As in previous years, this Eid holiday has also seen a large number of people killed and injured in road crashes. Even though people are being killed and injured on the roads every day, we rarely see victims and their families receiving compensation.

Like the rest of the world, Bangladesh is currently grappling with the geopolitics-led energy supply disruption, described by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as the biggest ever threat to energy security.

Access to healthcare is a human right and a cornerstone of universal health coverage (UHC).

Bangladesh has long promoted domestic manufacturing as the cornerstone of its development strategy.

The current approach has kept conditions stable for now, but it also risks something closer to Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea of recurrence, where what is unresolved does not disappear.

The 2026-27 budget comes at a critical moment for the country.

The heat is returning to Bangladesh with more intensity. Daytime temperatures are already becoming difficult to tolerate, and for many, fans are no longer enough.

The parliament’s ongoing review of the interim government’s 133 ordinances is perhaps the first real test of whether the July uprising has changed only the occupants of power, or the logic of power itself.

When it comes to our healthcare sector, the BNP government faces the dual challenge of meeting the high public expectations set by its election manifesto while ensuring that the existing system delivers tangible benefits immediately.

There is a dangerous tendency in Dhaka’s policy circles to treat conflicts in distant theatres as someone else’s problem. The war involving Iran is the latest test of that complacency—and Bangladesh cannot afford to fail it.

A digital platform could allow madrasa graduates to maintain verified professional profiles linked to their institutions and qualifications.

Bangladesh may be standing at a generational moment of constitutional possibility.

Irregular migrations also impact the credibility of the Bangladeshi passport, whose value has effectively deteriorated. Consequently, even travellers with valid visas are now subjected to heightened scrutiny and extensive questioning at immigration checkpoints.

For households, the most effective immediate measure would be to offer income protection to the most vulnerable by reallocating existing budget priorities and, where possible, partly through external aid.

Virginia Woolf once wrote that women need a room of their own in order to be able to create; I see now that I never demanded mine.

While Bangladesh offers the lowest wages ($115–$135 monthly) in the region, we suffer from the longest lead times—around 90-120 days on average—which is a major competitive disadvantage.

The main channel for ensuring consumer protection is the Consumers’ Right Protection Act, 2009.

I am happy that Dr Shamsul Arifeen Khan Mamun has taken the time to read my op-ed piece on education reform (“We need education reforms that actually work,” The Daily Star, March 15) and wrote a rebuttal (“Evidence, not assumptions, should guide education reform,” The Daily Star, March 19).

Agriculture remains the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy, contributing about 11 percent to the country’s GDP and employing nearly 40 percent of the population.

The BNP government has inherited a country at an unusual inflexion point, with a strong electoral mandate, a technically credible reform roadmap, and an international community broadly aligned on what needs to be done.