[Music]
the World Economic Forum just announced
that we’re among the largest emerging
economies in the world and haka is at
the center of attention when I first
heard this I asked myself is talking
really that amazing if we look at the
numbers
over the last ten years we have had
immense increase in our gross national
product but I’m not here to bore you
with maps so let’s look a bit further we
understand that the textile industry has
helped give millions of people jobs in
Bangladesh and has immensely boosted our
economy but the story of taka is far
reaching from that take a look at noose
cred it is the world’s largest content
marketing agency digital content to big
companies like Pepsi and Visa and guess
what the founder is the founder and the
CEO is about this guy how many of you
here have heard of be cash can I see a
raise of hands yeah so almost everyone
right and because it’s one of the
largest mobile banking platforms in the
world because does transactions over 200
crore taka per day and this is a Bangla
this was about that she startup I’m sure
a lot of you know this guy and a lot of
you know the Khan Academy during our
exams this is our biggest Saviour but
how many of us actually knew the founder
of Khan Academy is also a Bangladeshi
let’s look at another startup but how
it’s basically an uber for motorcycles
it’s part of the startup scene in Oaxaca
and it’s one of the largest growing
startups in Dhaka as well so all of this
is happening in Dhaka right now but we
don’t just stop innovation there I’m
sure a lot of you have tasted nachos not
just are great they’re fun to eat but
futre is better because in futsuka you
can actually put the stuff inside it so
we have even reinvented the street food
and before the internet taco was very
different right now before the internet
you could actually order pizza by going
down to the shops but right now you have
pig companies like hungry nookie or food
panda that does that for you that brings
your food home that’s what the Internet
has done for us innovation is happening
in taka but sometimes it is hard to
realize that this innovation is
happening when we have to walk past this
every day I my school was in Golson I
passed the Golson lake every single day
and this is what I saw and I saw a lot
of people pass this and just pass this
on but when I when I saw this every day
I thought to myself we could do
something about this by we I mean these
people some of whom are actually in the
audience today right now this is us in
our colleges common room and when we
walked past the Gulshan Lake every day
we didn’t see it as a big problem that
would never change we saw it as a
problem that is not inevitable we saw it
as a problem that we could do something
about so we did a bit of research and
our solution was the floating treatment
wetlands before I go on to the solution
some of you might ask me what if how we
actually found out the solution we
googled how to clean up dirty lakes and
we found out that floating treatment
wetlands are an amazing way to do that
what a floating Richmond wetland is it’s
basically just a raft with some aquatic
plants on it and the aquatic plants suck
up all the organic waste
the water when we first pitch this to
our teachers they were super excited
they immediately came on board I
remember working with our teachers in
between classes to figure out the whole
design bid I remember this was one of
the only times in my life I actually
used maps to figure stuff out so that
summer we felt like Phineas and Ferb
because we knew what we were doing that
whole summer vacation we were going to
spend it in our school garage building
these three rafts
that’s me and my friend in our school
garage working on the rafts and we
almost work ten hours a day that whole
vacation and this was an amazing
experience for us some of our volunteers
were so dedicated that they actually
spent their birthdays with us while we
were building this raft so after we were
done we decided that we wanted to do an
event where we would raise awareness and
also launch their rafts so here you see
us launching the rafts and you can also
see one of her amazing volunteers
dressed up as a trash can who walked
around the bulton lake that whole day
and talked to people about why is it bad
to throw trash in the lake this was an
extremely fun project to do you can see
some of us just filling out there around
the bosun lake the most incredible thing
about this project is that we were just
four people when we pitched this to our
teachers by the end of the vacation when
we were launching the rafts we were the
whole high school coming together to
make this happen because they believed
that this was a proper solution and
that’s not even the best part you know
what the best part is the best part is
we were able to reduce the ammonia
phosphorous and tedious levels of the
whole Gulshan lake by over 8% so once we
were done we thought to ourselves where
we done I definitely I was very sure
that we were not done but this is not
the end
but we had school we had a lot of things
going on we were we were rushing to
finish our homework we were cramming for
our exams so but at the back of her mind
we were still looking for problems to
solve still looking for everyday
problems that people just passed by so
one day when I was sitting at home I
