JAGANNATH UNIVERSITY, DHAKA.

05/11/2012

Sumitted To:
Anup Kumar Saha, Lecturer, Dept. of Accounting and Information Systems, Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Sumitted By:
Kawsar Sikder 091103 Suman Biswas 091067 Md. Jafor Akon 091019 Md. Babul 091053 Jibon Haldar 091175 Md. Shahin Mia 091071 Sahabuddin Ahammed 091233 Pervez Ahmed 07882401 th Section A, 4 Batch Department of AIS Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Brief Introduction of Computer

The

introduction of computers starts out about 2000 years ago in Babylonia (Mesopotamia), at the birth of the abacus, a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them.

Blaise Pascal is usually credited for building the first digital computer in
1642. It added numbers entered with dials and was made to help his father, a tax collector. The basic principle of his calculator is still used today in water meters and modern-day odometers.

This first mechanical calculator, called the Pascaline, had several disadvantages. Although it did offer a substantial improvement over manual calculations, only Pascal himself could repair the device and it cost more than the people it replaced! In addition, the first signs of technophobia emerged with mathematicians fearing the loss of their jobs due to progress.

step towards automated computing was the development of punched cards. Devices that could read the information that had been punched into the cards automatically, without human help. Because of this, reading errors were reduced dramatically

These advantages were seen by commercial companies and soon led to

the development of improved punch-card using computers created by International Business Machines (IBM), Remington (yes, the same people that make shavers), Burroughs, and other corporations. These computers used electromechanical devices in which electrical power provided mechanical motion -- like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Such systems included features to:
o o o

feed in a specified number of cards automatically add, multiply, and sort feed out cards with punched results

Sequence of early Computers:

The Mark I Computer (1937 44) The Atanasoff- Berry Computer (1939 42) The ENIAC (1943 46)
The EDVAC (1946 - 52) The EDSAC (1947 49) The UNIVAC

I (1951)

Beginning of Computer Use in Bangladesh

Use of computer began in Bangladesh in the 1960s and assumed wider dimension in the nineties. Information Technology is today a well-known matter. IT began to assume greater acceptability in this country from the middle of the nineties. The first computer in Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) was installed at the atomic energy centre, Dhaka of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1964. It was an IBM Mainframe Computer of 1620 series. The main use of the machine was resolving complicated mathematical calculations in different research works. In the sixties rapid expansion of bank and insurance as well as trade and commerce including scientific research at both home and abroad increased manifold the volume of routine accounting works which necessitated rapidness in this job. In many of the big organizations, maintenance of accounts manually became almost impossible. During this period a number of big organizations of the country set up costly Mainframe Computer. The then Habib Bank installed IBM 1401 computer while the United Bank used IBM 1901 in the late sixties. These computers belonging to the 3rd generation Mainframe type were mainly used for entire accounting works of these banks. Before the independence, an IBM 360 computer was set up at the Bureau of Statistics in 1969. A Mainframe computer was also installed at Adamjee Jute Mills during the same period. Before independence, inclusion of computer hardware and software related courses in the curricula of Mathematics, Physics, Applied Physics and Electronics at university level education began, though in a limited way. After independence computerization process in this country got a new spurt. In this manner Bangladesh bureau of statistics played an important role. Big computers like IBM 370, IBM 9100 and IBM 4341 etc were installed in this organization in phases since 1972. The development of computerization process in this organization still continues and different powerful computers and other ultra modern IT equipment of subsequent generations have since been installed there. In September 1979 an IBM 370 and an IBM 4331 Mainframe Computer were introduced at the Bangladesh University Engineering and technology (BUET) and BUET Computer Centre was also established. This Computer Centre has been playing a pioneering role in imparting computer education in Bangladesh and disseminating

