It is perhaps true that unhealthy habits are more concentrated among poor Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are black. But these habits themselves are a consequence of economic conditions, not to mention the stresses of racism.

The recent announcement of Silicon Valley's power couple - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his doctor wife Priscilla Chan...

The recent five-day banking mela (fair), held at the Bangla Academy premises, was the first of its kind in Bangladesh's history.

Discarded end-of-life electronic and electrical devices, or e-waste, are the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

If we can further liberalise our trade by reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers and by removing age-old regulations, our growth will exceed even 7 percent.

Bangladesh, with the support and vision of the Bangladesh Bank, has seen remarkable progress in Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in recent years.

Understandably, a significant amount will be required by poor countries as they are the most vulnerable to climate change. Additionally, they are also engulfed with environmental problems such as pollution and resource degradation which make their development unsustainable.

In early September, I travelled to New York for the Sustainable Development Summit at the UN. There, a sweeping new global development agenda was adopted by 193 countries, including Bangladesh and my own country, the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Sanchayapatra – a supposed welfare instrument – is actually a Trojan horse that threatens the future of our development budget, and thus reduces growth potentials for the nation. The higher the sale of NSCs, the higher the future interest liability which will definitely eat up a bigger pie of our budget, reducing the share of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

October 15 was the International Rural Women Day. The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on October 15, 2008.

Unfortunately, the world's rich countries currently are making things worse. Foreign aid – transfers from rich countries to poor countries – has much to its credit, particularly in terms of health care, with many people alive today who would otherwise be dead. But foreign aid also undermines the development of local state capacity.

What will kill RMG in Bangladesh? Trans-Pacific Partnership or security fears? It may certainly be the second one and not the first. To begin with, the full text of the TPP is not yet available.

By barring MNOs from starting their own MFS, BB effectively promoted interoperability. This encouraged 25 million subscribers to sign up in four short years. bKash, for example, had signed up three times as many customers (19 million) in four years as EasyPaisa operating in Pakistan for about seven years.

The exchange rate which Bangladesh Bank determines now has been largely market-based since May 2003, although the central bank irons out fluctuations to maintain stability in the exchange rate so that foreign investors feel confident while investing in Bangladesh.

In a move that saw Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nationalist government facing the stiffest resistance from pacifists and opposition parliamentarians alike, the Japanese Diet (Parliament) last week voted into law a bill that will allow Japan to deploy its military in combat roles beyond its territorial boundaries for the first time in seven decades.

Whenever I used to pass through John F Kennedy Airport, the massive advertisement of 'Incredible India' would draw my attention.

The reason many people do not like a market economy lies in the acid test of harsh competition. To them, the market economy is a story of losing jobs by being made redundant in the workplace.

After another long wait,the eighth pay scale for government officials and employees has finally been approved.

At the end of every August, central bankers and financiers from around the world meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the US Federal Reserve's economic symposium. This year, the participants were greeted by a large group of mostly young people, including many African- and Hispanic Americans.

Pressure from the IMF suggests that, with time China will indeed move towards a more open capital market. But that creates other challenges for Asia's largest economy.