Computer science education and research By Mohammad Kaykobad

Our brilliant girls at Grace Hopper celebration with the first female Turing award winner Dr. Frances Allen. Photo Courtesy: Mohammad Kaykobad

This part of the world, particularly Bangladesh, has always been fortunate in making great starts. The first computer of Pakistan was diverted to Chittagong port thanks to initiatives of our scientists at the Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka as early as 1964. This created an opportunity for our scientists and engineers to use this versatile technology in those days. Not only that, banks also started to get benefit of this technology. Formal degree course in computers started at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1982 through the opening of the Department of Computer Engineering. Initially postgraduate degrees and later on programs for undergraduate degrees were offered. It was not known how the graduates will be received in the society, and in fact it was extremely difficult for our graduates to get programming jobs since employers were not sure whether a CSE graduate would be able to write programs. There was a dearth of teachers as with books and laboratory facilities. Even then, the most meritorious students of the country opted for this department. Deficiency of teachers and libraries were compensated by enormous interest of students in the initial days in learning this latest technology and earning enviable skill. Each of them has been established as good professionals in advanced countries. Now the department is 32 years old. Other public and private universities have also opened computer science related departments. So it is impossible to enumerate all the success stories in computer education and research. I shall try to highlight those I know, possibly unknowingly skipping some more important achievements.
BUET graduate Areef Reza won a Java competition in the early days from the University of Waterloo. This gave us a lot of confidence, that in spite of many shortcomings, our students are learning and earning commendable computer skill. In the meantime Manzur, Mostofa, Shaikat, Suman, Zia and many others published their research findings in journals of international repute even when they were still undergraduates. In 1997, for the first time in the soil of Bangladesh, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest(ICPC) Asia Regional contest was held where the team of Suman, Shaikat and Shushom  qualified for participation in the prestigious World Finals of ACM ICPC.  They shared the 24th position with Stanford University in a contest of 54 teams from round the world.  This has definitely contributed to the confidence of our students.  After this success with the initiative of enthusiast Zakaria Swapan, the first national Computer Programming Contest (NCPC) was organised jointly by the Daily Star and Proshkia at the then Hotel Sheraton where the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the chief guest along with many important ministers. That event inspires our students. Since then, especially students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology participated in all the world finals. Meantime our students were performing very well in internet based programming contests organised by the University of Valladolid, Spain. Sheikh Hasina awarded a cash prize of Taka one lakh to each of the nine students of whom eight were from the CSE department of BUET and the other from DU.  In 2000, the BUET team occupied the 11th position in a 60-team contest leaving behind teams of world famous universities like MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley in the 24th world finals of ACM ICPC. Meanwhile our students participated in the Asia region Kanpur site contest. In 1999 BUET became the champions and DU runner up. In the same year the BUET team repeated the feat. While universities of the 8th most populous country that is ours fail to be in any respectable shortlist of best universities, our students of the most advanced technology make their way into these lists. Many of our graduates have been working as coaches of different US universities and that too with commendable success.
Our graduate Suman Kumar Nath got admitted into the top ranked CSE school of Carnegie Mellon University, and is now an employee of the prestigious institution of Microsoft Research. By now he is a very celebrated researcher under whose leadership we could successfully complete the first ever international conference on Networking, Systems and Security at CSE department, BUET. The celebrated brilliant student and colleague Mohammad Manzur Murshed started PhD education under the supervision of a very famous professor in Richard Brent at ANU. He has created an opportunity for some 60/70 Bangladeshi students to pursue their higher education in a single school of Monash University. Dr Murshed's excellence is so well-known, that he became the occasional Convocation Speaker of Monash University when he was in his mid-thirties. We felt enormously honoured with this success of one of our brightest graduates. By now our graduates have gotten admitted into the finest schools including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, CalTech, Waterloo, Toronto and Oxford. Professor Md Saidur Rahman of our department wrote a book in co-authorship with his supervisor Professor Takao Nishizeki, as has done Professor MMA Hashem of KUET and Professor Ashikur Rahman of BUET. Dr Ekram Hossain has become a professor at a young age in Canada along with being the editor of several IEEE Transactions. Now he is one of the youngest IEEE Fellows with a very praiseworthy list of publications and books. Dr Zulkernine of Queens University has become Canada Chair, while Professor Latifur Rahman Khan of UT Dallas has become distinguished a scientist of ACM. By now more than 50 undergraduate students have published their research findings in international journals of repute while they were still undergraduates. Such feats are very uncommon for any department not only in Bangladesh but also in advanced countries. Professor Md Saidur Rahman has also initiated a workshop named Walcom in the soil of Bangladesh. This is being organised in tandem in Bangladesh and India, and is possibly the first workshop whose proceedings are being published by Springer. This year the celebrated young professor Erik Demaine of MIT has submitted his paper and thus Walcom touched an enviable height. We started the first international conference ICCIT series in Bangladesh with massive participation of our undergraduate students. This conference is flourishing day by day with Conference Chair, Professor MA Karim, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.  