and Mymensingh.
Colonel Enayet Karim, Deputy Director of the project, admitted that the progress of MRP processing was slow due to lack of manpower and infrastructure.

IRIS was facing shortage of manpower, he said. "We have planned to open another 65 Regional Passport Offices (RPO), including three in Dhaka, to proceed with the work," he said."
All manually processed passports will become obsolete after 2015. Such passports would no more be acceptable to the immigration authorities across the world, Colonel Enayet Karim said and added: "We will be able to process around 66 lakh MRPs within the next three years."

"The manual passports are easy to forge as these are hand-written and the photos and signature are pasted manually," said Colonel Enayet adding that the absence of proper database also resulted in the issuance of more than one passport in the name of the same person.
The three-year project will cost over Tk 526 crore. The MRP will be valid for 10 years from the date of issue of the passport.

But several passport seekers alleged that they were facing hardship as the authorities did not tell them about the exact time for delivery of passports. So they had to wait all day, they said.
Firoj Zaman Chowdhury, Assistant Editor of The Daily Prohtom Alo, that it was quite lengthy process. They do not inform the passport seekers about the time for delivery of passport through they give entry coupon and time. As a result, people who come to receive the MRP are facing severe sufferings regarding this.

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=179052

D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan

[Attachment(s) from Shahidul Shuvra included below]

D.net and ICT Roadmap/Action Plan A review on National ICT Roadmap/Action Plan can be enough to evaluate the quality and performance of a research body in Bangladesh. D.net was one of the three organizations involved in preparing the ICT Roadmap, which was severely lambasted by IT pioneers of the country for poor quality. Sources informed us that D.net wrote the frail ICT Roadmap and it escaped the blame after making its counterparts Spinnovation and British firm Gov3 scapegoats. Especially, silently Spinnovation shouldered the blames which D.net should have shared. Going through the National ICT Roadmap is frustrating and this is one piece of evidence that D.net has no credibility to claim it is a professional research organization regarding ICTs. Nearly full of the Roadmap contains some worthless graphs and chats that mean the graphs and chats are added to enlarge its size of 79 pages. Sufficient analytical texts are not written to present the IT sector in front of the stakeholders and policy makers, who are already acquainted with the bottlenecks of the sector. The research paper can never be claimed as a basic, innovative and fundamental work. A simple hardware vendor in the IDB Bhaban knows more than all the contents of the research paper that is even not appropriated for laymen. Some graphs, facts and figures were ready matters and written for other projects. Two counterparts of D.net, Gov3 and Spinnovation, spoke to me before preparing the draft and I saw the previously developed raw matters before starting the research. I was requested to deliver some feedbacks to the involved organizations for successfully preparing the draft. The funded researchers free of cost had taken feedbacks from some IT stakeholders of the country. However, either they failed to understand the feedbacks or they were not able to go beyond cut and paste jobs. I didn't find any writer and experienced researcher in the consultation meetings of ICT Roadmap, especially from D.net. This paper does not even qualify for a thesis paper of a master degree student. How can the novice D.net prepare a paper for the nation? The merit of D.net produced other papers is as disappointing as ICT Roadmap. The ICT Roadmap has been written by pseudo-researchers whose analytical language and English are not up to the mark. Instead of English, you can tell the language was BANGLISH, which is available on the website of D.net. What the British firm Gov3 contributed in preparing the draft is not obvious. It may be a fact that the company only used for adding some international flavor and legitimate the paper. However, Gov3 firm doesn't exist anymore (please see www.gov3.net). After the rejection of the paper by IT pioneers, the then Chief Adviser office disqualified it as substandard work (the letter attached here). It was a waste of money provided by World Bank and it is also risky to allow international research organizations and their local counterparts to enter ministries and sensitive departments for research. Our important information can be stolen and licked out to those who are trying to detect our security loopholes to exploit the country. Indian controversial software company Satyam Computer Services had been banned from doing any off-shore work with the World Bank after discovering it covertly installed spy software inside the bank's headquarters to steal information. America and many European countries are reluctant to allow foreign researchers and their local agents to enter their ministries and confidential places. ICT Roadmap suggested upgrading divisions of federal states, which is not included in the constitution; in fact, it is contrary to the constitution. These foolish researchers might forget to delete/edit 'federal states' during the cut and paste of their research. As an IT editor, I should tell such ICT Roadmap can be written within one week without donation, fund and foreign support. Few dedicated IT experts here may not ask money to enrich any IT research. I am already prepared to provide more information and take challenges. Files and documents are attached with the post with a link of New Age: http://www.newagebd.com/2008/sep/24/busi.html Shahidul K K Shuvra 01715245459 IT and Science Editor The Independent

