Day: February 25, 2022

A training programme on ‘making robots’ for students of classes V to X started at the laboratories of Cumilla Collectorate School and College and District administration lab creating enthusiasm among young learners.

Organized by Cumilla Robotics and Programming Club the objective of the training is to improve the technological knowledge among the students and make them interested in scientific inventions.

Over 700 students from 16 educational institutions in Cumilla city first took part in a three-day workshop. From among them, 120 students were selected for this training, said assistant Commissioner Kaniz Fatema, officer-in-charge of the ICT department of the district administration.

Besides, training will be arranged in every upazila on the initiative of Cumilla Robotics and Programming Club, she added.

During a visit the UNB correspondent found the students busy with their training. In the district administration lab, the body print of the robot is running on the 3D printer. In addition, students are working with sensors.

Mahmuda bin Mohsin, a 10th grader of Cumilla High School, said, “I can learn many things from this training. This is a new experience. I hope I can do something good through this workshop”.

Shirin Akhter, a guardian, said “My daughter Jinat Akhter is in 10th grade. She has been interested in technology since childhood. She is very happy to come to this workshop”.

Training on ‘Robot making’ underway in Cumilla amid students’ enthusiasm

Sanjit Mandal, head of the coaching team, said there are 5 students from Cumilla University acting as trainers. Students are really interested in technology and they are learning new things, he added. “I hope they will be able to show their technological talent through it”.

Cumilla Victoria Government College Principal Abu Jafar Khan said, this is an exceptional initiative and it will benefit the students. Like the district administration, “We will also arrange technology-based training for the students”, he added

Cumilla Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Kamrul Hasan said, “We are working to create skilled innovators to meet the challenges of making Bangladesh a developed nation by 2041 as envisioned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Fourth Industrial Revolution ”.

Cumilla Robotics and Programming Club has been formed in this regard, he added.

Mohammad Kamrul, also the President of Cumilla Robotics and Programming Club said Robotics and programming competitions will be organized at the national level with 100 students soon.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Smartphone brand Infinix recently launched Zero 5G, its first 5G smartphone.

Zero 5G was initially launched globally in Shanghai, China on February 8 and will be available soon.

The smartphone has a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 900 master processor, a uni-curve design, a 48MP AI Triple camera with 30X ultra-zoom, a 6.78″ FHD+ ultra-smooth display with 120Hz Refresh Rate and 240Hz Touch Sample Rate, and a 5000mAh with 33W charge technology.

“Our innovation gives users a smartphone with better performance from a slimmer and stylish design that includes every key technology feature they are looking for in a 5G device that offers the most bang for its buck within its price range,” Charles Ding, deputy product director of Infinix Mobility, said.

Infinix aims to improve the user experience by leveraging the benefits of 5G – such as higher speeds, seamless connection, faster downloads, greater coverage, and bandwidth-heavy apps support.

Users can benefit from improved download and gaming speed as well as reduced power consumption through the 5G mode in 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G chipset, which enables automatic switching between link4G and 5G according to the user’s bandwidth.

MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G chipset is integrated with a 5G New Radio (NR) sub-6GHz modem with carrier aggregation and is equipped with an octa-core central processing unit (CPU) consisting of two Arm Cortex-A78 processors with a clock speed of up to 2.4GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores operating at up to 2GHz – offering snappier app responses and faster frames per second (FPS) for gaming.

The chipset’s Arm Mali-G68 MC4 graphics processing unit (GPU) and independent artificial intelligence (AI) processing unit (APU) offer mobile gamers extended battery life through power-efficiency optimisation.

Zero 5G smartphone also comes with Wi-Fi 6 and 2X2 MIMO technology that offers about 1.2 Gbps connectivity speeds.

The phone comes in three bold colours: Cosmic Black, Skylight Orange, and Horizon Blue.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Malaysia is looking for a greater collaboration with Bangladesh on trade and investment with particular focus on agricommodities like palm oil, rubber and timber, says visiting Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin on Friday.

“Bangladesh is a potential country for us to enhance trade relations,” she said, adding that Malaysian companies are keen to inject more investment in these areas.

