The Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC), Department of IT and Telecom joined the rest of the world in celebrating “World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD)” 2019. The celebration was graced by the Hon’ble Minister of MoEA, representatives of Asian Development Bank, the industry; Tashi Cell, NANO, DrukCom and the ICT officials of Government agencies. On 17th May every year, the WTISD is celebrated with a purpose to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. It also marked the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.

This year, ITU marked and celebrated the 50th anniversary of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day which has been celebrated annually since 1969. This year the theme of the celebration was “Bridging Standardization Gap”. To mark WTISD celebration this year the Druk Research and Education Network was launched on the day. DrukREN is a dedicated research & education network for the Research & Education community in Bhutan. The Ministry has connected 23 Research & Education Institutes in the country which includes 11 Hospitals, 10 Colleges under Royal University of
Bhutan and 2 colleges under Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan. DrukREN enables its members to participate in research activities with high speed Internet connectivity within and outside Bhutan.

The launch was followed by award of certificate to the ICT Champions. This is an initiative to recognize extraordinary contribution to ICT by individual/agency. The ministry in the process aims to encourage innovation and create awareness in the use of ICT. On the day, MOIC also awarded prizes for the website competition winners. The Ministry coordinated the National Website Competition annually under which government, corporate, and interested private websites are evaluated to help promote this medium for access to public information and delivery of services. Programme will end with the presentation from Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC), Kyushu University Hospital, Japan on the telemedicine services of TEMDEC Project and its benefits.

This year’s calls for nomination for ICT Champions were announced under five categories as follows:

1. Application
2. Hardware/Infrastructure
3. ICT for Social Cause
4. ICT for Excellence in Management
5. Past ICT Champions

ICT Champions:

1. Application Category:
   
   1. CST Prayer Book and Dzongkha Spelling Game App:
      
      1. Phurpa Tshering
      2. Sonam Dorji
      3. Dorji Norbu
      4. Namgay Dema
   2. Learners Aid Application
      
      1. Pawan Kumar Koirala

    

Winners of the Website Competition 2018-19

Overall different category