Attachment(s) from Shahidul Shuvra

2 of 2 Photo(s)

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ICT%20Roadmap%28Jagat%29

3 of 3 File(s)

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ICT

Roadmap.pdf

Bangladesh IT budget 2010-11

Expanded allocation excludes many recommendations

By Shahidul K K Shuvra

The tone of IT trade leaders was neither sad nor so happy with the budget of 2010-11 which was proposed by our finance Minster AMA Muhith at the parliament. But his budget speech was historical for IT sector because the speech contains few sections on IT and telecommunication. Such emphasis was totally absent in the previous budget speeches of the former finance ministers. Even his this budget speech on IT was much richer than his previous budget speech of 2009/10. However, the IT bosses claimed they sent IT budget recommendations to ourfinance minister before declaring the budget which didn't include their demands much.

Three IT trade bodies, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, BASIS,Bangladesh Computer Samity, BCS, and Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh, ISPAB, together called a budget reaction programme that was a rare rendezvous to expose their demands in front of media. First time they made a business bond together to sensitise the government for implementing the budget efficiently. Instead of any budget analysis, like before, their discussing was focused on exemption of tax, VAT and some demands.

IT sector is closely associated with power and energy for uninterrupted productions. 15.3 per cent of the development budget allocated for the energy sector which may ease the recurrent power cut. Second submarine cable is an old buzzword, again our finance minister told in his budget speech that we are going to log on the much hyped submarine cable and its initiative soon will be taken to make an alternative backbone of the information super highway. The targeted 6.7 per cent GDP growth is achievable with the power of e-governance and e-commerce.

A credit should go to our finance minister because first time he specifically mentioned setting up IT villages, Hi-Tech Parks,Community E-centre in 133 Upazilas to bridge up digital divide between the cities and villages. He vowed to implement 306 action plans of the National ICT Policy to drive the nation towards a Digital Bangladesh by the year of 2021.

According to the National ICT policy of the country 5 per cent ADP and 2 per cent revenue budget are supposed to be allocated for the development of ICT sector. The budget speech of our finance minister ignored it and he didn't notice about 700 crore Taka ICT Industry Development Fund.

3000 crore Taka Public and Private Partnership Fund will boost the sector if IT industrialists tried to be efficient to use the fund and government's sincerity is needed here for disbursing the fund without bias and prejudice.

Our finance minister proposed to add 200 crore Taka more to EquityEntrepreneur Fund, EEF. EEF was expanded 100 crore to 200 crore Taka in the previous budget of 2009/10. But the fund was awarded only to a few companies in the last year and disbursement was much smaller than expected. What is the reason? Beginning of EEF in some years ago didn't go honestly. The doldrums created in the disbursement of EEF for unscrupulous IT and agro-based businessmen who misappropriated the fund with the help of a few staffs of Bangladesh Bank. Before disbursing the fund Bangladesh Bank should disclose the names of those companies who already received the fund and we should first know the previous outcome of EEF funds because they are huge allegation against many EEF fund recipients.

Internet penetration still at the infant level, according to the president of ISPAB internet connection at the price of 300 Taka in villages is possible if 15 per cent VAT on internet connection would be cut off. 300+45 Taka will sound expensive to the rural people. E-payment gateway has started some months ago, it yet to be flourished, but very ridiculously imposing tax on e-commerce will be suicidal to the growth online trade.

In the context of Bangladesh the mobile phone companies are more than giants. In fact, all are sister concerns of multinational companies. Over tax on a SIM cardis going on. The mobile phone operators are in a campaign of reducing SIM card tax. The budget didn't mention any thing on reducing its tax. According to them the big tax on the SIM card will go against mobile phone penetration in outside of the cities. Subsidy on the SIM card selling is too burden for them. Fact is that the mobile phone companies are earning much profits and their operating cost in a densely populated country is so small. Moreover, they were allegedly involved with corruptions and conducted VoIP businesses when it was banned. As part of the business strategy subsidy on SIM card is not irrational because the companies are earning much from phone calls.

BASIS asked 5 crore Taka for arranging road shows in New York, Dallas , Los Angeles etc to promote the industry. Visiting foreign nations for promoting the country is not a new phenomenon here. Chance of wasting such fund is huge and bringing international firms like AT Kearny and Grartner for promoting business can be handled carefully because a British company failed to enrich the proposed Notional ICT Roadmap.

