PM unveils laptop Doel

FE Team | Published: October 12, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the Education Ministry to take effective steps to introduce computer notebooks on massive scale at all schools to free the students from the burden of carrying so many textbooks, reports UNB. She was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the first-ever Bangladesh made laptop, 'Doel', at the city's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre Tuesday morning. The Prime Minister also said e-information service would be introduced in 33 districts by this November as the service is already available in 31 other districts. The much-hyped laptop 'Doel' with four different models priced at Tk 10,000, Tk 13,500, Tk 22,000 and Tk 26000 have been produced by the state-run Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) in collaboration with 2M Corporation Ltd., Dhaka and TFT Technology, Penang, Malaysia. The name 'Doel' for the four models have been finalised keeping in mind the nation's history, as 'Doel' is Bangladesh's national bird. The Primary Model 2102 has been named keeping in mind the February 21, the Language Martyrs Day, Basic Model 0703 named on the basis of Bangabandhu's historic March 7 speech, Standard Model 2603 named on the basis of March 26, the Independence Day and the last Advanced Model 1612 named on December 16, the National Victory Day. Shilpa Sangstha and the companies collaborating with it would jointly manufacture a total of 10,000 laptops every month. It would be finalised later when and how the laptops would be marketed. Speaking at the opening function, Prime Minister Hasina asked the ministry concerned to install the e-books in the laptops in the interest of the students. Hasina said new generation would have to receive the blessings of science and technology. "Our school students have to have access to the latest technologies. I want the students not to go to their schools with bags of books on their shoulders, but only with a notebook," she said. The Prime Minister said the government formulated the ICT Policy 2009 and ICT Act 2009 in the last three years. Computer E-labs have already been set up at one college and one school in every district, she said. Hasina said such computer labs have been set up in 128 upazilas while the rest of the upazilas would also get the same labs very soon. The work for bringing the whole country under an e-government is going on, she said. The government in collaboration with the Chinese government has taken a project to provide 3G mobile services in remote rural areas. "Once the 3G service is available, over 1.7 million subscribers of Teletalk would get 3G service while 4.8 million subscribers would get 2.5G service," Hasina said.