7 projects win UN's info society award

Seven projects of the country have won the "World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2017" for accelerating socio-economic development through leveraging the power of information and communication technology (ICT).

Among the projects, "DAISY-Standard Accessible Reading Materials for Students with Visual and Print Disabilities" of the Access to Information (a2i) programme received the prize as winner in one category, while the six others won it as runners-up in different categories, said a press release.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) of the United Nations presented the prizes through a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday as part of the annual WSIS Forum 2017, being held from June 12 to June 16, said the release.

Of the runners-ups, three projects are from the a2i programme of the Prime Minister's Office, two from Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC), and one from the Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID).

The runners-up projects are "Social Media in Public Service Innovation Initiative", "Nothi: Less Paper Office", and "Rural Entrepreneurship Model for Telemedicine Services" of the a2i programme; "English Language through Community Radio in Rural Bangladesh" and "Online Community Broadcasting Library Access to Information and Knowledge in Bangladesh" of BNNRC, and eKrishok of BIID.

According to the release, ITU made a list of 90 champions out of 345 projects in 18 categories following an online voting. Of them, 18 were named as winners and 72 as runners-up.