computer technology in the country. Atomic energy research establishment (AERE) at Savar installed an IBM 4341 Mainframe Computer in 1981. The Dhaka University Computer Centre began its journey with an IBM 4331 Mainframe Computer in 1985. The invention of microprocessor by the Intel Corporation of the United States in 1971 brought about a revolution in the shape and capability of computer. Microprocessor based computers started to appear in the markets. Personal Computer or PC innovated by the IBM (International Business Machines) company hit the market in 1981. Later on high-powered microprocessors began to evolve one after another alongside powerful PCs. The IBM did not keep any prohibitory regulation about manufacturing IBM compatible computers from the very beginning. This brought about revolutionary changes in their prices and their uses also multiplied. On the other hand Apple Computer Incorporate also released in the market Apple-Macintosh computer evolved by them. But the Apple did not adopt any liberal policy in making their compatible computer and hence the price of Macintosh computer remained very high that precluded it from achieving expected popularity. Nevertheless, due to some special practical privileges Apple-Macintosh were widely used particularly in printing industries. PCs became easily available due to its easy use and cheapness in price. As a result, use of PCs started to increase in Bangladesh mainly since the last part of the eighties, especially in education and business concerns. However, wider use of computer in Bangladesh accelerated from the mid-nineties.

Present Condition of computerization in Bangladesh

The use of information and communication technology has been playing a vital role in the 21st century due to globalization and the government is encouraged to adapting with the coming future. Computer is being used in many sectors in Bangladesh which are: The Use Of Computers In Business The Use Of Computers In Language Learning And Language Teaching Using Pervasive Computing To Deliver Elder Care

 Growth Of Distributed Systems Using Grid Computing And Softer

Aspects Of

e-Science

The Use Of Computers In Accounting Use Of Computer Technology In Medicine

Use of computer in Banking & Insurance industry

Wireless Communications Using Mobile Computers And Devices To

Send

And Receive Messages

Use of Computer To Find Out The Truth About Nearly Anyone The Use Of Computer In Education Use Of Computers In Medicine Use Of Computer In Our Society Uses Of Computers In Hr Planning Use Of Computer In Any Company

Computer organizations:

In 1983 a national committee was formed aimed at purchasing computers to cater to the government requirements. In 1988 the committee was renamed as the National Computer Board. This Board was further reformed in 1989 and was made into an institution under the Ministry of Science and Technology in the name of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC). BCC has now been working as a government advisory body on computer.

Growth rate of computerization in Bangladesh:

Bangladesh has a relatively long experience in the use of computers the first "second generation" computer was installed in 1964 at Dhaka and very soon some of the large banks and industrial concerns started using computers, mainly for accounting and payroll applications. The utility companies (e.g. gas, electricity) also started using the bureau facilities of these installations for their customer billing. Unfortunately, the financial crisis that the country faced immediately after its independence in 1971 did not permit the

sustenance of this early lead and lack of maintenance forced the closure of most of these installations. The growth rate is quite impressive. A recent study indicates that the PC growth rate in our country is around 40%. However even with this rate it is likely that considerable time will have elapsed before PC penetration reaches a more reasonable level. The government has taken a decision recently (June, 1998) to withdraw all import duties and VAT from all computer hardware and software. This has brought the prices of computers down to a level affordable by middle income households and sales of PCs have soared during the last few months. A 80-90% annual growth in the number of PCs sold is expected this year. An Information Technology village is going to be set up very close to Dhaka. The government has already made 18 acres of land available for setting up this IT village. This would be similar to the Software Technology Parks in India. All the infrastructure, including high-speed telecommunication facilities ( 2 Mbps link) would be provided. These would enable the small companies to move into buildings with readily available facilities. Since this is going to take at least two years, a decision has been taken to initially set it up in an existing building in Dhaka. In order to enable the young entrepreneurs in the IT field, a special fund has been created by the government to provide working capital loan without any collaterals. A venture capital fund is also being set up. The banking procedures are also being amended and simplified to reflect the different nature of software transactions. Experience of other countries shows that it is very difficult to achieve success in exporting software unless there is a big domestic market. The government ministries and departments are being asked to computerize their activities. A domestic price preference of 15% would be given to suppliers of locally developed software.

