The decade-old demand of jobseekers to raise the maximum age to applying for government jobs from 30 to 35 years has again resurfaced following Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury's recent letter to the Ministry of Public Administration. In his letter, the minister proposed increasing the a
Against the background of examinations in truncated syllabi and subjects ---and that also carrying in most cases half the marks instead of full marks--- this year's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination reverted to its full form on all those counts. The stakes were high and all concerned n
One of the major drawbacks confronting the country's healthcare services is the failure of the authorities to retain doctors in rural locations. With infrastructure more or less in place, it is the scarcity of medical professionals, especially doctors in the upazila health complexes that makes the
It's been seven years since the Rohingyas arrived in their latest edition and this time caught most international attention. They had been coming here for a long time, expelled by the Myanmar authorities as outsiders historically. Various Bangladeshi regimes have responded as per their percep
The precious yellow metal, gold, has caught the imagination of investors, particularly of the central banks of emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Global economic uncertainties caused by persistent inflation and recession in the advanced economies, which were further exacerbated by t
When the then finance minister presented the national budget for the current fiscal year in parliament in June last year, he had taken into consideration at least six points while making proposals regarding duties and taxes at import stages. One of the points was improving the country's position in
It is not without reason that all eyes are now locked on the unfolding situation in the Middle East. What started as a conflict between Israel and Hamas has already spilled over to the region, albeit on a limited scale. Non-state actors like Hezbollah and the Houthis have had their forces committed
Notwithstanding amazing success in agricultural production, both food security and safety in Bangladesh are now suspect. The myth of self-sufficiency in food — actually meaning staples or more precisely rice — has got busted. Earlier there was a litany of rhetoric that the country was p
That not a single university from Bangladesh is among the top 300 universities of Asia in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2024 is truly an embarrassing fact. India boasts no less than 40 universities in the prestigious charts and Pakistan 12. Bangladesh's most prestigious
With commercial banks shying away from rural credit, economic activities in village areas relying on bank financing are facing increasing challenges. Moreover, many commercial banks are considering winding up their operations in rural areas due to factors such as high interest rates, inflation and
Global markets are undergoing turbulence and none can say how long they will last or if they will become the way future markets play. The same syndrome applies to Bangladesh as well including the IT sector. Information technology exports from Bangladesh dropped 4.4 per cent in the first five month
Lure of jobs has led many youths to go on a perilous voyage across the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of Europe, especially Italy. Of the hundreds of thousands who embark on such a dangerous journey from different countries, thousands are from Bangladesh. According to the UNHCR data, last year, cl
The country's new finance minister and a new state minister for finance are now busy finalising the national budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY25). It will be the nation's 53rd annual national budget, and the ongoing pre-budget consultations suggest that the government will enhance the outlay
