When independent, objective and fact-based newspapers are set on fire, it is democracy that burns.

We like our crimes tidy. A victim, a perpetrator, a sequence of events that can be narrated without requiring a climate scientist, three expert witnesses, and a decade of satellite data.

As another monsoon season approaches, the government’s current canal dredging programme can be a core option for flood preparedness.

For years, Bangladesh’s export success was built on a simple promise to global buyers. We would deliver at scale, at speed, and at low cost.

Over the past 25 years, Bangladesh has added nearly five crore people to its population, intensifying pressure on the country’s staple: rice.

The proverb “Health is wealth” is widely quoted but remains overlooked in practice in our society.

Bangladesh’s Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) has long been one of the country’s most celebrated public health successes.

In August 2024, shortly after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, BNP’s then Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman made a statement that earned him rare political capital, particularly in progressive and liberal circles.

If you walk into a random classroom in Bangladesh and ask the students what they want to be when they grow up, there are some fairly common answers that might reach your ears.

By mid-May, the parliament will have completed the process of filling the 50 reserved seats for women.

That three-word formulation has become the defining doctrine of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to West Bengal’s two-phase assembly elections scheduled for April 23 and 29.

The 2026 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group took place from April 13 to April 18 amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and slowing growth.

In its election manifesto, BNP mentioned plans to establish a National Security Council alongside formulating a new national security strategy (page 21, under “Defence System”).

Journalism is meant to hold power to account, and mobile journalism, using smartphones for reporting and storytelling, should have ideally taken that mission to new heights.

In recent years, lightning has emerged as one of Bangladesh’s most fatal climate hazards, although policy responses have yet to evolve proportionately.

Recently, Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milon told the parliament that 60,295 teaching posts are currently vacant in about 26,000 MPO-listed (government grant-receiving) secondary schools and colleges in the country.

Stand on any road in Dhaka. Men and boys cycle freely, weaving through traffic with ease. Now look for women—you will see very few. And when you do, they draw stares.

New crises! New vices! Stand in a fuel queue for an interminable 20 hours. Come back tomorrow and repeat the drill.

In Bangladesh’s political history, perhaps the most defining years are 1971, 1990, and 2024. Much has been said about the political, military, and social dimensions of these watershed moments.

A new incident seems to shake the nation almost every week. Last Saturday (April 11) saw the shocking lynching of a Sufi pir, Shamim al-Jahangir, inside his shrine in Kushtia.