Views / Columns

Water conservation is key

Water conservation is key

March 22 (Saturday) was this year's World Water Day and the theme of the day is Glacier Preservation. But what has a tropical country, Bangladesh, to do with glacier, which is a big mass of dense ice very slowly sliding downhill under the pull of gravity over the millennia in the cold parts of the


Addressing price gaps can arrest inflation

Addressing price gaps can arrest inflation

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) carried out a study on five kinds of essential agricultural produce in 14 districts of the country in January this year to know about the reason behind the atrocious price gaps between farm and consumer levels. Even without any study, the reasons are common knowledge. But t

Health budget cut runs counter to reform ambition

Health budget cut runs counter to reform ambition

The education and health sectors have historically been neglected in government budget allocations, resulting in excessive commercialisation and high out-of-pocket expenses for citizens. Many had high hopes that the interim government would break this trend by prioritising these two critical sector

Reassessing current state of arsenic mitigation

Reassessing current state of arsenic mitigation

The presence of arsenic in groundwater across almost all regions of Bangladesh is not a recent discovery. In fact, it has been more than two and a half decades since the alarming levels of arsenic contamination were first detected in the country's groundwater sources. A comprehensive assessment at

Advancing Japan-Bangladesh ties

Advancing Japan-Bangladesh ties

Japan has long been one of Bangladesh's most dependable and consistent development partners. Since the latter's emergence as an independent nation in 1971, Japan has extended unwavering support to a broad range of sectors -- infrastructure, health, education, energy, and governance -- shaping much

Protecting marginal chicken farmers

Protecting marginal chicken farmers

The country's poultry sector is again in distress. But it is not due to any manmade crisis often created in the sector by the so-called profit-hungry syndicates. As in the past years, here nature is at work. A report published early last month (April) referring to the Bangladesh Meteorological Depa

Renewing inland water trade & transit protocol

Renewing inland water trade & transit protocol

Even before the independence of Bangladesh, the waterway was one of the key modes for the movement of freights with India like it was historically  the case through the railway.  Most of the railway network of Bangladesh was also built and developed in the British period, starting with a

Adani Power and high cost of its electricity

Adani Power and high cost of its electricity

The cost of keeping the lights on in Bangladesh is drawing ever more intense scrutiny, especially over electricity imported under the agreement with Adani Power. In early May, Adani Power's Chief Financial Officer Dilip Jha disclosed that Bangladesh owes approximately $0.9 billion for electricity s

Mind behind monstrous acts of homicide

Mind behind monstrous acts of homicide

If the ultimate crime is homicide, Bangladesh has perhaps been witnessing a higher incidence of it lately. The recent surge in murder has a fair share in political vendetta. But this has also acted as a powerful provocation for settling scores where personal, family and land disputes are involved.

Taking port capacity to next level

Taking port capacity to next level

The Port of Chittagong stands on the brink of a transformative change, driven by the involvement of leading global players in port operations and logistics. Dubai-based DP World, renowned for managing some of the world's most efficient ports and logistics networks, is reportedly in the final stages

Unlocking the potential of potato export

Unlocking the potential of potato export

The recent surge in Bangladesh's potato exports underscores the crop's growing potential in overseas markets. Potato exports have quadrupled in the current fiscal year, reaching 50,000 tonnes between July and April-up from just 12,300 tonnes in FY 2024. While this volume may not appear massive in a

Indo-Pak war: Journalism vs jingoism

Indo-Pak war: Journalism vs jingoism

Greek dramatist Aeschylus, who died in 456 BC, said, "In war, truth is the first casualty". Later, in 1917, U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson, made the same observation by saying "The first casualty when war comes is truth." In a parallel universe, where sanity isn't lost to jingoism and anchors aren't

Politics at a crossroads

Politics at a crossroads

People of this part of the world have, since colonial times, been dreaming of seeing their country as a modern, corruption-free, developed nation. But what is a modern, developed nation? The model before them was the nation states of Europe. But after the colonial powers left, the national leaders