While talking to a small group of journalists at a city hotel in the evening, Kamaruddin said they want to strengthen their presence in South Asia and beyond showing Malaysia’s clear dominance in agricommodities.

She appreciated the business environment in Bangladesh which is “improving a lot” and described the policies of the government of Bangladesh as “very friendly” for foreign investment.

She said Malaysian palm oil export to Bangladesh grew by 13 per cent in December 2021-January 2022 period and termed this sharp increase “very encouraging.”

Total agricommodity trade export value from Malaysia to Bangladesh in 2021 was RM 846 million.

She said Malaysia is now looking for ways to establish “downstream industries” in Bangladesh for the commodities, which are under her ministry, especially top three commodities – palm oil, rubber and timber.

The minister said Malaysian businesspeople are actively considering setting up joint venture industries in Bangladesh.

To see the near potential we can work on south Asian countries, she said.

She said the growing infrastructure projects, housing projects, furniture and footwear industry in Bangladesh pushed the demand for Malaysian timber and rubber.

So, she said, there can be so many downstream factories here, which will process and use these products.

KL to cooperate with Dhaka on agricommodities: Malaysian Minister

The Minister mentioned recent policy reforms by Bangladesh for foreign investors including increasing the number of economic zones, duty free facilities provided by many countries and profit repatriation measures that she found encouraging.

Responding to a question she said that Bangladesh’s textiles, footwear and leather sectors have huge potentials of exports in Malaysia to balance the trade imbalance, now in favor of Malaysia.

The export to Bangladesh from Malaysia is 1.3 billion dollar whereas Malaysia imports products worth only $800,000 annually, she said quoting recent statistics.

The minister said there are around 500,000 overseas workers in the plantation sector in her country and among them 200,000 are Bangladeshis.

Terming Bangladeshi workers loyal and hardworking she said her ministry tries its best to provide best possible living conditions to the overseas workers.

During her visit Minister Kamaruddin met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi and local business leaders, among others.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) led by its President Syed Almas Kabir met Zuraida Kamaruddin on Thursday.

At the meeting, Almas Kabir shared the ideas of cooperation in the palm industry and joint venture on processing factories in Bangladesh, investment opportunities in agro-processing industries and taking advantage to set up a Special Economic Zone for Malaysia.

Among others, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Bangladesh Haznah Md Hashim, Deputy High Commissioner Amir Farid Abu Hasan, Director of Malaysian Timber Council Khairul Anwar, BMCCI past presidents Syed Moazzam Hossain, Md. Alamgir Jalil,iImmediate past President Raquib Mohammad Fakhrul, Vice President Shabbir Ahmede Khan, Hon. Secretary General Md. Motaher Hushan Khan, Secretary General Rubaiyat Ahsan, Director Kazi Shah Muzakker Ahmadul Hoque and concerned officials from both sides were also present during the meeting.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

The World Bank has approved $300 million to help Bangladesh strengthen its urban local government institutions to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and improve preparedness to future shocks, benefitting about 40 million urban residents.

The Local Government Covid-19 Response and Recovery Project will support urban local government institutions to effectively respond to and recover from the pandemic, the World Bank said in a release on Friday.

Some 329 municipalities and 10 city corporations will have the provision to receive funds bi-annually from the project to improve critical urban services delivery of facilities and infrastructure, local economic recovery, and preparedness to climate impacts, disaster and future disease outbreak.

The project will support labour intensive public works to restore the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people, mostly working in the informal sector who were most affected by the Covid restrictions and lockdowns.

Aided by the funding from the project, the eligible urban local bodies will install community hand-washing stations and toilets, and improve sanitisation in municipality-owned or operated markets, burial grounds, and public offices.

The project will help the residents have better access to municipality-operated health clinics and facilitate vaccine registrations for disadvantaged people, and conduct awareness programs on Covid-safety protocols, vaccines, and climate risks.

It will create 1.5 million days of temporary work as well as employment for 10,000 women under the public work scheme, the World Bank said.

The project will also help the local government institutions to improve preparedness to climate impacts, disaster, and future disease outbreak.

The project will help strengthen local institutions through training, technical support, and set up a web-based platform for better coordination and exchange of information during emergencies. It will be implemented in in all eight divisions — Barishal, Chattogram, Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet.

Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, said that the pandemic had hit hard the poor people in urban areas, caused income losses and disrupted basic service delivery.

“But the city corporations and the municipalities can play a critical role in helping the urban poor recover from the pandemic as well as get cities prepared to handle future shocks,” she said.

She also said that the project will help the cities and towns to build back better as they recover from the pandemic and prepare for future shocks, including climate change, disasters, and disease outbreaks.

Shenhua Wang, World Bank Senior Urban Development Specialist and Task Team Leader for the Project, said that the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the number of urban poor up to 27 million.

“The project will carry out labour-intensive public works and operations and maintenance schemes that in one hand will ensure water supply and sanitation, drainage, and other critical services reach low-income areas, slums, and areas exposed to high disease outbreak and disaster risks and in other hand create jobs for the poor urban people.”

Source: United News of Bangladesh

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has announced the allocation of 20 million US dollars as humanitarian support to Ukraine, with the rise of fatalities following the Russian invasion of the country.

The top UN official reminded that “people – everyday innocent people — always pay the highest price” and said this is why the UN is scaling up its humanitarian operations in and around Ukraine.

“Today I am announcing that we will immediately allocate 20 million US dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund to meet urgent needs,” Guterres told reporters on Thursday.

He reiterated that the UN and its humanitarian partners are committed to staying and delivering, to support people in Ukraine in their time of need.

Russian military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine “on a scale that Europe has not seen in decades, conflict directly with the United Nations Charter,” he said.

Despite a sustained UN-led and international diplomatic push to avert military action in Ukraine, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did just that – triggering a barrage of reactions, beginning with the UN chief, condemning the move and appealing for peace.

“All nembers shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations,” he said, quoting the Charter.

He underscored that the use of force by one country against another is “the repudiation of the principles that every country has committed to uphold”, which he stated, applies to the present military offensive.

“It is wrong. It is against the Charter. It is unacceptable. But it is not irreversible”, the UN chief said.

He went on to repeat the appeal he made to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday night. “Stop the military operation. Bring the troops back to Russia”, he reiterated.

Assisting both sides

He told journalists that UN staff are working on “both sides of the contact line”, providing lifesaving humanitarian relief to people in need, “regardless of who or where they are”.

“The protection of civilians must be priority number one,” he stressed.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Australian company for recruiting Bangladeshis in the Australian ICT sector.

The state-owned manpower exporting company BOESL inked the MoU with Australian company Sterning on Thursday, said a PID handout on Friday.

BOESL Managing Director Md Billal Hossain and Operation Director of Sterning Paul Egan on behalf of their respective sides signed the document.

As per the agreement, Sterning will arrange employment for the skilled manpower of Bangladesh in the ICT sector in different client companies in Australia.

BOESL will provide competent candidates against the demand of Sterning. Bangladeshi ICT professionals will have job opportunities in Australia for the next three years under the deal.

Consulate General of Bangladesh in Sydney Khandaker Masudul Alam, Counsellor (Labour) of Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra Md Salahuddin, Sterning CEO Joseph Merz and BOESL Executive Manager Md Mahabubur Rahman, among others, virtually joined the agreement signing ceremony.

Billal Hossain said the BOESL is now contacting other Australian companies to expand the skilled manpower export to Australia in other sectors.

Joseph Merz said there is demand for skilled IT professionals in Australia. So, recruitment of Bangladeshi professionals will help meet the demand.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

India is projected to export an estimated $500 billion worth of green energy by 2042, Bloomberg reported, citing chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, reports ARAB NEWS.

“India will emerge as a global new energy leader,” Bloomberg reported, citing Ambani.

The technicalities on how this will be achieved is yet to be disclosed.

However, the South Asian country is dependent on businessmen such as Ambani to help it achieve net zero by 2070.

Ambani’s multinational conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd., plans to invest a total of $76 billion in clean energy projects over the coming years.

“For the next two to three decades, India’s dependence on coal and imported oil will continue, but we must have a plan to eliminate that,” Ambani said.

Accordingly, Reliance Industries is repurposing one of its plants to generate blue hydrogen at $1.2 to $1.5 per kilogram.

Source: United News of Bangladesh