Published On: 2008-10-22 Metropolitan 6 Bangladeshi organisations bag Manthan Awards Bss, Dhaka Bangladesh has won six prizes in the prestigious Manthan Award for best ICT and digital content development in South Asia. UNDP sources said Bangladeshi organisations got awards in five among 13 categories. They are e-culture and entertainment, e-enterprise and livelihood, e-government, e-localisation and m-content. The award winners are Unnayan TV and Youth Voice (e-culture and entertainment) , Jeeon-IKB (e-enterprise and livelihood), VoteBD.org (e-government), Hoimonti (e-localisation) and Cellbazaar (m-content).
Of the 32 awards in 13 categories, India bagged 22, Afghanistan one and Sri Lanka three. The announcement of the Manthan Award 2008 came on Monday.
Manthan Award is the first of its kind initiative in India to recognise the best practices in e-content and creativity. It was launched on October 10, 2004 by Digital Empowerment Foundation in partnership with World Summit Award and American India Foundation.
Since then it has come to define the very best in e-content for development arena in India. Now, after four immensely successful years of holding it within India, the organisers have felt that it is expanded a bit and its areas of operation now is all of Saarc countries namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan.
Unnayan TV: First online video channel in Bangladesh, which regularly publishes video contents on development, human rights and educational and cultural issues of the country.
Netbetar: NetBetar is the first online audio channel in Bangla for Bangla speaking audience globally. NetBetar as an internet radio station that serves two goals -- it reconnects the global Bangladeshi to their roots and give them chance to be a part of Bangladesh's development.
Jeeon-IKB: Subtitled 'Information for Life', Jeeon-IKB had been developed by Development Research Network in Bangla language. All critical information related to education, agriculture, governance, livelihood, scholarships, libraries, loans, banking, health and so on are aggregated into a CD.
VoteBD.org: The website www.votebd.org has been developed to disseminate the personal information of the candidates who will contest in the local and national elections among the voters. Ironically, this effort is happening in Bangladesh.
The information disseminated are educational qualification, criminal records (present and past), statements of assets and liabilities of candidates and dependents, profession, loan from bank and financial institutions, statement of income tax returns, source of election expenses, statement of actual election expenses etc.
Hoimonti: Hoimonti is a first of its kind technical endeavour in Bangladesh, where a Linux based free operating system called Ubuntu has been developed. The operating system is in Bangla. Hoimonti has a Bengali 'installation procedure' along with configuration documentation.
Cell Bazaar: It is truly a cell bazaar at people's service from Bangladesh. The service allows buyers and sellers to meet in a mobile marketplace. Sellers post items, buyers view them, and contact sellers. Nearly more than 20 million users can access to this service to buy any agricultural product, such as rice, fish, chicken, as well as large scale purchases like apartment, land, car, and consumer goods such as TV, fridge, etc. |