Tech
Rampant Corruption Plagues ICT Sector in 15 years : White Paper
Highlights
- ICT sector plagued by corruption
- Hi-Tech parks fail to attract investors
- Lack of transparency in project implementation
- Misuse of funds to benefit preferred vendors
- Calls for robust project evaluations
The White Paper on the State of the Bangladesh Economy, submitted to the Chief Adviser today (1 December), identified the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector as one of the most affected by corruption.
“The review of the White Paper puts the banking sector on top of the most corruption-ravaged sectors, followed by physical infrastructure, and energy and power,” it reads.
ICT was also identified as one of the most corruption-affected sectors by its operational and technological novelty, it added.
The White Paper committee’s comment highlights years-long corruption allegations in the key sector the Awami League pledged to improve during the 2008 election for the sake of national progress.
And the story later frustrated the youth and technology experts due to huge waste of taxpayers’ money in improper projects. These lacked transparencies and were alleged to benefit people close to the then regime.
In the one and half decades of Sheikh Hasina’s ruling, the state spent nearly Tk29,000 crore to build “Digital Bangladesh” and later “Smart Bangladesh by 2041.”
Most of the funds were allocated to infrastructure projects, which still require justification from sector experts. For instance, Hi Tech parks outside major cities barely attracted investors.
Government-funded projects aimed at youth ICT training, women empowerment, and local app and game development, costing hundreds of crores of Taka, appear to have primarily benefited officials and their preferred vendors, reveals the gradually unfolding facts.
The interim government in August formed a committee to evaluate the ongoing projects already recommended to downsize them in lots of unjustified cases. It will also dig deeper to find the anomalies in the already finished projects.
In an example of how the government projects were being justified in questioned ways, the white paper mentioned a 2013-18 ICT Division project “Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment, and Governance Projects” that had a 43% cost increase to Tk774 crore, from its original budget of Tk521.97 crore.
According to the White Paper, the large capacity-building initiative aimed to promote the IT sector and train 30,000 individuals for employment within it. The evaluation report from the Planning Ministry’s Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division showed strong satisfaction with the project’s success.
However, it overlooked the contributions of training institutions, colleges, and universities that also played a role in advancing the sector, the White Paper stated.
Additionally, the quality of the evaluation report was inadequate, as it failed to distinguish the marginal impacts of training 30,000 individuals on the entire IT sector.
This analytical weakness in assessing the project’s impacts has contributed to the continuation of various ICT and other projects that lack tangible benefits.
“It highlights the need for more robust evaluations to ensure that future initiatives are grounded in a clear understanding of their actual contributions to the sector,” said the White Paper.
Bangladesh lags behind many comparator countries in a number of technological indexes, despite the digital and smart nation narratives.
Tech
Apple to spend $30 billion on Broadcom chips as it boosts US sourcing
Apple , opens new tab plans to spend more than $30 billion under a multi-year chip supply deal with Broadcom, bolstering its U.S. sourcing as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to expand domestic chip manufacturing.
Broadcom shares rose more than 4%, while Apple shares were down marginally.
Apple said on Wednesday the deal, which was struck earlier this week and runs through 2031, covers FBAR filters – or radio-frequency chips used for wireless connectivity in its devices – that it had been developing with Broadcom since at least 2023.
Broadcom will invest $1.5 billion to expand its Fort Collins, Colorado, factory under the deal, which Apple said would result in the production of at least 15 billion chips and support its work with the Trump administration to source more components domestically.
“The cutting-edge components built in Fort Collins are essential to delivering the incredible performance and connectivity our customers expect, and we’re proud to deepen our investments in U.S.-based suppliers that share our commitment to excellence and innovation,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
“We’re grateful to the president and his administration for supporting important projects like this.”
In August 2025, Apple raised its U.S. investment commitment to $600 billion over four years, adding $100 billion to a previously announced spending plan.
