One-stop centre for 2,000 govt services
Eksheba-Sarkar
FAISAL MAHMUD, Dhaka
To bring all digital services provided by the government on one platform, the government has decided to implement the Eksheba-Sarkar information infrastructure by 2021. This unified platform will provide around 2,000 digital services and a user would be able to avail them like from a one-stop centre.
Talking to The Independent, Anir Chaudhury, policy advisor to the Access to Information (A2I) project of the Prime Ministers Office, said this initiative would take Bangladesh to a truly digital era. He also said the A2I was implementing the project with the help of the Cabinet Division, Information and Communication Technology Division, USAID and the UNDP Bangladesh.
The government, under its ministries and different departments and divisions, has been implementing a number of digital services in the form of software, apps and websites. We are planning to integrate all of those software, apps and websites under one giant portal, so that a person can avail them by visiting one portal. Its like a one-stop centre, he said.
Citng an example, Chaudhury said the government had last year introduced two online platforms Konnect for students and Accessible Dictionary for visually impaired people.
Konnect is a digital platform for teenagers where they can share, upload and learn from creative multimedia contents like books, movies and comic books and important life lessons from the website www.konnect.edu.bd that can help develop their talent, social and personal skills, personality and commitment to the welfare of the nation.
The Accessible Dictionary is Bangladeshs first Bangla-to-Bangla, Bangla-to-English, English-to-Bangla and English-to-English dictionary developed exclusively for the visually-impaired people. It is available in both web and mobile app formats on the website www.accessibledictionary.gov.bd.
There are other examples too. The agriculture ministry has developed services like Krishi Batayon (agriculture portal) and the Krishak Bandhu Phone Seba for expansion of e-agriculture services across the country, said Chaudhury.
Krishi Batayon is a central service portal where some mobile apps have been developed by taking into account different needs of farmers and agriculture extension officers to provide services from this portal or enriching its information base for the sake of these services. Any farmer included in the list of Krishi Batayon can ask any question related to agriculture by making a call to No. 3331 from his/her phone. In the Eksheba-Sarkar digital platform, we plan to bring all of such different services on one platform so that a user wouldnt need to go to different places to get those services, said Chaudhury.
