Amid Bangladesh's rapidly expanding foreign trade, trade-based money laundering has become a major concern for the banking industry, a recent survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management has found. This includes over- and under-invoicing of goods and services and mis-declaration of goods.

At a recent press conference, representatives of the World Bank (WB) questioned the 7.65 percent economic growth estimate and the estimate of 7–8 percent growth of domestic demand that the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) came up with for FY17-18. Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the WB's Dhaka office, said there are two causes that could lead to such a spike (growth of employment and labour

For months it seemed like everything was quieting down on the Syrian front.

To start with, what is interesting is that garment export struggled in the latter half of FY16-17, experiencing a decline even of 4.49 percent year-on-year in February; and surprisingly soaring in July, despite the European Union, which accounts for over 54 percent of our exports, banning direct cargo flights from Dhaka to the 28-nation bloc in June, following the lead of the UK (who just lifted the ban yesterday), Australia and Germany.

Out of the 45 least developed countries (LDCs) in the world, Bangladesh was one among only five countries that had a GDP growth rate of 7-plus percent in 2017, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

A large number of people in the world today no longer believe in the sanctity of people's absolute right to unfettered and unrestricted speech; preferring speech, rather, to have some restrictions—as people increasingly find more and more types of speech offensive.

In recent years, the left-right political spectrum has been more at the centre of national (in the case of many countries) and global politics than it had been for years.

At the end of 2016, I wrote an article for The Daily Star titled “The biggest underreported stories of 2016”.

Given all of this, is it still unclear to see why the banking sector is in such disarray?

In a study conducted by three eminent Dhaka University professors, frustration, loneliness, drug addiction, lack of proper vision and guidance, and at times affluence were identified as major drivers of violent extremism among university students.

The Rohingya crisis has been tough on Bangladesh. First, because of the sheer scale of the influx from Myanmar and its continuity and second because Bangladesh has had to witness them from up close which always makes it more difficult.

Just as news started to come out that the Syrian Arab Army was on the verge of liberating the city of Abu Kamal, destroying the last Islamic State stronghold in Syria, rekindling hope that the region may yet see some semblance of stability...

Experts and economists, on the other hand, said that Bangladesh needed to increase investment to USD 12.5 billion for infrastructure development from the existing annual spending of USD 3.5 billion to gain any significant benefit from regional and international connectivity.

A government survey report made public on October 17 confirmed what has been suspected for some time now; that the poor's share in the national income decreased in the past six years, while the richer segment of the population's increased.

In her address to the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “I have come here with a heavy heart...after seeing the hungry, distressed and desperate Rohingyas from Myanmar, who took shelter in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.”

A report titled “World Food Security and Nutrition Situation-2017”, brought out jointly by a number of UN organisations, estimates that some 25 million Bangladeshis, mostly women and children, suffer from malnutrition.

“Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country due to its geographical location. So, we've to live with the phenomenon with necessary plans to keep the extent of damages and loss of lives to a minimum during any disaster.”

That "political will", however, is not very likely to just automatically emerge from within the government on its own, as is often the case.

in order to properly regulate our system of democracy through the concept of “checks and balances,” citizens also have the complete right, and responsibility even, to demand from the government, transparency and accountability to the fullest. It is about time that the citizens of this country exercised that right, and took responsibility, for establishing the practice of good governance.

Having dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima, Brigadier-General Paul Warfield Tibbets Junior—pilot of the first plane (Enola Gay) to drop the atomic bomb—said to have blinked from the flash behind his goggles. When he opened his eyes to look down, what he saw, he described as “a peep into hell.”