Already 8 graduates of the CSE department, BUET have been awarded the prestigious Fulbright scholarship since 2007-8, and we feel deeply honoured at this achievement of our graduates. DU graduate Dr Julius Hossain has been working in the prestigious flagship institution of European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Back at home Professor Md Saidur Rahman got International Funai Information Technology award, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold Medal. Dr Md Sohel Rahman and Dr Masud Hasan also got recognition for their research excellence. Dr Md Sohel Rahman appears to be the youngest researcher whose number of journal publications outnumbers his age. Our brilliant computer girls  Dr Nova Ahmed,  Dr Taniya Siddiqua,  Dr Tanzima Zerin Islam,  Dr Zalia Shams, Awalin Sopan, Nabila Rahman, Shantonu Hossain, Dr Sonia Jahid, Dr Farhana Dewan, Dr Shamsi Tamara Iqbal, Dr Samira Manabi Khan, Dr Sadia Afroz, Dr Fariba Khan among others joined Grace Hopper celebration and proved that they are not behind. Himel Dev, currently serving as a lecturer in the Department of CSE, BUET, has become the international winner of The Undergraduate Awards in the Computer Sciences & Information Technology category.  He was also invited to the prestigious Heidelberg Laureate Forum participated by Turing award winners and Fields medallists.
Students and teachers of computer science are good not only in studies, they are also playing pioneering roles in organising Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads throughout the country under the great leadership of the celebrated author and educationist Professor Md Zafar Iqbal. This has resulted in Md Abirul Islam of Dhaka City College winning the first ever Silver Medal from the International Olympiad in Informatics held in 2009 in Bulgaria and that too ahead of all eight contestants from the sub-continent of which four were from India and three from Sri Lanka. In 2012 in Italy, Dhananjoy Biswas and Bristy Sikder won Bronze medals for us compared to a single Bronze from India. Moreover, Bristy was awarded for being the best among female contestants. Bangladesh has the best girl computer wizard of the world who is now studying at MIT.
Students of advanced technology have always placed us in the list of the top 100 universities or less. Not only BUET, other universities like NSU, AIUB, DU, EWU and SUST have also placed themselves in this super league.  This year, Jahangirnagar University has placed themselves into this prestigious list and SUST for the thirds year in a row.  In year 2009 there were 5 teams in ICPC World Finals from this sub-continent of which 3 were from Bangladesh. Not only that, the two teams that were ranked are also from the soil of Bangladesh- BUET and DU. BUET also became runner up in Java Challenge by beating teams of many famous universities. In addition to these our students have earned reputation by participating in competitions arranged by Topcoder, Codejam, Codechef and other online contests. In 2006, 100 topmost programmers of the world were selected for a contest in New York. There was one from Bangladesh named Istiaque Ahmed of BUET and he was adjudged 79th in the world. In recognition of this programming skill of our students, companies like Microsoft and Google are offering coveted jobs to our students who are yet to graduate. In the list of offers it is not only BUET students but also students from Jahangirnagar, DU, NSU, AIUB and NSU are getting these jobs. In recent years Mashuq, Manzurur Rahman Khan, Sanny, Nafi, Riyad, Mahbub, Enjam, Aumy, Pratyoi, Hafiz, Linkin, Sadia, Sakib Safayat of BUET, Protik Mohammad Hossain, Jane Alam Jan and Aninda Majumder of DU, Sabur Zaheed of AIUB, Arifuzzaman of JU, Muntasir Azam Khan of NSU among others have been offered these jobs.  Our students are good not only in programming. Electronic Voting Machine designed by Imranul Hoque and Sonia Jahid occupied the third position among thousands of projects in World Engineers' convention held at Shanghai in 2004. MIST team showed commendable performance at NASA Lunabotics Mining contest. These are recognitions of the fact that our students have earned programming skill and that quality of CSE education in Bangladesh is commendable.
30-doctoral-degree-holder strong IIT CSE department has an intake of 45 UG students. At BUET our intake is 120, our faculty strength is around 36/37 of which only half are doctorate degree holders. Situation in other universities may not be as good. Our laboratories are not enriched either. In that sense our achievements cannot be neglected. Moreover, we also involve ourselves in inspiring our students to organise CSE days, project Shows, programming contests to increase ICT skill of our students.
If we want to construct big bridges we need civil engineers, for setting up chemical industries we need chemical engineers, for setting up hospitals we need doctors and for making the country 'digital' we need computer educated experts. Quacks will not make a good hospital. In the same way unless somebody has formal computer education the chances of success in building a large computer system is slim. Foreign experts will not be creating Digital Bangladesh. Had it been possible then Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would have turned digital long back. So in creating Digital Bangladesh our young people bestowed with commendable computer expertise should be the forerunners, universities should play the pioneering role. Success in this work will largely depend upon how much we have been able to induce this world class computer educated young people to this megaproject.