Problems and solutions regarding computerization in Bangladesh

There are some prerequisites related with computerization of a country absence of which cause to hamper the growth and benefits from this sector. Due to globalization, more specifically due to booming of ICT like most of the countries on the globe, Bangladesh has already been connected with the outside world. Yet in the field of ICT, our only grand success lies in Mobile telecommunication which has brought an abrupt change in telecommunication scenario of the country. However, in the other spheres of ICT, our achievement is very insignificant and we are still far away from transforming ourselves into a knowledge-based society. Building strong ICT infrastructure is the pre-requisite for making Bangladesh a digital and computerized one. For this, we need to focus on the following relevant issues assessing the harsh reality that hinders our development in this context.

a) Power deficit: Latest statistics reveal that Bangladesh

faces a power deficit of up to 2000 MW against a demand of 5000 MW daily. It may be noted that for proper ICT development an uninterrupted power supply is a must.

b) Network infrastructure: Outside Dhaka, at present a

few computer network infrastructures have been developed so far. Apart from some educational institutes outside Dhaka, observation finds that most of the LAN setups are Dhaka centric. This observation reveals the reality of the digital gap even within the country.

c) Use of Internet: For the ICT development Internet users

of the country must be increased. In this case our position is the worst one among the South Asian countries. The latest statistics (ITU, 2007) revealed that Internet penetration in our country is only 0.3%. Whereas, Pakistan and India, it is 7.3% and 5.3% respectively.

d) Under sea submarine cable: Since 2006, Bangladesh

has been connected to worldwide Internet Super High Way through an undersea submarine cable. But this single submarine cable frequently faces disruption resulting in slow bandwidth.

e) Network Readiness: Networked Readiness Index (NRI),

developed by the University of Harvard, measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology. The NRI seeks to better comprehend the impact of ICT on the competitiveness of nations. The NRI is a composite of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the communitys key stakeholders (individuals, businesses, and governments) to use ICT, and finally the usage of ICT amongst these stakeholders. Unfortunately, the latest survey (2006-7) revealed that Bangladeshs NRI ranking is one of the lowest among the Asian countries.

f) Use of open source software: Many countries (e.g.

France and Malaysia) have started to use open source software in ICT development projects for cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, in our ICT development domain the culture of using open source has not yet been introduced.

g) English literacy rate: From different sources, it has

been learnt that, English literacy rate in Bangladesh is less than one percent. Whereas, English literacy rates in India and Pakistan are 60% and 20% respectively. There is a strong correlation between English literacy and ICT development in the present context of globalization. In the arena of ICT English has become the Lingua-Franca. On the other hand, we have not localized Bengali in the domain of computing. Hence, English literacy is a must for our ICT development. Unfortunately, in this case our position is the worst in the sub-continent.

h)

Unavailability

of

computer

technology:

Unavailability of computer technology is another problem of application of computer in Bangladesh has taken necessary steps for removing this problem. Though the above accounts seem to be frustrating one, these can be easily overcome within a reasonable span of time if we can establish good governance in the country. Since independence, Bangladesh has been critically suffering from poor governance. Lack of vision, corruption, lack of transparency, weak coordination, undemocratic decision making were the salient features of our past governments.

These can also be marked as the major barrier to the overall progress of Bangladesh. However, the newly installed government which has called for changes, hopefully, will establish much expected good governance to keep up with peoples aspiration. For making a digital Bangladesh by 2021, the government must address the above stated issues effectively and efficiently in transparent manners. In many cases we need to reformulate our national policy (e.g. education policy, ICT policy) in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals. In reformulating the ICT policy, we will need to take a pragmatic and visionary approach so that it can curb the prevailing digital gap in the society. Moreover, the journey towards a digital Bangladesh needs the incorporation of the technologically solvent innovative younger generation. If the leaders of our country objectively guide this generation, they can do wonder for the nation. After all, the young generation always looks forward and they can help bring about positive changes in the society.

Future Prospect of Computerization in Bangladesh

At present Information Technology (IT) is a subject of widespread interest in Bangladesh. There are around 100 software houses, 35 data entry centers, thousands of formal and informal IT training centers and numerous computer shops. The Government has declared IT as a thrust sector and that computer training centre will be set up in each divisional and district headquarters of Bangladesh. Import of computer hardware and software is now duty free, VSAT is deregulated, and high speed DDN (Digital Data Network) has been introduced. One fourth of the 45 recommendations of JRC report on software export have already been implemented; rest is in the process of implementation. A tremendous activity is going on in every sector including e-commerce, e-governance, computer networking, Internet, web browsing, web applications, multimedia product development etc. Some active steps and initiatives are already there, as described below for an exposure of the present and future prospects of IT in Bangladesh.

