Reports on hunger and food insecurity are unnerving. The 2025 state of food security and nutrition in the world (SOFI) report finds that 673 million people constituting 8.3 per cent of the global population faced acute hunger in 2024. The SOFI is an annual publication by five important United Natio
Over the past thirty years, Global Value Chains (GVCs) have played a critical role in international trade and growth. Many countries have tried to increase their participation in GVCs to stay competitive in production and trade. As a result, GVC-related trade has become a key focus of trade policy.
In recent months, Bangladesh has seen a disturbing resurgence in acts of sabotage that many had hoped belonged to the past. Ignited in the days leading up to the verdict in Sheikh Hasina's crimes against humanity trial, this surge transformed the streets of Dhaka and beyond into stages for orchestr
Dhaka has emerged as the 2nd largest megacity in the world in terms of population. The United Nations World Urbanisation Prospects 2025 report finds Jakarta to secure the top position with 42 million people. Taking urban sprawl into consideration, the UN applies a new gauge to measure the world's m
A recent report titledm 'World inequality report 2026', published by the Paris-based World Inequality Lab, has once again laid bare the ever-widening chasm between the rich and the poor. According to the report, the richest 10 per cent of people in Bangladesh hold 58 per cent of the country's total
The scale and composition of the Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year reveal a far larger contraction than many had anticipated, particularly in sectors that underpin human development. While some degree of rationalisation was inevitable amid tight fiscal space, r
The brutal and heinous attack on Sharif Osman Hadi should have served as a moment of collective reckoning for Bangladesh's political class. Instead, it has laid bare a deeper malaise: a corrosive political culture in which reflexive blame, public posturing and partisan point-scoring take precedence
While speaking at an event on the second day of the two-day (December12-13) potato festival 2025 held in the city, experts highlighted the potential of potato as an exportable agricultural commodity of Bangladesh. Notably, the country exported over 62,000 tonnes of potato worth US$14 million last f
Day after tomorrow, on Tuesday to be precise, Bangladesh will observe the 55th Victory Day, commemorating the final victory over the Pakistani occupation army in the nine-month bloody war of independence in 1971. On December 16, 1971, Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign country on the world map. The
A causality department in-charge at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital did last Saturday what almost no one does these days. When the Director General (DG) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) visited his operation theatre, he publicly challenged the DG over missing a three-day tra
A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and held at the state guest house Jamuna on Sunday last emphasised the need for making foods safe for consumption. Indeed, food safety is a much neglected issue in this country. Admittedly, the burgeoning food production was impossible wi
The concern expressed by leading economists over influence of money in politics, lack of good governance and its impact on economy portrays a grim picture of the country's political and economic landscape. This worry of the economists, which is also the worry of common citizens, was articulated on
Bangladesh's once-thriving shrimp sector has been languishing for quite some time and the situation appears to be worsening. Export orders for the country's prime shrimp varieties have continued to fall, driven primarily by waning demand in Europe and the United States-markets that together account