The writer is a Professor, CSE Department, BUET

Published: 12:00 am Tuesday, March 10, 2015

E-commerce needs a new prefix to grow up By Pial Islam

Photo: Star Archive

We humans are physical and social beings. We like to interact with people and things physically. Overlooking this simple fact and assuming digital interactions can substitute our inherent desires of touch and feel would fundamentally challenge what makes us human.
Many of the endeavours with e-commerce tend to overlook this simple fact. We look at trends such as the rapid adoption of digital lives and think more people will therefore embrace e-commerce. While there is certainly a strong correlation between these two things, I think we make the mistake of interpreting the correlation as causality. This is really not that different from the history of mankind's attempts to fly, when for centuries we thought wings and feathers were what we needed to fly (since birds had them) and had people strapping on wings and jumping off tall structures. It was not until 1738 when Bernoulli's book Hydrodynamica explained the concept of lift, that we fully understood the causality behind flight.
Some of the early efforts in e-commerce suffered from the correlation syndrome. At the global level, we saw pets.com, furniture.com, living.com, and many-other-dot-com efforts. They were all trying to sell things that did not make economic sense for the web. In Bangladesh too we see similar examples. But without actually naming names, let me underscore the fact that many of these players are spending significant marketing budgets today without a sufficiently strong business model. They stand the same risk of creating online ventures that do not make economic sense.
The e-commerce market, at the global level, is coming of age. The fundamental question is no longer how we build digital experiences online to replace physical experiences. The real question is in fact how we combine digital and physical experiences to create a compelling value proposition for the end user. The truth is that both the digital world and the physical one are indispensable parts of life and business. The real transformation that is taking place today is not the replacement of one by the other – it is the marriage of the two into combinations that create wholly new sources of value. pi Strategy Consulting calls this phenomenon “pe-commerce” – short for physical and electronic commerce – we think it is likely to reshape not only the way people live, but the way companies operate.

Illustration: Internet

Some of the global leading players have already made this realisation and are re-orienting their business strategy accordingly. Let's take the undisputed poster child of e-commerce success, Amazon, as a case in point. The Wall Street Journal in October 2014 reported that Amazon will be opening its first physical retail store in New York. By utilising its physical sites as distribution centers, Amazon can deliver products to some customers even more quickly and therefore compete more directly with other brick-and-mortar outlets. Same-day delivery, and ordering online and picking up at the store are ideas that are really catching on, and Amazon can be at the forefront of this industry-wide shift.
eBay's United Kingdom operations have launched a program with a partner, Argos, whereby customers can order eBay goods online and pick them up in Argos stores. Over time, this service will be made available at any of the 650 Argos stores across the country.
Such shifts into pe-commerce are beginning in South Asia as well. Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce venture, has announced the launch of a number of physical retail stores. India's leading travel sites Makemytrip and Yatra havephysical presences. Makemytrip launched its first retail store in 2012 and has expanded to 20 some outlets across India. Yatra has as many as 40 franchisee outlets and is planning another 100.

