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TECHSPOTLIGHT

Sci-Tech at Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2009

Samiul Islam Rikth
Iwas literally counting the days and waiting impatiently tor this year's Amar Ekushey Book Fair to start.
Last year, at this very event I had the time of my life and this year 1 was looking forward to see what this year's fair would be like.
And finally on February 1. the curtains to the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2009 were finally raised.
This year, not only the fair took over the premises of the Bangla Academy but also spread across on both sides of the roads stretching between the Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Atomic Energy Commission. 460 stalls of 297 publishing houses are taking part in this year's month-long mega book exposition.
The annual Amar Ekushey Book Fair is by-far the largest gathering of readers where you get to see the work of different writers and publishers being appreciated and recognised. And like every other year, this year was no different.
Both new and old writers were flaunting their talents and creativity to the thousands of people and as always titles by Humayun Ahmed, Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, Emdadul Haque Milon and Anisul Haque.
Apart from checking out what's new at this year's grand fair, I had another objective to visit the Amar Ekushey Book Fair. Since I have been writing about a digital Bangladesh over the last few weeks and how we as a nation want our country to be digitalised, I wanted to see how this year's book fair was contributing towards that target of a digital Bangladesh by 2021.
Most of the stalls had different kinds of books regarding science, technology and even astronomy. However. I felt that none of the books were getting the land of response that they deserved.
According to me, one of the reasons behind this is the fact that they were not being highlighted and exhibited properly in the different stalls.
These kinds of events are a way to enlighten people on different issues relating to science, technology and astronomy and get them educated. When people wall get to know about all this different kind of things, we as a nation will be able to head towards digitalisation because we the people will be aware of the changes that are coming about now and in the forthcoming future and be prepared for it.
Nevertheless, the fact that books on science, technology and astronomy are available at this year's fair is a great thing. Atleast people who are keen and out looking for books on the latest gadgets, advancements in science and reasons as to why 2009 is the year of astronomy will not be walking out of the fair empty handed.
This year, Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) set up a stall within the Bangla Academy premises and it was pretty impressive. On display, it had different kinds of Bengali software and multimedia like visual basic, different kinds of Photoshops and many more to name.
Apart from that, the stall also
displayed a range of Bangla software for kids' learning and entertainment like reading and writing in Bangla and even how to learn singing and dancing virtually. Software on religion, prayers and how to pray were also available. A few other stalls exhibited all these items and it was quite notable.
Virtual education is a great medium of becoming digitalised and introducing this type of education to the younger generation at a young age is praiseworthy because it is mainly this generation that will actually help us achieve a digital Bangladesh.
Development Research Network (D.Net), an organisation that fore-
sees to use information and communication (ICT) for economic development in Bangladesh also set up a stall at this year's grand fair.
D. Net is highlighting the information on ongoing and completed projects and programmes on six different themes like- Access to Information and Knowledge, Business Competitiveness for Economic Growth, Governance and Human Rights, Human Capacity Building, Institutional Capacity Building and Economic and Development Policy Research.
This year's fair does showcase science and technology; however from my point of view it's not enough. I mean, a mega exposition where
reading and learning is promoted in such a grand scale is where we should bring the different advancements and achievements in science and technology to the public eye so that people can be educated and get to know of the changes that will help us achieve a digital Bangladesh.
If people are unaware of how we are becoming a digitalised, then achieving a digital Bangladesh by 2021 will be really difficult. So to make this more easier, I hope initiatives are taken and efforts are made at such spectacular events so that people are made aware of the steps leading to a digital Bangladesh and we as a nation can achieve our goal by 2021.