44 innovations honoured at Bangladesh ICT and Innovation Awards

The Bangladesh ICT and Innovation Network (BIN) recognised 44 innovations from 355 projects at the Bangladesh ICT and Innovation Awards 2026 in Dhaka on Saturday.

Of the innovations, nine won champion awards, 10 won winner awards, and 25 received innovation merit awards.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Fakir Mahbub Anam, minister for posts, telecommunications and information technology and minister for science and technology, presented the awards as the chief guest on the BRAC University campus.

Speaking at the event, Mahbub said young people were coming up with ideas, but Bangladesh was unable to implement them adequately.

“Artificial intelligence is becoming an important part of our lives. About seven lakh students complete their undergraduate degrees in Bangladesh every year,” he said.

“This vast young population must be connected with technology and innovation. We have to make use of our young people’s creativity, skills, and innovative thinking.”

Md Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki, state minister for planning, attended as the special guest, while Md Anwar Hossain, secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Maj Gen (retd) Md Imdad Ul Bari, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, attended as guests of honour.

Zonayed said science, information technology and innovation were linked to economic progress, adding that the government wanted to increase research allocations.

“There is no doubt that the government, businesses, and educational institutions must come together … to bring these innovations into real collaboration,” he said.

Syed Almas Kabir, chairman of BIN, called for policies to protect innovations and greater private-sector funding for research.

“Our education system must give more importance to innovation and research. It is not enough just to use technology; we must create our own technology and knowledge,” he said.

Of the 355 projects submitted by organisations, educational institutions and individuals or teams, 118 were shortlisted for final evaluation.

A 40-member judging panel comprising government, banking and corporate executives, academics, chamber representatives, startup experts and technology journalists assessed the projects based on originality, public utility, commercial potential and technical quality.

The nine champions included three organisational projects -- “Shokriyo DMS”, “My ECG AI” and “The Sukhi Way: Connected Care Through Integrated Digital Services” -- and five student projects: “AgentIAM”, “Chronic”, “Sync V-1: Braille Embosser”, “Arbor” and “BrailleBridge”. “Bindo” won in the individual/team category.

The champion and winner innovations will be nominated to represent Bangladesh at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2026.

Saurav Tarafdar, team leader of “Sync V-1”, said his team developed a Braille printer for Tk 28,000, compared with the roughly Tk 7 lakh cost of conventional models. “If we get funding, we can produce this product on a much larger scale,” he said.

The event was sponsored by Eastern Bank, CartUp, American International University- Bangladesh, Mutual Trust Bank, Grameen HealthTech, Super Star Group and Walton.