China
China plans to let top AI firms buy limited Nvidia H200 chips, the Information reports
China is planning to allow the country’s top AI companies to buy a limited number of Nvidia’s, opens new tab H200 chips, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Chinese officials have told Alibaba, opens new tab, ByteDance and DeepSeek in recent weeks that they may soon receive permission to buy some H200 chips, the report said.
Shares of Nvidia rose 1% after the report.
The chip giant did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, nor did the U.S. commerce department, which oversees exports of advanced AI chips overseas.
China’s commerce ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek did not respond outside of regular business hours.
The U.S. government has allowed Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China, and licensed about 10 Chinese firms to buy the chips. However, Chinese officials, keen to nurture domestic suppliers, have withheld approval so far.
Reuters reported in March that Nvidia had won Beijing’s approval to sell the chips to China, citing sources, and around the same time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also told CNBC that the company had clearance from China.
Beijing is still determining the exact number of Nvidia chips to approve, and it could amount to fewer than 200,000 in total, the Information said, adding that was less than half of what the companies requested earlier this year.
Last month, Reuters exclusively reported that Nvidia told Chinese clients its new “Vera” central processors for AI data centres could be available as soon as August and that they can begin placing orders.
Nvidia’s market share in China has effectively fallen to zero, Huang said in October, hurt by U.S. export controls and Beijing’s push for self-reliance in key technologies.
The potential shift in China’s stance underscores the growing computing capacity crunch that the country’s tech companies are facing.
Tech
Australia’s under-16 social media ban fails first age check hurdle, study finds
A team of software testers found that Australian social media platforms did not request age proof for any of 50 accounts that declared themselves to be 16, a result that leaves the country’s world-first under-16 ban “ineffective” at the most basic screening stage, according to a study seen by Reuters.
Since December, platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube have been required to bar people under 16 and take “reasonable steps” to verify age, with regulators recommending multiple layered checks. But the new research, conducted by those who advised the nationwide curb, shows that the initial vetting step, which estimates a user’s age from general online activity, is failing to flag young people for tougher verification.
The testers, who last year trialled age-assurance software on more than 1,000 Australians, opened 50 new accounts after the law took effect and set the age as 16. None of the platforms asked for additional proof, the researchers told Reuters. The findings highlight a flaw that has been largely overlooked while public debate has focused on photo-based age-estimation tools.
The ban’s rollout has been widely criticised after surveys indicated that most under-16s still access the platforms. The government last month doubled the maximum fine and warned of possible court action against tech giants, accusing them of setting the system up to fail. Platforms have countered that they are simply following the regulator’s guidance, which prioritises low-friction checks and prevents reliance on government ID alone due to privacy concerns.
Some advisers to the original trial said they had repeatedly warned that the testing process ignored real-world circumvention, including minors entering false birthdates. “We did want to talk about circumvention, but we kept on being told that that wasn’t part of the actual trial,” Colm Gannon of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children told Reuters. A youth digital rights academic involved in a longer-term study of the ban said more impressive results might emerge once platforms move to age-inference methods later in the year. The regulator maintains that the recommended layered approach, if implemented correctly, ensures no single point of failure.
-
Bangladesh2 weeks agoData Breaches Expose Millions, Reveal Gaps in Bangladesh’s Privacy Law
-
Business2 weeks agoIMF lowers 2026 world growth forecast
-
Business2 weeks agoRyanair loses appeals against Italy’s COVID aid to airlines in EU Court
-
Business2 weeks agoNet forex reserves climb to $27.92b
-
Bangladesh2 weeks agoBIBM study finds uneven anti-money laundering enforcement in Bangladesh
-
China2 weeks agoChina plans to let top AI firms buy limited Nvidia H200 chips, the Information reports
-
Sports2 weeks ago‘Little disappointed in our batting unit’: Miraz rues Tigers’ ODI opener defeat against Zimbabwe
-
World2 weeks agoTrump says interim accord to end Iran war is ‘over’, warns of new US strikes



