Imagine a woman in Dhaka who has spent three years building a small textile business.

While Islamic banking’s significant market share and systemic importance within the banking system are often highlighted as notable achievements, a troubling reality undermines this success: a substantial portion of investments in several Islamic banks are non-performing.

Bangladesh has long recognised the value of acquiring advanced training abroad. Over the years, public funds have supported postgraduate study and research through a number of government-backed schemes, including science fellowships and overseas scholarships for university teachers.

While the fragile ceasefire and ongoing talks amid the Iran-US war offer some hope, the war has already driven up fuel costs and strained supply. For Bangladesh, this means rising prices, fiscal pressure, and a deepening energy crisis.

The war in Iran has sent shockwaves through global oil markets and triggered a severe worldwide energy crisis, amid which Bangladesh’s vulnerabilities have been starkly exposed.

In March alone, amid a sudden measles outbreak, some 229 patients died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) awaiting ICU beds. Ninety-one of the deceased were children. Many died on waiting lists, never receiving the treatment they needed, and the numbers are still rising.

Every year, farmers in the haor wait anxiously for the harvest season. A flash of lightning in the sky or a cover of dark clouds can send waves of panic through them during March and April.

Some days ago, while passing through Panthapath on my way to work, I saw many people, including day labourers and rickshaw pullers, gathered with sombre expressions: the roadside food stalls they depended on for affordable meals had been removed.

Bangladesh’s maritime sectors, particularly shipbuilding and ship recycling, are entering a phase where future competitiveness will depend less on labour availability and more on skill intensity, safety compliance, and technological capability.

“My classroom has four ceiling fans, but if we are to attend online classes from home, we will need 50 fans.”

On April 8, Pakistan pulled off something few thought it could do: it helped bring the United States and Iran into a temporary ceasefire, more than a month after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, pushing the region towards a wider catastrophe.

The measles vaccine is administered in two doses—one at nine months and the other at 15 months. When at least 95 percent of children in each district of the country receive both doses, transmission of the virus can be stopped.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected Iran to crumble when they launched the surprise attack on February 28 while negotiations were going on, killing the latter’s supreme leader and several others.

Dhaka is the second-most populous city in the world and is projected to be the world’s most populous city by 2050, according to a 2025 report published by the United Nations on world urbanisation prospects.

Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is not a disease, but a complex neuro-developmental condition. Over the last decade, social awareness regarding autism has grown significantly in Bangladesh.

We are separated, the UK and Bangladesh, by a war zone. It is affecting us both, especially through a rise in energy costs, though not with equal effects across the different classes and groups that make up our respective societies.

With regard to the preservation of our judicial autonomy, the real question was never whether Bangladesh would aspire to achieve it, but whether the state was prepared to surrender the administrative levers through which the courts are quietly managed.

When reflecting on broken promises, people sometimes refer to Sunil Gangopadhyay’s poem “Keu Katha Rakheni” (Nobody kept their promise), whose protagonist received numerous assurances and pledges over his 33 years of life but none were apparently kept.

Bangladesh had the opportunity to set a good example by banning the production and sale of e-cigarettes through the Smoking and Tobacco Products Use (Control) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025.

Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28, 2026, and struck at a moment when the post‑Cold War international order was already trembling, leading the world to sense that something irreversible had begun.