I am delighted to be returning to Bangladesh in its Golden Jubilee year, and I look forward to celebrating the tremendous achievements of the past half century with friends old and new.
As is known, the current provisions of the EU’s Generalised System of preferences (EU-GSP) scheme are being revised at present in anticipation of the new scheme to be put in place as of January 1, 2024.
Upon reading the news headline for the incident I am about to discuss, I only felt a momentary, dull pain in my gut or thereabouts. Because while it is a shocking incident that would rob you of hope, the elements of the story are all too familiar to us all.
As tensions over the Taiwan Strait mount, everyone needs to think about whether war is inevitable. Ukrainian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” And if we slip into war by what World War I historian Barbara Tuchman called the March of Folly, can the Great Powers step back from mutual nuclear annihilation?
The year 2020 marked a watershed in global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. First, it was because, by 2020, the TB-affected countries aimed to achieve the first set of “End TB” milestones: a 35 percent reduction in TB deaths, a 20 percent
I have been feeling unwell since October 13. After the mayhem in Cumilla, I knew it wouldn’t be the last. With a broken heart, my father-in-law and I, along with my son, decided to continue with our tradition of puja visits and mandap-hopping, yet we were all deeply disturbed, witnessing the carnage unravelling with a helpless rage.
Today, on October 22, we celebrate National Road Safety Day. But why? Not why we care about safety—the devastating toll of accidents makes it clear why it is important—but why call it Road Safety Day? If we are using roads to travel from place to place, and we want to be able to do so safely, why not call it Safe Travels Day?
I was around 10 when I first heard about the idea of, as it was then known, global warming and how Bangladesh will one day go underwater as sea levels rise.
When will the world have vaccinated 80 percent of all adults (the level presumed by scientists to produce herd immunity against Covid-19)? Most people’s answer is 2023 or 2024, which suggests deep pessimism about the progress of vaccinations outside the rich world.
In February 2021, Covid-19 numbers started rising again in South Asia with the official daily case counts rising beyond 400,000 in India, 6,000 in Pakistan and 7,500 in Bangladesh, straining their health systems.
On June 8, South Asia acquired a rare salience at the United Nations after the Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid was elected as the new President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) for a one-year term beginning in September.
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown major challenges to public policy framing. While responses of the states to the pandemic differed significantly,
In February 2021, Covid-19 numbers started rising again in South Asia with the official daily case counts rising beyond 400,000 in India, 6,000 in Pakistan and 7,500 in Bangladesh, straining their health systems. The massive surge in India soon spilled over across the border into Nepal, leading to “apocalyptic” scenes of overwhelmed hospitals.
As Bangladesh turns 50 this year, the country has much to celebrate. Its human-development progress has been exceptional compared to that of its South Asian neighbours.
The legal protection for secrecy of “nationally important” information and its conflict with the free press constitute a dichotomy that has long been debated around the globe. Although governments are usually granted legal protection to keep certain documents and information undisclosed, guarantees of right to information and press freedom are considered essential to ensure government accountability.
There is a well-grounded belief that irrespective of the state of socio-economic progress, democracy as a form of government has not been able to take firm root in many societies.
The Purbachal Residential Model Town, spanning around 6,227 acres of land, was supposed to have been an extension of Dhaka city—to support its growth momentum and accommodate its ever-growing population.
The development gains and hard-earned productivity of Bangladesh are at risk of being inverted if the 1.5 degree Celsius limit of the Paris Agreement is breached.
