Every year, the Economist Intelligence Unit publishes a list of liveable cities in the world, where Dhaka is inevitably placed near the bottom.

According to a recent report, due to the insistence of lawmakers, the government is going to repair religious establishments and build new bridges across the country at a cost of Tk 5,132 crore.

Why is a man seen as the default protector to a woman? Why do we believe that a woman cannot protect herself—let alone decide when she does or does not require protection?

Why has it failed to fix breaches in its supply lines?

The other day, a Dutch friend of mine and I were having lunch when I mentioned how chaotic I’d heard the Dhaka airport was now.

This is what a middle-aged Rohingya man, living at a makeshift camp in Cox’s Bazar, who crossed over to Bangladesh during the 2017 exodus of Rohingyas fleeing military persecution in Rakhine, Myanmar, said when I asked him how he was.

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hitman”—these were the words of Ronald Reagan during his campaign for the US presidency at the beginning of 1980s.

As we build our way to becoming a middle-income country, it is saddening that our children’s education is so vulnerable to a pandemic.

Most people abhor wars in which innocent lives are lost and people are maimed and injured. And so, all wars should be condemned.

We expect great things from our innovators at BHTC

Expand fiscal support to offset inflation from taka’s devaluation

The world is facing an unprecedented time as countries desperately try to recover from the fallouts caused by two years of Covid, followed by the newly raised geopolitical tensions due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

It’s been known for some time that antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines—has become a global health threat.

Sustainability should not be a hard sell. And yet, in our industry, so many garment makers continue to look at it as a financial burden—a potential drain for their businesses.

Western commentators are struggling to describe the significance of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Henry Kissinger once wrote that “history is the memory of states”. In this vision of the past,

It’s quite worrying that the number of diarrhoea patients admitted to various hospitals in Dhaka has seen a sudden spike although it wasn’t expected to peak until April.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are entering a new phase of warfare and global politics. Aside from a heightened risk of nuclear catastrophe, we are already in a perfect storm of mutually reinforcing global crises—the pandemic, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food and water shortages.

Recently, while visiting a small town in the south called Raozan, I was impressed to see how there were no empty plastic bottles or used polythene lying around.

Bengalis are well-known for being unusually driven by emotion, a trait that has brought about many great things—our right to speak in our mother tongue, our right to be independent.