The Raisina Dialogue is being held at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi, the capital of India. Participating in the three-day conference, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology of Bangladesh, exchanged greetings with the representatives of 17 participating countries besides highlighting the capabilities of Digital Bangladesh. The dialogue also highlights the potential of the country’s youth to create technology-based solutions and the immense potential for investment in Bangladesh’s technology sector. They also discussed about cybersecurity and the alliance as applicable.
On Monday, the second day of the dialogue, the ICT Minister visited the campus and various laboratories of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT) Kharagpur, a leading technology institute in India, famous for supplying talents to world-renowned tech giants. He visited the University’s School of Information Technology, NRF’s Assistech Lab, 3D Weaving and Structural Composites Center.
Earlier in the morning, in front of Bharati School, the Dean of the International Office of IIT Delhi, Professor Naveen Garg welcomed the State Minister Zunaid Ahmed at the University campus. From there, researchers Amar Nath and Shashi Khosla took the state minister to the Assistech Laboratory. In the lab, Palak witnessed, how the visually impaired are being educated at affordable cost through modern technology. At the same time, through research and development in this lab, Professor M. Balakrishna explained how to create innovative solutions in the incubation process and make it industry-friendly.
After that, the Minister of State for ICT of Bangladesh was shown around the Nanoscale Research Facility (NRF) Laboratory by its Coordinator Professor Neeraj Khare. He apprised the audience of the nuances of using state-of-the-art technology to address the challenges of micro-chip and VLSI design in solving various problems in the health, agriculture, security and energy sectors of the lab.
After the visit, Zunaid Ahmed Palak called on Professor Rangan Banerjee at the University Director’s Office. The meeting focused on Bangladesh’s self-reliance in advanced technologies such as AI, robotics, cyber-security, software and hardware development, VLSI and ecosystem development.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister of State for ICT called on IITs to work together with the ICT Department of Bangladesh and IIT Delhi to move forward.
রাইসিনা আলোচনার প্রথম দিনে ভারত, মালদ্বীপ ও নরওয়ের সঙ্গে পলকের শুভেচ্ছা বিনিময়
He suggested that IIT Delhi could enter into a memorandum of understanding with the ICT department of Bangladesh by forming a committee of entrepreneurs, students and independent researchers or business leaders to launch IIT Delhi’s ecosystem in research, innovation and incubation. The rest of the proposals include promotion to diploma programs for various non-degree hands-on training and certification programs, creation of Frontier Technology Scholarships for the Ministry of ICT Bangladesh, creation of hybrid training opportunities for young aspiring and deserving students pursuing 2-year postgraduate programs. Zunaid Ahmed Palak expressed interest in starting a joint venture to start activities and transform different technologies and how to patent jointly.
Meanwhile, the State Minister for ICT said that the ICT department is working under the supervision of ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy to implement the vision of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and to achieve capacity and self-reliance in information technology to meet the challenges of the future.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak also attended a meeting with senior officials of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASCOM), a business organization in the Indian IT sector. During the meeting, they discussed the future market demand of digital cyber security, research and sustainable technology products and services to meet this demand. In this regard, he also discussed the action plan to make Asia a world leader in cyber security on the basis of bilateral cooperation with Bangladesh.
He also discussed the digital transaction structure with Anubhav Sharma, Deputy Chief of Business Development and Marketing, NPCAE International Payments Limited.
On the first day of the conference; Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology of Bangladesh, exchanged greetings with the Speaker of the People’s Majlish Maldives and former President of Maldives Mohammad Nasheed. He also exchanged views with Maldives Environment, Climate Change and Technology Minister Mrs. Aminath Shawna, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt and Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. At the end of the meeting, the ICT Minister handed over the book ‘Epic of Politics: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Speech on March 7’ as a gift.