Associations and professional bodies: The associations and professional bodies who are playing vital role to develop the IT sector in Bangladesh are as follows: * Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS) was formed in 1979. This is an association of the IT Professionals. * Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) was formed in 1987. This is basically an association of Computer Vendors. * Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) was formed in 1998 to promote the interest of IT business, especially for software development and related IT services. * Bangladesh Software Marketing and Promotions (BSMP), a private organization, has been formed with the view to helping the local computer programmers and promote their software. * Bangladesh Computer Writers Association has been formed to promote the writers activities in the country. * Bangladesh Association for Information Technology Education (BAITE) has been formed to promote the activities toward standardizing informal IT education in the country. Banks support: Well-trained Bangladeshi IT professionals can start their business like Data entry, Web development, Multimedia, ISP and Medical Data Transcription services, Cybercaf and IT Training Centre. They can easily get financial help from bank. A number of government banks have already started credit programmes to encourage the entrepreneurs in software industry. Some private banks are using our locally developed software too. However, due to some constraints the outcome is not up to the expectation. Government initiatives: The Government of Bangladesh has taken some important initiatives to develop our IT sector. Still we are waiting to see a fruitful change in our Information Technology. However, some remarkable steps of government are highlighted for information. * IT has been declared as a thrust sector. * Quick implementation of the recommendations of JRC reports (a high powered committee for software export). * Waiving all taxes and duties from import of computer hardware and software. * Hundred percent remittances of profit and capital gains for foreign investors without any approval. * BTTB's implementation of DDN service. * Decision to link Bangladesh to global highway through submarine cable link by next two years.

Bangladesh Computer Council: Bangladesh Computer Council is the apex body of the government dealing with Information Technology. BCC is running according to BCC Act, 1990 as an autonomous organization under the administrative control of the Ministry of Science & Technology. BCC is playing various types of roles regarding the IT booming over the country. Human resource: Human resource is the most important component for IT industry. Bangladesh has a huge educated, unemployed youth force with the ability to read and write English. The country can take advantage of its immense manpower to train and prepare programmers and IT professionals. Government has already started a project to develop Computer Programmers in Bangladesh. All the universities are offering one year post-graduate Diploma course for the graduates. Our unemployed educated persons can take this opportunity to build their career as IT professionals. IT awareness: Young generation in Bangladesh is very enthusiastic and has correctly identified IT as the future of the country. There are numerous computer clubs, computer festivals, programming contests, web design contests; IT related seminars and discussions in many cities of the country. There are about 16 magazines and four digital IT magazines are being published monthly and some daily newspapers publish IT pages once/twice a week. A few of the magazines are in collaboration with other international magazines; however, most of these are Bangladeshi origin. There are a few interactive sites and forums. A number of business centres and cybercafes have started up recently. Most of these business centres provide e-mail; e-mail to fax, phonefax services and cyber cafes offer Internet browsing. E-commerce: Recently there has been a surge in E-commerce activities in Bangladesh. There are E-commerce related seminars and symposiums in the country almost every day and all the major training centres are offering courses on E-commerce. Government is now formulating laws for e-commerce to enhance the business rapidly and smoothly. IT park and international market: Some private organizations have already started to work for setting up IT park and IT villages in the country. Some investors are foreigners and they are very much interested to build Bangladeshi students as IT professionals. They have already started to commission their views. Our Bangladeshi students can take this chance and hit the international job market in the IT field. There are lot of scopes of working and entering into the international market. Just we have to take proper initiatives.

Bangladeshi IT professionals have a good demand in international IT job market, which has been proved by some of our BUET students. Conclusion: Our Bangladeshi students should be more aware about Information Technology and they should take proper decision to build their career. Indians have changed their whole financial position by IT. Their government also is very much serious about IT. Anyway, Bangladesh has a long way to go in a very short time to enjoy the fruits of information age. It will be only possible when there will be political commitment with better IT infrastructure, internal network, country domain and above all a high speed fibre optic link to the Information Superhighway.