heard a name being repeated over and
over again by a bullhorn I listened a
bit more closely and I figured out this
was one of them many times the details
of a missing person was being spoken out
loud through a bullhorn on a rickshaw
I’m sure a lot of you have seen this on
taka streets I immediately thought to
myself there must be a better way to do
this so my first immediate response get
back to these people
I called them out and I said this has to
change there needs to be something done
about this and we started doing our
research we found out over 20,000 people
go missing every year in Bangladesh
guess how many of that people are
reported only 5 to 10 percent this was a
shocking number when he first heard
about it so we looked at systems that
were existing in other places around the
world so when we looked we found a
system called the Amber Alert that
exists in the United States how the
Amber Alert
works is that when of course when a
missing-persons report is sent out then
they sort of aware the police stations
or fire stations radio stations and so
on so I thought to myself we could do
something similar here in Bangladesh I
also understood bond adesh has one of
the largest number of Facebook users in
Asia so we created something called
coach coach is the largest platform to
report missing people in Bangladesh
right now
how does it work well when someone is
reported on coach a summary of the
report gets uploaded on Facebook but now
that’s not the end a summary of the
report also goes to our broadcasting
radio partners who announce out loud the
details of the person seems like a
pretty simple system right but when we
launched the system approximately one
and a half years ago with our system we
helped find 12 people this was an
immense experience for us it showed us
that with just using the internet we
could do so much more we could connect
more people to do so many good things
but after this project I asked myself
where are we done then we again thought
no we were nowhere near done we’re as
far from done as possible we were still
looking for problems and we were still
trying to solve everything that mattered
that matter to me and my friends so
while we were in high school one time we
heard that in some rural villages in
Valadez there it is broken down schools
and to go to those schools student walk
miles sometimes even up and down hills
to go to the schools and the schools are
in absolutely bad conditions only heard
of this I talk to my friends I said them
hey I think we could do something about
this tool so we started a Facebook
campaign and we collected things like
fans lights all computers books and so
on we also found out that one of our
friends village was in a place where
they had such a school so after a month
of coordinating and planning the whole
thing we were standing there in front of
that school think
of all the possibilities that the school
held we were just four people working on
renovating a school we didn’t have much
we only have a lot of money we were just
working with a few buckets of paint a
shovel to dig a road for the school and
some basic stuff that we collected from
dhaka but what happened after this was
truly amazing what we saw is that we
were able to start this small movement
in this small community when we started
working as I said we were just four
people but a bit later we saw community
members come up some of them who owned
food shops came with us with food some
of them who saw us four randomly digging
places to get dirt for the road actually
came in with shovels to help us dig for
the road so we were part of this
movement that was happening in this
village we started small we were just
four to five people but now we had a lot
of people helping us out because they
saw the potential of what we were doing
with just four days of the whole
community coming together and working on
this school we were able to transform
this coal into this
and we’ve been doing this across several
schools in Bangladesh so what’s the
point of the stock what am I here to
tell you I’m here to tell you if you
don’t like something change it problems
are not going to be there forever if you
don’t think they’re going to be there
forever
it’s our perception that matters when we
saw problems of missing people when we
saw problems of our floating treatment
of the goats in Lake we thought to
ourselves that this was not just going
to be there forever we could do
something about it and we did what we
could
so what do you need to start to answer
that question I’ll ask you another
question what did we need to start we
just had the internet or we just had a
shovel or few pockets of paint some old
books or some all computers we didn’t
need a lot of lot to start but when we
did when we did this side that we wanted
to do something about this the most
incredible part of the journey was that
we were not left alone and that is the
same for you too if you start small and
use the resources that you have you the
whole community will come together to
help you out you’ll not be alone people
will believe in your idea with us we
believe in a code and we believe this
before
going into every project and that is
what I’m going to end with here we
believe it’s kind of fun to do the
impossible
thank you
you
the World Economic Forum just announced