Tax exemption of IT services supposed to be ended in 2011; therefore, BASIS requested to extend the tax exemption till 2015 that can't be told sound demand from a professional point of view. How long will they enjoy the tax exemption facility? The IT industry of the country should come out from the infant stage and serve the nation with taxes and huge employment.

We may learn from the allocation and disbursement of the fund of the last budget. Allocation was high in the last budget of 2009/10 than previous budgets. After that remarkable improvement in IT sector was not seen and also allocated fund was not disbursed much for bureaucratic bottleneck, lack of efficiency of people in private and public sectors. The allocated fund in the budget of 2010/11 can jazz up the IT sector if the disbursement goes smoothly. The demand of increasing allocation made by the three trade bodies many not be required if the whole allocated money would be disbursed in the sector efficiently.

Caption- Despite ignoring some recommendations IT leaders of BASIS, BCS and ISPAB together appreciate the budget.
http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=178129
The Independent

The writer is the IT and Science Editor of The Independent
Phone: 01715245459
19 Dhanmondi, Road No. 1, BEL Tower,
Dhaka-1205.
Office telephone numbers are as follows:
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ICT to get duty waiver

The upcoming budget will waive duty and value-added taxes on many ICT components, in line with the government's vision for a 'Digital Bangladesh'.

The government will also allocate Tk 100 crore as ICT development fund, and another Tk 50 crore for setting up an ICT park, finance ministry officials said.

"The government aims to support its vision for a 'Digital Bangladesh' through fiscal measures, and so it wants to raise ICT allocation by around 5 percent of the annual development programme outlay," a high official of the ministry said, preferring anonymity.

He said the allocation will be spent for infrastructure development and giving stimulus packages to the entrepreneurs and professionals of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry.

The government is also likely to exempt some IT-based services from income tax, said an official of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The services include digital data processing, computer graphics and animation, digital content management, web-enabled services and computer-based business process outsourcing.

"The government is considering almost all the demands of the ICT sector," said the NBR official, requesting not to be named.

The next budget will also exempt tax on some networking equipment.

Computer network switching hub, network router, DSL and broadband routers, USB, data, HDD SATA and LAN cables, terminal connector and server rack mount kits are likely to enjoy zero duty and VAT from the next fiscal year, the NBR official said.

Currently such networking equipment pays 3-25 percent duty and VAT.

Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, welcomed the government move to waive taxes on ICT products and services.

He said the government should work proactively to make its 'Vision 2021' successful and implement digital Bangladesh.

Habibullah N Karim, the immediate past president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the government should come up with more fiscal measures to help develop the ICT sector.

More investors will join the sector, he added.

- Jasim Uddin Khan

source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=141822

LIRNEasia Dissemination event and Tutorials Singapore: 21-22 June 2010

An event named 'LIRNEasia dissemination event and tutorials' a young scholars tutorials and a workshop on the potential Mobile 2.0 in Emerging Asia Organized by LIRNEasia and the Department of Communication and New Media (CNM), National University of Singapore will be held in Singapore, 21-22 June 2010. This event is supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) and the Department for International Development, UK (DFID).

Fifteen Young Scholars from the Asia-Pacific region selected to participate in tutorials taught by recognized scholars and practitioners scheduled to be held before the 2010 International Communication Association Conference (ICA) at the faculty of Arts and Social Science, National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus. This ICA conference will be held from 22-26 June, 2010. This is an exceptional opportunity to learn about doing policy-relevant research and to participate in a leading international scholarly conference.

Facts Behind Facebook Logout from Bangladesh

Sudden blackout of Facebook collapsed social networking of Facebookers in the country. Besides communication Facebook is a part of e-commerce popularly known as Facebook economy that is disconnected from the country till submitting this write-up. BTRC temporarily shut down the site to prevent Facebookers from watching satiric caricatures of The Prime Minister, The Leader of Opposition and the objectionable contents about Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (SM). Indeed such contents and photos dishonor faith, feeling and culture of the country.

RAB arrested the reported cyber criminal Mahbub Alam Rodin on charges of uploading satiric images of the political leaders on Facebook. According to RAB he created several fake ID, such as Brigadier Mahadi, Sepahi Mahadi, Imam Hossain, Rodin Al, Mohammad Al Mahadi and Junaida Khandaker Zihan. Cyber criminals often sign up with fake ID for pleasure or for other heinous purposes.

On the next day of Facebook blocking students of the Dhaka University formed a human-chain on the campus and condemned the blocking at Aporajeyo Bangla. The two ICT trade bodies BASIS and BCS issued press releases to request the government to withdraw the temporary blocking of the site for sake of driving the nation towards digitalisation.

