SERVING the citizens through electronic governance or “eGovernance”, is more essential for the developing countries than forthe developed and less populousones.

The export structure of Bangladesh looks like a 'tadpole'- an early phase of a frog's life cycle where a big upper part of the body is linked with a shallow middle part and a long tail in the lower part. A limited number of 'dynamic' export products at the upper part dominate Bangladesh's export basket.

The US Secretary of State in the 70s, Dr Henry Kissinger, after the birth of our nation, infamously dubbed Bangladesh as a 'bottomless basket' because it was considered to be a country with no hope.

Bangladesh’s garment exports increased from USD 6.8 billion in 2005 to USD 19.9 billion in 2012, recording a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 percent.

Acombination of rapid proliferation of mobile technologies coupled with improved connectivity has opened up innovative possibilities for ICTs in last-mile service delivery like never before.

Prompted by the Rana Plaza disaster that killed about 1137 workers in April 2013, the US government suspended duty-free privileges it had granted under the GSP programme to products exported from Bangladesh.

On January 12, 2014, the present government has elapsed one more year towards the destination of Digital Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has all the potentials to become a new paradigm for global generic medicines. With a population of 156.66 million, the country's social development indicators are very promising.

This part of the world, particularly Bangladesh, has always been fortunate in making great starts.

Bangladesh’s effort to emerge as a major leather products exporting nation is not getting momentum due to long dilly-dallying over the relocation of polluting tanneries from the capital to Savar.

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.

HISTORIC PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURE: Despite a precipitous fall in the relative contribution to the GDP of Bangladesh, agriculture has performed remarkably well so far.

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.

In the last 40 years the amount of arable land has shrunk at a rate of 1 percent per annum. In the last 40 years many natural sources of irrigation water have dried up permanently.

Digital Disruption, a word which didn't make any sense ten years back, is now a buzz word.

SEVENTY-NINE years ago, Manik Bandopadhyay painted the picture of the strugglesof fishermen in his famous novel,'Boatman of the Padma River.' The struggle for survival and livelihood remains to this day for many fishermen.

Well, that's one way of defining it. The cool way to describe it would be: 'The Next Big Binary Bang'.

BANGLADESH enjoys a big comparative advantage compared to many other countries in producing and exporting a wide range of agro based products to the world's markets where there is a huge and growing demand for the same.

The global financial and economic crisis started in 2007 as an aftermath of the housing sector bubble coupled with aggressive lending practices in the US sub-prime mortgage market and lax regulation of the financial sector.

On one hand we have the standards set by the sole quality control institute of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), while on the other we have those laid down by the Pure Food Rules, 1967.