5 Stories to Know Today
If you have missed out on all the latest updates of the day, then don't worry, we got you all covered. Find out the gist of the top 5 stories of The Daily Star today (January 3, 2023).
Ban on Grameenphone SIM sales lifted
Six months after its imposition, the ban on sales of Grameenphone SIMs was finally lifted last night.
On June 29, four days after the Padma Bridge inauguration, the telecom regulator, on instruction from the posts and telecommunications division the previous day, banned Grameenphone's SIM sales until it "improves its quality of service including bringing down call drop rate".
The letter did not specify how Grameenphone failed in terms of quality of service.
Legendary singer Sumitra Sen no more
Legendary singer Sumitra Sen died early today. She was 89 years old at the time of her death. She had been suffering for a long time and passed away at her own home in Kolkata. The news was confirmed by her daughter, Srabani Sen—acclaimed Rabindra Sangeet artist—via Facebook.
According to reports, Sen had suddenly caught a cold last month, causing her to be admitted to a private hospital on December 29. Due to her deteriorating health, her family had brought her back home, where she eventually breathed her last.
Sen had sung such hits as "Megh bolechhe jabo jabo", "Tomari jharnatalar nirjone", "Sakhi bhabona kahare bole", "Achhe dukho achhe mrityu", alongside hundreds of other tracks that enthralled Rabindra Sangeet lovers for four decades.
NBR receives 28.51 lakh tax returns so far
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has received 28.51 lakh tax returns from individual taxpayers until January 1, the final day for filing income and wealth statements for fiscal year 2022-23 without any penalty.
The number of returns was 10 per cent higher than the total of 25.9 lakh filed in fiscal year 2021-22, according to NBR data. Of the returns filed, 2.07 lakh were submitted online, up more than three times from 61,000 the previous year.
The NBR received over Tk 4,000 crore as taxes through returns filed by individual taxpayers at its field offices, said Mohammad Jahid Hasan, member of tax information management and services at the NBR.
PM inaugurates Police Week 2023
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated Police Week-2023 at the Rajarbagh Police Lines in the capital this morning.
Earlier, she awarded 117 members of police and Rapid Action Battalion with prestigious police medals for their outstanding performance in the last one year.
Generally, the PM listens to the demands of police personnel of different ranks from constable to additional superintendent of police at the parade held after the inaugural ceremony of police week.
Field-level police officers will not place any demand before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the welfare parade of the six-day police week beginning today.
Mexico elects first female Supreme Court president
A woman will head Mexico's Supreme Court for the first time after Norma Lucia Pina has been elected president amid controversy over plagiarism allegations against a rival candidate.
Pina, who has defended the right to abortion and pledged to fight gender-based violence, won the votes of six of the 11 Supreme Court judges.
The election to replace Arturo Zaldivar was shaken by accusations that Supreme Court justice Yasmin Esquivel, another hopeful for the post, plagiarized her graduation thesis in 1987.