A Closer Look
Opinion / Unbridled corruption and a minister’s reckless comment
The ruling regime should focus less on talking and more on actions, to create a conducive environment that truly eliminates corruption.
Civil war in Myanmar: Bangladesh should revisit its national security strategy
It is high time Bangladesh revised its national security strategy and worked in close collaboration with the other key regional players.
Biman’s frustrating legacy of misadventures
That Biman is a highly corrupt institution that thrives on shameless plundering of public money is no secret.
FY2024-25 Budget / Whitening black money, raising taxes won’t fix our economic ails
These measures are a slap in the face of honest taxpayers who diligently pay taxes on their legitimate income every year.
Children must be protected from abuse and torture
We have become a society in which children have become a tool to satiate the filthy desires of the stronger
How are electrolyte drinks regulated in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has recently sued the owners of seven companies for selling five popular brands of electrolyte drink without necessary approvals.
Dhaka's toxic air: An invisible killer on the loose
Dhaka's air did not become unbreathable overnight, nor is there any instant solution to it.
Women breaking the glass ceiling? Not so much in sports
In Bangladesh, we have a long way to go in encouraging, promoting and creating a conducive ecosystem for the inclusion of more women in sports.
A tale of two cities
Activist-turned-politician Arjun Kejriwal has had smooth sailing at the recently held Delhi legislative polls, with his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being handed a strong mandate by the Delhiwalas, winning a sweeping 62 out of 70 seats. This is his third straight term in office.
When economics prevails over genocide
Two days after the Interna-tional Court of Justice (ICJ) approved emergency “provisional measures” asking Myanmar to stop persecution of the Rohingya in all forms— including killing, raping, and destroying homes and villages—two Rohingya women died in Rakhine State when the Myanmar army shelled a village. One of them was pregnant.
Bangladesh caught in the crosscurrents of Middle East posturing
Tensions that saw a renewed escalation in the Middle East after the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2018, on grounds that can be at best termed flimsy and unconvincing, are only intensifying by the day.
What Soleimani’s assassination means for the IS
The US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Quds Force
Fractured and fractious
The last remaining major European colonial powers, Britain and France, were whiffing quite an opportunity at the dawn of World War I, as they found themselves on the right side of history.
Qassem Soleimani’s Assassination
On January 3, the Middle East was shaken by the news of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, by the United States near Baghdad’s international airport.
Despite improvements, journalism remains as precarious as ever
2019 has seen a significant drop in the number of journalists being killed—49 as against the annual average of 80 journalists killed for the past two decades. The annual report by Reporters Without Borders, known better by their French initials RSF (Reporters Sans Frontières), termed this figure “historically low”.
As India teeters on the brink, can it revive its pluralistic tradition?
While witness-ing chaos unfolding in India over the newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (ACC), I could not help but think about Amartya Sen’s bestseller The Argumentative Indian, a book that invokes the rich Indian tradition of scepticism and heterodoxy, and discusses how this has facilitated the flourishing of the world’s largest democracy.
A divisive move riddled with pitfalls
The upper house of the Indian parliament, the Rajya Sabha, passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) on
Trafficking in Rohingya: Exploiting the desperate
In Myanmar, the Rohingya have faced persecution, witnessed murder, endured sexual violence. While fleeing the genocide perpetrated by the Myanmar military, they had only one aim: survival. And survive they did once they crossed the border and made it to the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.