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.
March 17 shall forever remain a memorable day in the annuls of Bangladesh’s political history, as well as in the hearts of millions of Bengalis as, on this day, the supreme leader and the progenitor of sovereign Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (fondly called Bangabandhu by his people), was born.
Bangladesh is planning to adapt to the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change and aiming to become a resilient country by 2030, as both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change goals are supposed to be achieved by that year.
The relationship between population growth and economic growth is of great interest both for demographers and for development economists.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been nominated as one of the top three women leaders who tackled the Covid-19 crisis well. While her efforts to bring Bangladesh into the limelight has been highly appreciated, addressing gender gaps remains a challenge that needs attention, not only through policy adjustments but also by getting down to the nitty-gritty where real challenges lie for ordinary women.
On the afternoon of March 3, 2021, three-year-old Ruhit was playing in front of his residential building located inside the Provita Fish Feed hatchery, when he fell into a large septic tank that had been left uncovered.
The pandemic has left us a terrible mess to clear up. What policies will get us out of the huge debt that we have incurred to pay for the health, wealth and job crises? 2020 was a year of terrible devastation, cushioned only by massive government spending.
The launching of an On-site Identification and Verification System (OIVS) by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is undoubtedly a significant addition of a digital tool in policing.
The deleterious impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of the Right to Information (RTI) Act has been much discussed in the last one year. We drew attention to it in several of our columns.
Recently it was announced that one of the world’s leading online fashion companies, Boohoo, is looking at financially incentivising its leadership team for achieving sustainability targets.
March is a month that carries special significance for Bangladesh. In March 1971, the country got involved in the Liberation War, which continued for nine long months.