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pi Strategy Consulting analysis has revealed three primary reasons for the big shift to pe-commerce.
The first reason is market size and market opportunity of the physical world. According to US Government census data, out of an estimated USD 1.1 trillion in U.S. retail sales in the second quarter of 2014, only 75 billion, or 6.4 percent, of total retail sales came from e-commerce. The story is similar in India, where retail is a whopping USD 490 billion market but only 10 percent of that is organised. And, according to ZDNet estimates, online is a tiny 0.02 percent of that organised retail total (i.e. USD 3 billion), with a 50 percent growth rate. In other words, despite the rapid growth rate of the e-commerce market, the lion's share of retail sales is still done within traditional physical stores. This is predominantly why the large traditional e-commerce players are foraying into the pe-commerce domains. They want a slice of the (much) bigger pie.
The second reason is distribution network. A critical success factor for e-commerce is fast and reliable delivery of products purchased online. An online retailer may have a wide selection of products, another may offer very low prices, and yet another player may offer great after-sales support. But all of them need to ensure that the products they sell online are delivered to the buyer on time. Physical presence opens up the opportunity to leverage retail outlets as distribution centers. This allows the retailer to bring the product closer to the customer.
The third reason is touch and feel. More hands-on experiences lead to more sales. Most of the products sold online are non-digital. They are physical products: a saree, a pair of shoes, a book, a mobile phone, etc. Seeing, touching, fitting, feeling – any of these things are important parts of the decision to buy. Think of the last time you bought any of these products. Did you purchase them from an online store or from a physical store? Would you be (could you be) equally comfortable buying those products from either of those two types of stores? Of the products I listed above, the mobile phone is an electronic product. And yet, even for electronic products such as a mobile phone, the physical dimension is a very important factor in the purchase decision. Take Apple for example. Apple found unprecedented success with its mobile device sales by combining an online retail presence with physical retail stores. According to market research firm eMarketer, Apple leads the physical retail marketplace with the highest sales per square foot of any other US-based retail store, with an average of USD 4,550 in sales per square foot.
Even when we do buy some of these products online, our past physical experiences with the products weigh heavily on our purchase decision. My wife and I order meals through Foodpanda sometimes. Every time we order food through this e-commerce service, we order from restaurants where we have had dinners in person in the past. The firsthand experience we had at those restaurants (quality of service, ambience, and of course quality of food) has influenced our decisions, either consciously or subconsciously. Our experience is not that uncommon.
Real value is created when the electronic and physical experiences are seamlessly integrated in the form of pe-commerce. Studies show that a customer who shops both online and in physical stores generates five times the profit of someone who shops only online. The integration can happen in many ways. Stores can be used as distribution centers. Items bought at stores can be shipped direct to buyers. Online orders can be fulfilled from stores when an item is out of stock in online warehouses. Items bought online can be picked up at stores. But such levels of integration require a lot of analysis and planning. Without it, we could be building services that do not enjoy high rates of adoption. The integration also requires considerable investments. But the payoff can be significant too. Macy's, one of the largest physical retail chains in the US, invested nearly USD 200 million in macys.com in 2006/2007. Between 2010 and 2013, its stock price rose steadily, increasing 43 percent in 2013 alone (compared to an increase of 28 percent in the S&P 500 index during the same period).
The pe-commerce concept makes even more sense for Bangladesh. pi Strategy Consulting analysis indicates that most of the transactions that are categorised as e-commerce in Bangladesh involve cash-on-delivery. We estimate this to be about 80 percent of the total transactions today.
One reason for such high percentage of payments being made through cash-on-delivery is of course the limited availability of electronic payment mechanisms in our country. On one hand, less than one-third the population has formal bank accounts, and a smaller percentage of those with bank accounts have credit cards that can be used for online purchases. On the other hand, despite the hoopla surrounding mobile banking, when you consider the facts that the vast majority (over three-fourth) of the mobile banking transactions are over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, and that less than one-tenth of the registered users are real, active end-users, you quickly see the limited prospect of using mobile banking wallets for e-commerce. This is why debit cards, credit cards and mobile banking wallets collectively constitute at best 20% of the e-commerce payments today.
The other more critical reason for high percentage of cash-on-delivery transactions in e-commerce today is our lack of trust in the e-commerce vendors. When you cannot fully trust a vendor, you want them to bring the product to you first, make sure it is what was advertised, and only then make the payment. Our analysis indicates that a considerable percentage of those who have the ability to use electronic payments for e-commerce purchases, choose not to use electronic payments specifically to offset this trust dimension.
Would the adoption of a pe-commerce strategy really make a difference? I certainly think it would. Why do we buy products from a newly opened corner store without really thinking as much about trust? Surely some of the new online stores deserve the same level of trust from us. But we find it more difficult to trust an online store than a physical store. This seems to be true even if the online store was selling better quality products compared to the physical store. Why is that?
First, there's something about the fact that one is physical while the other is not that influences our behavior. We know exactly where the physical store is. There is actually a person we are interacting with when we are purchasing. If we have issues with the product, we know where to go and who to talk to so that we can sort things out. We perceive the combination of these experiences as trust.
Second, the physical store, by definition, satisfies our inherent desire to touch and feel a product before we finalise a purchase decision. This helps both the buyer and the seller. For the buyer, it provides some interaction with the product and helps in the decision-making process. For the seller, it helps to close the sale. When you buy a light bulb at a store, the shopkeeper tests the bulb in your presence, you are happy it works, the shopkeeper is happy he has demonstrated it works, and you walk away a happy customer and the shopkeeper has made a sale with reduced likelihood of returns. The story is the same for many other products.
Fortunately for traditional e-commerce players, this equation works both ways. There are a number of advantages of an online store that a physical presence alone cannot beat. Lower inventory costs, lower operating costs, wider variety of products and wider customer reach are but only a few examples. So the newly opened corner store in the previous example may be in a better position to meet the trust issue, but there are many other value creation opportunities it could monetise if it also had an online e-commerce presence.
It is not physical or electronic. It is physical and electronic. It is time e-commerce grows up to become pe-commerce. It is time we realise we are humans after all.

