Elaboration

Digital Village and

m-Servies
Presented by Sabbya Sachi.

Digital Village
A Simple Comparison

Ordinary Village where only children

learn

Digital Village where people of all ages

can learn freely

Current Digital Services in Village.

Digitalization of Rural
Healthcare

With an aim to bring health service onto the

doorstep of rural people, a project is on to
prepare a database of mothers and their children
in Chirirbandar of Dinajpur.
Started in October 2013, health workers have
already prepared a database of 1,845 mothers
and 7,689 children in the upazila in the last five
months.
In Durgapur village, a health worker of the
project, Shahnaj Parveen, was seen entering
health related data using a web application
installed in her tablet PC.
I never thought of operating a tablet PC living in
the rural area. But I am happy, as it has been a
reality now, she added.
Dr Steve Withington, executive director of Lamb
Hospital, said his organisation in association with
Plan International Bangladesh had been working
on the database under the project Women and
their Children Health (Watch) to ensure health
security for the rural mothers and their children.

Digital Systems of Agriculture.

The e-Agriculture Community provides an international

framework to facilitate the processes of capturing,
managing and disseminating the lessons learned through
national and regional activities, as well as the results and
implications of multilateral processes related to the use
of ICT in agriculture and rural development. The eAgriculture Community also provides the basis for the
international community to monitor development and
validation of conceptual models and methodologies and
to package and disseminate them once tested. Through
its collective activities some additional outputs of the
Community include: the development and strengthening
of innovative mechanisms and processes for information
exchange and communication, including normative
guidelines and tools being formulated, tested and
disseminated to address the range of demands and
capabilities of different Community members;
empowering networks for exchange of new mechanisms
and processes among key stakeholders; relevant content
in digital format being developed, filtered, mobilized and
exchanged by community members; and other activities
based on active partnerships and collaborative lessonlearning.

Aims of Digitalizing Agriculture in Rural

Areas

e-Agriculture can carry out

Area of e-agriculture

Quickest dissemination of agricultural information and technology;

Getting demand driven agricultural suggestions;

Farmers can get appropriate solution from the concern expert direct
from the field;

e-Agriculture must be well oriented on Seed, Fertilizer, Agricultural mechanization,

Irrigation, Pest management, credit, integrated and adoptive research, Extension
activities, Biotechnology, Information Management, Farmers Association, Marketing,
Preservation, Processing, Subsidy, Food procurement, Education, Industry,
Employment, Climate and weather and specially total agricultural management system
can be accelerated.

Improve agricultural production technology can get from dimensional

sectors;

Weapon of e-Agriculture

Production cost become less so getting maximum yield and

production;

Exact result can be ensured directly and immediately for the

betterment of agriculture;

Tele-centre/Call center

AICC, RIC, CIC, FICC, FIAC, FSC and all other social community clubs & hubs;

Website or portal in Bangla and English;

E-mail sharing in Bangla and English;

Mobile Phone- Call/SMS/MMS/ AM/ BM/IVR/WAPS systems;

Radio broadcast through Medium weave, Short wave, FM band and Community
Radio

Web Television and Web Radio;

Public and Private TV channel through terrestrial and satellite facilities;

Teleconference/Video conference/Phone in Program/Video chatting;

Video documentary, audio documentary, agricultural content digitization

through online & offline

Elaboration of mServices

The GSM Association commissioned Ovum to conduct a study into the economic and social benefits of
mobile services in Bangladesh. We were asked to examine whether there were any policy barriers
that may
prevent the full extent of any benefits of mobile services from being realized. In the event that
policy and
legislative barriers were found, we were asked to identify recommendations for change.

Our key findings from the study are as follows:

Almost a quarter of a million Bangladeshi depend on the mobile industry, directly and indirectly.

Mobile services contribute US$650 million to the economy every year.

Mobile services are good value for money when compared with other countries.

Mobile communications allow businesses to operate with greater efficiency.

For every additional 10 percentage points of mobile penetration, the annual GDP growth rate is increased
by

approximately 0.6%.

Higher mobile penetration will assist Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Increasing penetration by 1% increases
FDI as

a proportion of GDP by 0.5%.

The poorest citizens benefit most from mobile services.

Mobile services improve social cohesion, assist in reducing the digital divide, improve access to healthcare
and can

help improve users quality of life.

However the full realisation of these benefits is in

jeopardy unless firm policy and legislative action is
taken.
The key concerns that need to be addressed are:

High taxes. Of particular concern is the very high burden of industry specific taxes (taxes
levied on this industry only but not others). Considering all activities linked with the sector ,
these comprise 35% of the total tax generated by the industry. This diverts resources away
from the mobile communications sector and towards less productive sectors.

The tax policy is likely to be counter-productive for the Government as it reduces total tax
revenue. Ultimately, the consumer pays as the operators have no option but to pass the taxes
through to their customers. Worse still, the tax regime makes mobile services much more
expensive for those who need them most: the poor and those living in rural areas.

The interconnection regime. The interconnection regime the system that controls payments
between operators for connecting calls is fundamentally flawed and in need of reform.
Currently, the interconnection system subsidises the less productive and more expensive
fixed-line services, whilst harming the more productive and cheaper mobile industry.

 We offer the following recommendations

to address these problems:

Industry specific taxes should be gradually reduced and, in the medium term, removed entirely. This will
encourage the development of the industry, the economy and increase government revenues.

Currently, mobile-to-mobile interconnection is based on reciprocity. Likewise, fixed-to-mobile

interconnection charges should be introduced on a reciprocity basis to increase mobile penetration and
generate greater economic and social benefits.

Mobile-to-fixed interconnection charges should be brought down towards cost to bring an end to this
inefficient subsidy from the mobile to the fixed sector.

Competition is the best regulator: the government should allow competition between the mobile operators
to determine mobile retail prices. No action, formal or informal, should be taken to regulate mobile retail
prices. Price controls are well recognized to be a very blunt instrument: they are costly to design and
implement and prevent operators structuring their prices in ways necessary to maximize customer welfare.
However, in the case of fixed retail prices, the argument for retail price regulation is very much an open
debate especially in the light of BTTBs impending restructuring and privatization.

The prohibition on competitors using WLL technology to provide mobility should be effectively enforced.

International gateways should be liberalised to improve competition in the provision of outbound

international calls.

Measures should be introduced to encourage local equipment assembly and manufacturing of components
such as switch boxes, batteries and raw materials to ensure a reliable and low-cost source of supply to the
industry and to ensure that more of the benefits of mobile services remain within Bangladesh.

m-Services