In his budget speech for the fiscal year 2025-26, Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed announced a plan to introduce 400 electric buses into Dhaka’s public transport network to make the system “sustainable, safer, and environmentally friendly.”

With the number of fire-prone establishments in the country tripling within a year, questions have emerged about how effectively safety standards are being enforced.

The night The Daily Star building was set on fire by mobs incited by known right-wing political figures and social media influencers, at least 28 journalists and staff were trapped on the rooftop.

On the night of December 18, 2025, a young man was beaten to death, tied to a tree, and set ablaze by a mob in Bhaluka, Mymensingh.

Bangladesh has taken a bold step in declaring that software developed with public funds will be treated as a national asset.

The recent wave of violence has revealed a deeply worrying trend in public life.

Government allocation for Bangladesh’s health sector has long been inadequate, compounded by weak implementation mechanisms. As a result, our out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for healthcare continue to rise, and access to quality services is becoming increasingly difficult for millions of citizens.

From late Thursday night through the early hours of Friday, December 19, my colleagues at The Daily Star were trapped on the roof of their burning workplace, unsure if they would survive.

The image of a burnt copy of The Daily Star, dated Victory Day, is difficult to shake off. It stays with you long after you scroll past it on your social media newsfeed—not because it is dramatic, but because of what it reveals.

In July 2024, we, the Gen-Z, stepped into the streets, frightened yet resolute, wounded yet unwilling to break, because we believed Bangladesh could be rewired around dignity.

For Bangladesh, 2026 will be a complicated concoction of post-LDC graduation.

During the last election cycle, the country witnessed a relatively small but calculated deployment of deepfakes.

Bangladesh's gig economy, such as ride-sharing, food delivery, courier services, has mushroomed in the last decade.

In the bargain for a new future, I did not consent to the erasure of the history that made this republic possible.

The surest sign of a liberal democracy is not a flag, nor a constitution framed behind glass. It is the quiet competence of institutions—and the political culture that keeps them honest. One shapes the other the way a river shapes its banks, and the banks, in turn, discipline the river.

Regarding the Phulbari Open-Pit Coal Mining Project, the chief adviser's press secretary recently made a Facebook post suggesting that Bangladesh is facing a severe power crisis because coal at Phulbari was not extracted.

More than 1.3 crore Bangladeshi workers support economies across the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) produced a lacklustre outcome by any measure, as reflected in many post-COP analyses. This remains significant because COP outcomes continue to shape the direction, pace, and credibility of global climate diplomacy, even when they fall short.

The limited success of technical transport plans in Dhaka is a predictable outcome of deep-seated political-economic dynamics.

The strongest national interest lies elsewhere: expanding employment and training opportunities for Bangladeshi cadets and officers.