The writer is Managing Partner at pi Strategy Consulting, a firm that specialises in helping client organisations with growth initiatives at the confluence of strategy and innovation.

Digital Bangladesh: Dreams and reality By Lutfar Rahman

Photo: Star Archive

Digital Bangladesh is one of the nation's dreams, and so special emphasis is given on the application of digital technologies to realise Vision 2021, which we commonly call Digital Bangladesh. By 2021, after 50 years of independence, our goal is to be a middle-income country with peace, prosperity and dignity. The government of Bangladesh implemented a large number of projects relating to digital technologies and a number of these are already underway. National ICT Policy-2009 was developed with a view to achieve middle-income status of the nation by 2021 and developed status by 2041.
The World Bank classifies economies as low-income, middle-income and high-income groups. The Per Capita Gross National Income (GNI) is the basis of the classification. Low-income and middle-income countries are referred to as developing countries. Per Capita GNI is the dollar value of a country's income in a year, divided by its population.  As of July 1, 2014, low-income economies are defined (in 2013) as those with GNI per capita of USD 1,045 or less (World Bank Atlas Method) and middle-income economies with a GNI per capita above USD 1,045 (but less than USD 12,746). (According to this classification of the Word Bank, Bangladesh should be very close to the middle-income group now and our target should be the upper middle-income group by 2021.) 
According to the National ICT Policy-2009, short-term, mid-term and long-term plans consisting of 306 action plans have been identified for the realisation of Vision 2021. Digital Bangladesh is an issue regarding which there is no conflict or difference of opinion between the government and the people – all are working hand-in-hand for its realisation. This short article briefly summarises our achievements in ICT, examines our status in the global perspective, and suggests steps to be taken in light of the recent advancements in ICT. 

Achievements
The slogan of “Digital Bangladesh” of the Government of Bangladesh has special significance for national development. Digital Bangladesh with Vision 2021 is a big impetus for the use of digital technology in the country. In spite of several bottlenecks and limitations, works are in progress for the realisation of Digital Bangladesh. Several projects for digitalisation have been completed and a big number of projects are under progress. The nation now, with over 12 crore mobile subscribers and 4.3 crore Internet subscribers, enjoys the fruits of digitisation in numerous areas of activities. The ultimate objective is to make more and more services available at the doorsteps of the people with increased digitalisation where possible.  
A few examples of available digital services are: registration for admission to academic institutions, publication of results of examinations, registration for jobs abroad, registration of pilgrimage, collection of official forms, online submission of tax returns, online tendering, etc. Online banking systems have sped up the financial activities of the country. SMS services for lodging complaints to police stations, online bill payments for utility services, instant communication with persons working abroad, and e-passports are some more examples.