that we’re among the largest emerging
economies in the world and haka is at
the center of attention when I first
heard this I asked myself is talking
really that amazing if we look at the
numbers
over the last ten years we have had
immense increase in our gross national
product but I’m not here to bore you
with maps so let’s look a bit further we
understand that the textile industry has
helped give millions of people jobs in
Bangladesh and has immensely boosted our
economy but the story of taka is far
reaching from that take a look at noose
cred it is the world’s largest content
marketing agency digital content to big
companies like Pepsi and Visa and guess
what the founder is the founder and the
CEO is about this guy how many of you
here have heard of be cash can I see a
raise of hands yeah so almost everyone
right and because it’s one of the
largest mobile banking platforms in the
world because does transactions over 200
crore taka per day and this is a Bangla
this was about that she startup I’m sure
a lot of you know this guy and a lot of
you know the Khan Academy during our
exams this is our biggest Saviour but
how many of us actually knew the founder
of Khan Academy is also a Bangladeshi
let’s look at another startup but how
it’s basically an uber for motorcycles
it’s part of the startup scene in Oaxaca
and it’s one of the largest growing
startups in Dhaka as well so all of this
is happening in Dhaka right now but we
don’t just stop innovation there I’m
sure a lot of you have tasted nachos not
just are great they’re fun to eat but
futre is better because in futsuka you
can actually put the stuff inside it so
we have even reinvented the street food
and before the internet taco was very
different right now before the internet
you could actually order pizza by going
down to the shops but right now you have
pig companies like hungry nookie or food
panda that does that for you that brings
your food home that’s what the Internet
has done for us innovation is happening
in taka but sometimes it is hard to
realize that this innovation is
happening when we have to walk past this
every day I my school was in Golson I
passed the Golson lake every single day
and this is what I saw and I saw a lot
of people pass this and just pass this
on but when I when I saw this every day
I thought to myself we could do
something about this by we I mean these
people some of whom are actually in the
audience today right now this is us in
our colleges common room and when we
walked past the Gulshan Lake every day
we didn’t see it as a big problem that
would never change we saw it as a
problem that is not inevitable we saw it
as a problem that we could do something
about so we did a bit of research and
our solution was the floating treatment
wetlands before I go on to the solution
some of you might ask me what if how we
actually found out the solution we
googled how to clean up dirty lakes and
we found out that floating treatment
wetlands are an amazing way to do that
what a floating Richmond wetland is it’s
basically just a raft with some aquatic
plants on it and the aquatic plants suck
up all the organic waste
the water when we first pitch this to
our teachers they were super excited
they immediately came on board I
remember working with our teachers in
between classes to figure out the whole
design bid I remember this was one of
the only times in my life I actually
used maps to figure stuff out so that
summer we felt like Phineas and Ferb
because we knew what we were doing that
whole summer vacation we were going to
spend it in our school garage building
these three rafts
that’s me and my friend in our school
garage working on the rafts and we
almost work ten hours a day that whole
vacation and this was an amazing
experience for us some of our volunteers
were so dedicated that they actually
spent their birthdays with us while we
were building this raft so after we were
done we decided that we wanted to do an
event where we would raise awareness and
also launch their rafts so here you see
us launching the rafts and you can also
see one of her amazing volunteers
dressed up as a trash can who walked
around the bulton lake that whole day
and talked to people about why is it bad
to throw trash in the lake this was an
extremely fun project to do you can see
some of us just filling out there around
the bosun lake the most incredible thing
about this project is that we were just
four people when we pitched this to our
teachers by the end of the vacation when
we were launching the rafts we were the
whole high school coming together to
make this happen because they believed
that this was a proper solution and
that’s not even the best part you know
what the best part is the best part is
we were able to reduce the ammonia
phosphorous and tedious levels of the
whole Gulshan lake by over 8% so once we
were done we thought to ourselves where
we done I definitely I was very sure
that we were not done but this is not
the end
but we had school we had a lot of things
going on we were we were rushing to
finish our homework we were cramming for
our exams so but at the back of her mind
we were still looking for problems to
solve still looking for everyday
problems that people just passed by so
one day when I was sitting at home I
