‘National Intelligence Employment and Entrepreneurship (NISE)’ and ‘Muktopaath’ – two innovative initiatives of Aspire to Innovate (a2i) have won the ‘WITSA 2023 Global Innovation and Technology Excellence Awards’.

The World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) conferred the awards in recognition of remarkable contribution to the skills development and education of millions of people in the country through online platforms.

The award was presented on the third day of the three-day WCIT 2023 International Conference held in Kuching, Malaysia on October 5.

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Program Associate or a2i, Alavi Zaman Disha, and E-Learning Coordinator, Jinia Jerin, received the award from WITSA Chairman Dr Sean Seah on behalf of NISE and Muktopaath respectively.

About 130 innovative projects from different countries vied for the prestigious award. From Bangladesh, a2i’s project NISE won the 1st place in the Public Sector Digital Opportunity/Inclusion category and Muktopaath won the 1st place in the e-Education and Learning category.

Awards were given this year in a total of 14 categories for the government and private/NGO sectors. In recognition of its significant contribution to upskilling millions of unemployed youths through online platforms, the NISE project bagged the award.

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Muktopaath won the accolade for providing online education to millions through e-learning platform.

WITSA 2023 Global Innovation and Technology Excellence Awards is considered a prestigious award in the global IT sector. More than 10,000 delegates from member countries participated in the conference, titled World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT-2023).

NISE is a data platform created for all stakeholders to facilitate the concept of collective intelligence in data-based decision-making to improve skills in solving the country’s unemployment problem. Through this platform, more than 2,74,000 unemployed youths have found job opportunities with the help of various industries/employers and job provider websites.

On the other hand, Muktopaath is the largest Bangla language e-learning platform containing content on general, technical, and vocational education. There are more than 46.16 lakh students enrolled in 280 courses. So far, more than 28 lakh students have been awarded certificates for completing their courses. The platform is also used by government institutions to provide online training to government officers and employees. So far, about 60,000 government officials have successfully completed courses in Muktopaath.

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Congratulating a2i on its success, WITSA Chairman Dr Sean Seah said that it is undoubtedly a matter of pride that the information technology sector has progressed from Digital to Smart Bangladesh in a short period of time.

Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS) congratulated a2i for winning the honour at the WITSA Awards. BCS President, Engineer Subrata Sarkar, said that BCS has always been working as a guardian of technology organizations. BCS is always committed to properly presenting the country's innovation and effective projects to WITSA, and a2i’s achievements have brought glory to the country’s technology sector.

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The a2i, a whole-of-government programme implemented by the ICT Division and Cabinet Division, supported by UNDP Bangladesh, catalyses citizen-friendly public service innovations simplifying government and bringing it closer to people. It supports the government to be at the forefront of integrating new, whole-of-society approaches to achieve the SDGs.