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Telemedicine services, videoconferencing for the treatment of diseases, and video conferencing for administrative activities are examples of e-services available to rural Bangladesh. Setting up of nearly five thousand Union Information Service Canters is a great boost for Digital Bangladesh, especially for rural areas. Turning eight thousand village post offices and approximately five hundred upazila post offices into e-centers and the introduction of mobile money order and postal cash cards are significant achievements in the recent past. Union Information Centers, District Information Cells, National Information Cell are also revolutionary additions.
There are many more developments in the line. Deputy Commissioner Offices in districts and UNO offices in upazilas provide a large number of e-services to rural clients. Direct digital services eliminate middlemen and save both time and money. Without such online services, our cities and towns would have turned into difficult places to live in.

Status and Ranking
In spite of mentionable achievements in the recent past, our position as providers and users of ICT services is far behind many countries. This can be explained by the benchmarking indices of responsible international organisations like the United Nations, World Economic Forum, International Telecommunication Union, etc.

Photo Courtesy: Multimedia Content And Communication

Networked Readiness Index (NRI)
The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) of the World Economic Forum assesses the impact of ICT on the competitiveness of the nations of the world. The four sub-indices of NRI are: Environment (business, innovation, political and regulatory), Readiness (infrastructure, digital contents, affordability, skills), Usage (individuals, businesses and government), and finally the Impact of ICT (economic and social impact). Each sub-index is based on several pillars (a total of 10) and each pillar is calculated out of a number of indicators. For example, the Environment sub-index is based on two pillars: a) political and regulatory environment, and b) business and innovation environment; the score of political and regulatory environment pillar is calculated out of numerical values of nine indicators.

Table 1: Status of NRI of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries
Table 1 depicts the NRI status of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries. Bangladesh's global position (with a score of 3.21 out of 10) is 119 (out of 144 countries) in 2014, which is five steps below its 114th position in 2013. This was due to poor performance in the Environment, Impact and Usage sub-indices compared to other nations. According to the 2014 NRI rankings, the ranks of India (3.85), Pakistan (3.33) and Sri Lanka (3.94) have also degraded. On the other hand, Nepal (3.09) moved up by three positions to 123 from 126. This indicates our achievements in ICT and current status of digital lifestyle in global perspective.
According to the NRI data of 2014, the top 10 countries are: Finland (6.04), Singapore (5.97), Sweden (5.93), Netherlands (5.79), Norway (5.70), Switzerland (5.62), United States (5.61), Hong Kong (5.60), United Kingdom (5.54) and Korea Republic (5.54). Bangladesh needs to improve in the Environment Readiness sub-indices. The public sector of Bangladesh scores higher in the Usage sub-index than the private sector. We need to increase individual usage of ICT besides infrastructure and digital contents for increasing social and economic impact.

ICT Development Index (IDI) 
The ICT Development Index (IDI) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a useful tool for the status of Information Society. This index, which is based on eleven indicators, is grouped into three categories: Access, Use and Skills. Table 2 depicts the IDI of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries according to the Information Society Report 2014 of ITU. In the 2013 IDI ranking, Bangladesh is ranked 145 and is ahead of Afghanistan and Myanmar amongst our South Asian neighbors. Currently Sri Lanka, ranked 116, is at the highest position in the region. Among the 29 countries of Asia and the Pacific listed in the report, Bangladesh's position is third from the bottom. The bottom two countries are Afghanistan and Myanmar. Bangladesh needs special attention for improvement in the Use sub-category (score of 0.27, rank 150), Access sub-index (score of 2.5, rank 143) as well as the quick expansion of broadband wireless Internet services. However, the good news is that Bangladesh offers mobile cellular services at a lower cost than many countries of the world.

Table 2: Status of IDI of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries
In the IDI ranking of 2013, the top 10 countries (with scores out of 10) are: Denmark (8.86), Korea Republic (8.85), Sweden (8.67), Iceland (8.64), UK (8.50), Norway (8.39), Netherlands (8.38), Finland (8.31), Hong Kong (8.28) and Luxemburg (8.26).

