Shameem Ahsan
Co-founder of Akhoni.Com

Shameem Ahsan is a serial ICT entrepreneur and co-founded Akhoni.com Ltd., eGeneration Ltd., Benchmark-eGeneration Ltd. and Terratech Ltd. He has received “Best Young Entrepreneur of Bangladesh” award from the Prime Minister of Bangladesh at Dhaka Chamber of Commerce Business Award. He is a member at Prime Minister's Digital Bangladesh Task Force, Government of Bangladesh, which is the highest policy-making body to monitor and implement the vision of building Digital Bangladesh. He is the Co-Chairman of the Standing Committee on Digitization of Trade Bodies at Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI). He is also the Chairman of International Market Development Standing Committee and Former Vice President of Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS).

Shameem was speaker at many international conferences and seminars organized by Global Sourcing Forum NY, Sweden IT Industry Association, Danish Federation of Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS).Small & Medium Enterprises, Denmark IT Industry Association, Syntens Netherlands, Paris Chamber of Commerce, University of Bremen, Aalborg University, Denmark, UK Trade & Investment etc. where he has promoted the Bangladesh ICT Industry. Shameem is a graduate from University of Central Oklahoma, USA with a specialization in Management Information Systems. Shameem was two times national junior tennis champion and represented Bangladesh national tennis team in many international tournaments including SAF games.

Shameem's latest venture Akhoni.com is the leading Digital Marketing and eCommerce company . It is revolutionizing the penetration of Digital and Social Media in Bangladesh. Akhoni offers discounts up to 90% in your city on popular businesses like Computer & Electronics, Fashion & Lifestyle, Restaurants, Travel & Hotels, Entertainment, Movies, Fitness centers, Beauty parlors and lot more.

Akhoni.com has been created with a view to deliver high quality products and services to its customers, while offering them price savings at convenience. Akhoni.com very carefully handpicks companies which they would like to partner with. Currently, companies like Unilever, Transcom Group, Pran RFL Group, Citycell, Star Cineplex, Ecstasy, Cream & Fudge, Samsung, Nokia have partnered with Akhoni.com to promote their products and services through digital and social media with huge discounts. The concept of Akhoni.com was new for Bangladesh, but engaging users from home and abroad, this new model has been proved a grand success in the country. The model has been facilitating the businesses with promotion and sales, bringing in economy and convenience for the customers at the same time. Customers can buy products from Akhoni.com website by using credit cards or by paying cash on product or coupon delivery. Akhoni.com is also the first website which allows to buy products using mobile payment system supported by bKash. AKhoni.com is also the first eCommerce company to deliver products all over Bangladesh.

Shameem dreams of a digitally robust Bangladesh with greater efficiency and convenience. He wants to revolutionize the way people are finding and buying products and services and getting them delivered. Moreover, he wants to help the SMEs to enhance their marketing presence and promote their products and services to global customers which will generate enormous employment and bring foreign currency to our country.

Didar Islam
Technologist and Entrepreneur

Technologist and Entrepreneur Didar Islam has taken great strides to not only raise the profile of Electrical Engineering in Bangladesh, but bring about significant change in the way power may be generated -- no small achievement in the current global climate.

Islam, through his company SOLARIC Ltd., invented the Solar Micro-inverter, patented in Bangladesh and the USA as the only commercially available technology in the world for Off-grid Solar System that produces high voltage (220V) from low voltage PV or Battery (12V).

Zero static loss and high Efficiency (95%) are the two distinctive features of the technology that makes it ideal for off-grid rural Bangladesh. The micro-inverter has reduced the capital expenditure of solar cells by a factor of more than 50 percent while being off grid, thus allowing cost-effective and rapid deployment in rural areas.

In layman terms, inverters are being used for the first time in Solar Home Systems in rural Bangladesh and the end users are finally been to use standard appliances such as fans, colour TVs etc. Traditional Solar Home Systems were 12V Systems limited to appliances such as special 12V lights only.

Islam also founded Power IC Ltd., the first Analog IC Design company in Dhaka and has been working as the Managing Director of the newly established venture since early 2004.

Most big-name semiconductor companies outsource a lot of their activities (like digital design, VHDL coding, verification, FAB for standard digital process, packaging, testing etc.) offshore in order to lower the cost to be competitive but companies are still struggling to outsource Analog Design Work.

Many practical factors like the unavailability of experienced designers, lack of automation in EDA tools, non-standard process requirements from the FAB etc. has contributed to eighty percent of the Analog IC design still being done in the US.

"What motivated me to take the step to start such an initiative is the simple observation that there is no shortage of talent," said Islam. "The OEM market is growing at a double digit rate in China where 'cost is the king'. All the manufacturing support is available at a significantly lower cost in Taiwan or mainland China, and the operating cost is lower by an order of magnitude."

Didar graduated from BUET in 1992, served as a faculty member for 1 year and then went to the University of Florida, Gainesville and earned his MS in Electronic Engineering in 1996. He had worked for MICREL, UNITRODE, TI in the past and also been with MAXIM, the leading analog semiconductor company, as a design director for 3 years before founding the Power IC.

He has worked for many start-up IC design companies in the past 10 years in a variety of capacities ranging from Design Engineer to Co-founder.

He holds 8 US patents and the embodiment of his innovation has turned into a successful product line for a major Semiconductor company in the Bay area. One of his most challenging innovations was the ALL CMOS RF transmitter and Receiver for low-cost applications. The spectrum of his design experience ranges from DC to RF.

Compiled by Star Correspondent

Ataur Rahman and Sadequa Hassan
Co-founders of Amar Desh Amar Gram

Amar Desh Amar Gram is the first project of its kind that takes computers and web access to the lowest income group and empowers them with a possibility that was not ever previously available to them. This project hints at the real possibility of a Digital Bangladesh, where digital technology reaches out to the furthest corners of the country bringing change to countless lives.

This project takes the products from producers all around Bangladesh and then opens up national and international markets for them. Today fishermen from far off Mongla are selling fish in the heart of Dhaka city; women sitting at home producing simple 'Nokshi Kathas” are earning by selling their kathas all over Bangladesh and even abroad; farmers growing fresh vegetables are supplying to city markets.

The journey does not end there, the centers that control this supply chain is controlled by youths who are trained in the infinite world of e-commerce, they themselves go on teach others, schools are handed out free software that the students benefit from and the wide world of digital technology becomes a reality for them.

This unique e-commerce based poverty alleviation project not only provides empowerment but also creates a new generation of entrepreneurs among the youth who can then strive for self sufficiency.

Amar Desh Amar Gram the first project that has successfully greeted a true Digital Bangladesh community by breaking down the digital divides. This project goes beyond employment, empowerment and e-commerce to also provide education, cultural learnings and in the future perhaps even medical services.

“There is no better way than using Information Technology to mitigate aspects of this global disease that we call poverty, towards a more self dependant Bangladesh,” says Sadequa Hassan, co-founder of the project.

Her husband and co-founder Ataur Rahman adds: “Assimilating Bangladesh to the digital age resulted in Amar Desh Amar Gram (My Country My Village). This is a self sustainable development model entirely the product of years of toil and endless love facilitated by ICT.”

Compiled by Star Correspondent