The journey of BIG 2020 (Bangabandhu Innovation Grant) was started on November 25 to develop the innovative zeal of the youth of the country and spreading the greatness of Bangabandhu in a global perspective. A list of 65 selected initiatives of the contestants was released on Thursday. And this is how the first battle of winning a grant of 1 crore taka began.
Among the selected initiatives are Vijay Lakshmi Roy’s e-commerce platform Adi BD Limited, AM Ishtiaq Sarwar’s online payment gateway Amar Pay, Mahmud Hasan’s Grocery Online Physical Shop Agromars, Mohammad Imtiaz Uddin Chowdhury’s AI Lab Bangladesh, Mohammad Adnan Yazdany’s legal aid platform Ain e-Seba, Adil Hossain’s Alo, Tousiful Islam’s initiative to make unmanned aircraft Ants Aerial System and Mehedi Hasan Shahriar’s Science Association in Bangladesh.
The other initiatives were Mohammad Shahjalal’s’ Bibaik ‘, Muhammad Hasanuzzaman’s’ Boighar’, Shihab Al Muntasir Bhuiyan’s’ Book Reader ‘, Zubair Hossain’s’ Banga Scanner’, Samia Tahsin’s’ Banton Connect ‘, Iftekhar Ahmed’s Braille, Jahnbi Rahman’s ‘Captain Earth’, Masuk Arpan’s ‘Choukas’, Sunny Alam’s ‘Cleaniva Technology’, Salman Ahmed’s ‘Digilab’, Tasvir Ahmed’s ‘Digital Khowarh’ and Rafayat Tajnin Chowdhury’s ‘Dingy Technologies Limited’.
More initiatives in the list are Faridul Hasan’s Drip Irrigation BD, Rezaul Islam’s Eco Currency, Safayet Hossain’s Energy X, SM Tanvir’s Eso Shikhi Limited, Ehsanul Haque Fahad’s First Aid, Alvi Nizam Nafir’s Flyer Technomid, Saim. Ray’s Green Beans, Farooq Hannan’s IDEA 3D Solution, Iftekhar Mahmood’s Inclusion X, Munirul Alam’s Innovations Technology and Imran Fahad’s Bangladesh’s first inspirational social network ‘Inspiring Bangladesh’.
Ashraful Islam’s IoT Swing Machine Monitoring System, Mehedi Raza’s Joe Bike, Kazi Sabir’s Khelbei Bangladesh, Niloy Biswas’s Statement, Mahir Amirur Rahman Iram’s Landonk, Yahya Md. Amin’s Life Spring, Perth My Fuel Pump, MM Aftab Hossain’s Health Care Startup Allwell, Sadman Majid’s Online Classmate, Mushfiqur Manzoor’s Open Refactor, Rasi Gomez’s Pilu, Mostakin Rabbi’s Plastile, Fayaz Mahdi’s ‘Prittyay’, Kamrul Islam’s Prabhasi. Tawfiq Hasan’s Rad Assist, Samdani Tabriz’s Rapido District Bazar, Munshi Sajidul Islam’s Robolab, Rafiq Islam’s Safe Wheel, Belayet Hossain’s Saintico, Nuzhatul Islam Renan’s Short Circuit, Ahsan Habib’s Smart Hohite Kane,
This time a four-day boot camp will be held with these entrepreneurs. From here, the next 26 teams will be selected through a 13-episode reality show. 36 startup initiatives including 10 foreign start ups will get grants.
The best initiative in the competition will get a grant of Taka 1 crore. Besides, 99 more enterprises will be given grants in the required proportion from Taka 10 lakh to Taka 1 crore.
The Department of Information and Communication Technology is implementing an initiative under the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (iDEA) project.