E-Government Development Index (EGDI)
United Nation's e-Government Development Index (EGDI) evaluates the impact of ICT on the political economy of a country. This index focuses on how governments use ICT to deliver services to the people and opportunities for citizens to participate in the decision-making process. EGDI is measured on the basis of online services, technological infrastructure and human capital. Table 3 shows Bangladesh's ranking (out of a total of 193 countries) in EGDI as wells as those of its neighbouring countries.  Amongst the South Asian countries, Bangladesh (rank 148) is ahead of Afghanistan (rank 173), Nepal (rank 165), Pakistan (rank 158) and Myanmar (rank 175). Ranked at 74, Sri Lanka is at the highest position in the region.

Table-3: EGDI ranking of Bangladesh and its neighboring countries
The top 10 countries (with a score out of 1) are: Republic of Korea (0.9462), Australia (0.9103), Singapore (0.9076), France (0.8938), Netherlands (0.8897), Japan (0.8874), USA (0.8748), UK (0.8695), New Zealand (0.8644) and Finland (0.8449).
According to a UN report, the least developed countries (LDCs) with significant progress in mobile technology and mobile-government services (such as notification by SMS, mobile-banking and mobile-health services) are of special importance. Bangladesh (score of 0.2757 out of 1) is in the eighth position among 48 LDCs after Rwanda (0.3589), Kiribati (0.3201), Tuvalu (0.3059), Cambodia (0.2999), Angola (0.2970), Bhutan (0.2829) and Tanzania (0.2764).
Our rankings in the above mentioned indices (NRI, IDI and EGDI) are poor in comparison to most of the countries of the world.

ICT Trends
A noteworthy trend in ICT is that numerous devices with new and updated technologies are rapidly replacing older devices. New technologies for the near future include 3D printing, thumb printing, increased smartphone storage, expanded use of IPv6, broadband services for consumers, cloud computing, quantum computing, real-time speech transaction, nano-computers, wearable devices and networks, cyber security, smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT), etc. New trends, techniques and devices will massively involve online activities affecting our lifestyle. IoT interconnects all sensors and smart objects to interconnect in such a way as to make them intelligent, programmable and capable of interacting with humans.
More and more smart machines and processes will be required for decision-making in business, administration and education, and they will impact our lifestyle and the jobs of decision-makers significantly. All types of jobs, including business and administration, will be more and more digitised. We in Bangladesh will be forced to use and adapt new technologies and will require expertise in new technologies like cloud computing, 3D printing, Big Data, gaming, animation, outsourcing, etc.
Internet services require radical improvement in terms of speed. Starting from e-commerce, the internet is used for numerous applications and a higher speed for internet services is of great significance for rapid economic growth. Most nations of the world now give special emphasis on the improvement of Internet speeds. Average internet speed of users is above 10 Mbps in many countries (South Korea: 25.3 Mbps, Hong Kong: 16.03 Mbps, Japan: 15 Mbps).
It is encouraging that the ICT Division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology has undertaken all-out efforts for the development of ICT human resources through countrywide training. Some examples of these trainings include Learning and Earning, Training for Mobile Apps, Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance Project, and ITES Foundation Skills Training. Special emphasis is given to ICT education up to high school. Also, the ICT policy is being updated to face new trends. Ambitious projects like development of the National ICT Infrastructure for Bangladesh Government (Info Sarkar), National Data Centre and IT Parks will bring about radical improvements in e-services, e-governance and software development in the country.

Actions to be Taken
Bangladesh has an impressive track record of growth and development and aspires to achieve middle-income status by its 50th birthday. The country needs faster growth which depends on increased investments, development of human capital and enhanced productivity.
We have mentionable progress in ICT considering our previous condition. But keeping in mind our current rank and status in comparison with other nations and the rapid development of ICT, the journey ahead for Digital Bangladesh will not be smooth. Each new technology requires new skills and training. Human capital is a key factor to develop and adapt innovative ideas and technologies. Quality ICT education as well as ICT-based education from the primary to tertiary level, along with the orientation of general mass in ICT should receive top priority.
Elimination of the digital divide between rural and urban areas and between Bangladesh and other nations is essential in order to be at par with middle-income nations. A peaceful political environment is essential for intellectual, social, cultural and economic development. Time and time again, the nation's dream for Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh has been shattered by the turbulent political situation. The country dearly needs a tranquil political environment for the development of all sectors, including ICT, and for the realisation of Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh.

The writer is Vice Chancellor, Daffodil International University, Dhaka.

Published: 12:00 am Tuesday, March 10, 2015