heard a name being repeated over and
over again by a bullhorn I listened a
bit more closely and I figured out this
was one of them many times the details
of a missing person was being spoken out
loud through a bullhorn on a rickshaw
I’m sure a lot of you have seen this on
taka streets I immediately thought to
myself there must be a better way to do
this so my first immediate response get
back to these people
I called them out and I said this has to
change there needs to be something done
about this and we started doing our
research we found out over 20,000 people
go missing every year in Bangladesh
guess how many of that people are
reported only 5 to 10 percent this was a
shocking number when he first heard
about it so we looked at systems that
were existing in other places around the
world so when we looked we found a
system called the Amber Alert that
exists in the United States how the
Amber Alert
works is that when of course when a
missing-persons report is sent out then
they sort of aware the police stations
or fire stations radio stations and so
on so I thought to myself we could do
something similar here in Bangladesh I
also understood bond adesh has one of
the largest number of Facebook users in
Asia so we created something called
coach coach is the largest platform to
report missing people in Bangladesh
right now
how does it work well when someone is
reported on coach a summary of the
report gets uploaded on Facebook but now
that’s not the end a summary of the
report also goes to our broadcasting
radio partners who announce out loud the
details of the person seems like a
pretty simple system right but when we
launched the system approximately one
and a half years ago with our system we
helped find 12 people this was an
immense experience for us it showed us
that with just using the internet we
could do so much more we could connect
more people to do so many good things
but after this project I asked myself
where are we done then we again thought
no we were nowhere near done we’re as
far from done as possible we were still
looking for problems and we were still
trying to solve everything that mattered
that matter to me and my friends so
while we were in high school one time we
heard that in some rural villages in
Valadez there it is broken down schools
and to go to those schools student walk
miles sometimes even up and down hills
to go to the schools and the schools are
in absolutely bad conditions only heard
of this I talk to my friends I said them
hey I think we could do something about
this tool so we started a Facebook
campaign and we collected things like
fans lights all computers books and so
on we also found out that one of our
friends village was in a place where
they had such a school so after a month
of coordinating and planning the whole
thing we were standing there in front of
that school think
of all the possibilities that the school
held we were just four people working on
renovating a school we didn’t have much
we only have a lot of money we were just
working with a few buckets of paint a
shovel to dig a road for the school and
some basic stuff that we collected from
dhaka but what happened after this was
truly amazing what we saw is that we
were able to start this small movement
in this small community when we started
working as I said we were just four
people but a bit later we saw community
members come up some of them who owned
food shops came with us with food some
of them who saw us four randomly digging
places to get dirt for the road actually
came in with shovels to help us dig for
the road so we were part of this
movement that was happening in this
village we started small we were just
four to five people but now we had a lot
of people helping us out because they
saw the potential of what we were doing
with just four days of the whole
community coming together and working on
this school we were able to transform
this coal into this
and we’ve been doing this across several
schools in Bangladesh so what’s the
point of the stock what am I here to
tell you I’m here to tell you if you
don’t like something change it problems
are not going to be there forever if you
don’t think they’re going to be there
forever
it’s our perception that matters when we
saw problems of missing people when we
saw problems of our floating treatment
of the goats in Lake we thought to
ourselves that this was not just going
to be there forever we could do
something about it and we did what we
could
so what do you need to start to answer
that question I’ll ask you another
question what did we need to start we
just had the internet or we just had a
shovel or few pockets of paint some old
books or some all computers we didn’t
need a lot of lot to start but when we
did when we did this side that we wanted
to do something about this the most
incredible part of the journey was that
we were not left alone and that is the
same for you too if you start small and
use the resources that you have you the
whole community will come together to
help you out you’ll not be alone people
will believe in your idea with us we
believe in a code and we believe this
before
going into every project and that is
what I’m going to end with here we
believe it’s kind of fun to do the
impossible
thank you
you
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