It is very frustrating that the government didn't take any lesson from blocking YouTube where the discussion between The Prime Minister and some army persons on the BDR carnage was posted. Immediate after the blocking the recorded discussion disseminated across the world at the speed of light. It informed people about the discussion and spiced up their curiosity to hear the secretly released audio.

IT skilled people were able to access YouTube with different means and expatriate citizens of the country easily downloaded the audio to send it via emails to others friends, it was posted on blogs and websites. Many websites of the country are maintaining from different countries, so that is why blocking a site means regenerating the forbidden site at many places of the cyber world.

Such blocking can make clever common IT users with the techniques of entering websites via different way or by manipulative tricks. Just after blocking the site IT experts sent alternative links/bikolpofacebook to Facebookers to see what the government has prohibited. They uploaded the tools to explore Facebook from an alternative channel.

This blocked Facebook is accessible from our nearest neighbouring countries to far Europe and US. Saving of the forbidden photos and contents can be done very easily and can be posted on other websites, blogs, different social networking sites and these prohibited items can be exchanged by emailers. So such blocking increases people interest to know more about the photos and contents. Even those Facebookers who are not aware of the posts got information go ahead to see what have been prohibited. In addition, the country has been registered with those conservative countries, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan, which often block website and strictly conduct cyber surveillance and impose censorship on freedom of thoughts expressed on websites.

Facebook was kicked off in 2004 as a networking site just for students. Then its popularity touched the sky. Its founder Mark Zuckerberg started getting fame that once was awarded to Bill Gates. Day by day Facebook earned about eight lac (newspapers' reported figure) Bangladeshi Facebookers, many of them often posted comments against the collaborators of 1971 and the war criminals. Fanatic forces are always enemies of Facebook which can be able to make a campaign for free society.

Some sociologists and psychologists are telling about privacy breaking for logging on social networking sites like Facebook. In fact, social site pioneers admitted mistakes and loopholes in privacy protecting options. Such social networking is at initial level, going into many modifications. In near future these currently unavoidable cyber problems can be solved. It is a matter of time and present problem will be totally irrelevant in future. However, Fackbook was not blocked for the problem of privacy breaking rather it was blocked for the pressure imposed by fanatics.

The social networking site claims it never favours obscene photos and contents posted on its site. It has a department to monitor cyber abusing and it is empowered to delete mischievous posts. It closed down many accounts where from pornographies and objectionable contents were posted. So far we know many people got instant response from Facebook for reporting against abusers. It has been reported that the government failed to get response from Facebook on deleting the photos and contents. How professional was the communication? Our diplomatic mission in US, where Facebook is headquartered, can also step up with a request to erase the photos and contents.

Few days back a Pakistani court has lifted a ban on the social networking website after removing a page regarding images of Prophet Muhammad. Facebook also apologised for the page, which was propagated as blasphemous contents.

The unwisely block of the site rose questions among the citizens that it is contrary to the government pledge to establish a Digital Bangladesh. Access to information laws have been enacted to facilitate the citizens to access every bits and bytes of information and knowledge. For a or a few cyber criminals imposing such internet censorship can go against the enacted access to information law.

The inner-force of internet is uncontrollable and it is the most powerful tool of mankind to explore the world. It became unimaginable successful and played prime role in speeding up globalisation. Blocking is not a solution at all. BTRC should be more efficient and diplomatic in taking such decisions like internet censorship. It should know this decision can be suicidal for the economic growth and educational improvement. Policy formulation is related to taking feedbacks from IT people with diverse background of its implementation. BTRC, as a regulatory body, should have first talked to the experts before shutting down the website. The regulatory body should not be confined with some technical people who have no expertise to deliver judgments in terms of socio-economic context of ICT application.

Caption- E-generation condemning Facebook blackout at Aporajeyo Bangla of Dhaka University.

The Independent

The writer is the IT and Science Editor of The Independent
Phone: 01715245459

DU students for immediate access to Facebook

The students of Dhaka University (DU) formed Sunday a human chain on the campus demanding immediate withdrawal of the block on access to Facebook, a popular social networking site.
At a rally after the human chain at the footstep of 'Aparajeyo Bangla' at 11:00am, the DU students said the present government, being committed to making a digital Bangladesh, is now interfering in the freedom of expressing opinions.

They alleged that the government was trying to make Bangladesh like Pakistan and Afghanistan, asserting that they would not accept this type of move.

They said the closure of Facebook by the government in the wake of demand of the Islamic parties would only instigate the communal forces, warning of tougher movement if the site is not launched immediately.

The government Saturday blocked the site after a youth uploaded some satiric images of politicians, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.