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.
Despite the claims made a few months ago that Bangladesh has successfully—more successfully than many western countries—beat back the coronavirus,
The coronavirus pandemic has hit virtually all businesses—but some have been hit harder than others. Indeed, some have barely been hit at all and a lucky few have thrived during the pandemic.
The struggle to save lives from the killer coronavirus seems endless. The death procession looks unstoppable. Each day comes with more shocking news. The ray of hope that was coming through with the rollout of the vaccine is diminishing fast with the rising number of deaths.
As Bangladesh started a new phase of lockdown on April 14, 2021—apparently a more stringent one—the country was faced with a grim milestone. On the first day of the Bengali New Year, the country recorded 96 deaths, the highest till then, since the pandemic hit the country.
Covid-19 deeply affected the labour market in Bangladesh. It intensified some of the existing challenges and brought about a new set of problems. A large number of people either lost employment or income and many are also experiencing intense job insecurity and uncertainty.
April, 2003, was the cruellest month for the people of Iraq, a month of reflection on Pakistan by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and a rare opportunity for Worldview India, a dedicated group of Indian journalists who helped lift the mist from the historic events that month.
In a world that has always favoured the rich over the poor—both within a country and across nations—the Covid-19 pandemic will worsen this maldistribution further unless actions are taken soon to rectify it.
Many countries of the world have their “Republic Days”. Some of these are “unique” in the sense that they are neither the Independence Day nor the Constitution Day.
On April 17, 1971, the provisional government of Bangladesh was sworn in. I was lucky to have witnessed the historic event first-hand.
Hello from Georgia, ground zero in a massive US political battle.
