State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak said, if we can make our data safe-clean-processable by combining the talent and technology of the talented children of the country, then we can build an ecosystem of data-driven decision making. He said, if we can process about 12 crore health data as well as education data, data of mobile operators, then it is possible to present new startups from there.
The state minister made these remarks while speaking as the chief guest at the grand finale of the third edition of the country’s largest data science competition Robi ‘Datathon’ held on 03 June 2024 Monday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka.
Among others who spoke at the event, the High Commissioner of Malaysia appointed to Bangladesh Haznah Md. Hashim, former captain of Bangladesh national cricket team Tamim Iqbal Khan, Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Robi Aziata Limited Rajeev Shetty.
State Minister Palak said, artificial intelligence, robotics require a large amount of processable data. That is why classification of data is necessary, so that personal security, sovereignty of the country is not threatened. On the advice of Sajib Wazed Joy, Advisor to the Prime Minister on ICT, we have decided to enact the Private Data Protection Act very soon. So that we can protect personal security, national sovereignty along with classification of data.
Palak said, we have established Startup Bangladesh Ltd. from the ICT division. From where we have invested 100 crores in 50 companies. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given another 500 crore rupees for equity investment. He expressed hope that within the next 5 years, 5 more unicorn organizations and 50 unicorn organizations will be able to be gifted to the whole world by 2041. He also said that our startups will be the main driving force in achieving the Smart Bangladesh Vision of 2041.
Later, the state minister handed over the prizes to the three winning teams.
It is to be noted that the team ‘ACI Server Down’ has achieved the honor of becoming the champion of Datathon 3.0 organized by Robi Aziata Limited, the country’s leading 4G and digital service provider. The first runner up is Team ‘Yellow King’ and the second runner up is Team ‘Big Data AI Data Science’. As the ACI server down champion, the prize worth 5 lakh rupees was awarded. The first runner-up Yellow King got Rs 3 lakh and the second runner-up Big Data AI Data Science got Rs 2 lakh. More than 3,500 competitors divided into more than 1,000 teams registered to participate in the Datathon 3.0 competition. 99 contestants from 23 teams participated in the final stage of the competition organized at various stages. The winner of Datathon 3.0 was determined through a 48-hour marathon competition held at Robi Corporate Office on 24 and 25 May 2024.
