Why Bangladesh's schools need financial autonomy
1 August 2026
Bangladesh's primary education system must shift SLIP funding from reimbursements to advance payments for genuine decentralisation.
1 August 2026
The real crisis at Bangladesh Bank: The mandate, not the résumé
3 March 2026
The removal of Ahsan H Mansur as Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor has been an entirely avoidable drama.
3 March 2026
Climate actions need less talk, more work
25 February 2026
A lesson emerging from COP participation is that for advocacy to deliver results, it must be married to strategy.
25 February 2026
A six-point strategic memo to the new government
18 February 2026
Bangladesh passed multiple tests of its democratic credentials through the 13th parliamentary election on February 12.
18 February 2026
Bangladesh’s ‘miracle’ running out of time?
15 January 2026
For nearly 50 years, Bangladesh has been one of the world’s favourite outliers. Born in the trauma of 1971 with a shattered economy and a population of 75 million, the country was summarily dismissed as a “basket case.”
15 January 2026
Red July, one year on: The fight for unity, dignity, and justice must continue
4 August 2025
It has been a year since Bangladesh freed itself from the murderous clutches of a tyrannical regime that had made corruption the rule of business, extreme arrogance of power the norm, and brutal repression its operational style.
4 August 2025
Beyond development paradox & unnayan without democracy
16 May 2025
As Bangladesh seeks to recalibrate its path in the aftermath of recent upheavals, the time is ripe to revisit an oft-invoked but under-examined agenda: institutional reform. Institutions are crucial to understand, as they are foundational for governance, transformation, and economic development.
16 May 2025
The evolution of poverty research in Bangladesh
6 April 2025
The evolution of poverty research in Bangladesh has been an intellectual adventure.
6 April 2025
SWAp’s effectiveness for Bangladesh’s health sector
Exploring alternatives to SWAp in Bangladesh’s health sector is a pressing discussion.
12 December 2024
Don’t shrink social safety net even during austerity
No matter how tight the budget is, the social safety net sector has to be given its due importance.
6 June 2024
The fight against child marriage needs a new narrative
The latest official data paints an alarming picture of 41.6 percent of girls married under 18 and 8.2 percent married under the lower age of 15.
6 May 2024
The contradiction between economic policy and practices
How much can declared policy intentions be taken at face value when simultaneous administrative and political steps signal different intentions?
16 February 2024
All about fair and unfair elections
The current political uncertainties work out, the road to a fair election appears neither certain nor easy.
3 November 2023
Is Bangladesh at a triple crossroad?
Bangladesh has always battled and progressed through crises. But what future awaits us?
18 August 2023
How much do we know about our emerging ‘new rural’?
“New rural” will be a critical player in the next chapter of Bangladesh’s transformation.
10 February 2023
‘Louha tribhuj’ and the political economy of development
A political economy lens is needed to understand the current situation of Bangladesh.
29 September 2022
Akbar Ali Khan: Life of service, voice of conscience
His death is a loss for the nation.
9 September 2022
The challenge of democratising the ‘middle income’ dream
Fifty years ago, the dominant concern of citizens and observers alike was about the economic future of newly independent Bangladesh.
1 January 2022
Development and political leadership: China’s Wang Huning and new perspectives
We have all become accustomed to the economic story of China, its astonishing success in reducing poverty, its emergence as the economic powerhouse of the 21st century and its infrastructural ambitions expressed through the Belt and Road Initiative.
4 August 2021
When entrepreneurship can be a public good
My friend Fouzul Kabir Khan’s recent book, “Win: How Public Entrepreneurship Can Transform the Developing World”, has brought back an issue critical to the development discourse in these pandemic times.
12 June 2021
Bangladesh economy through a “turning point’ lens
The economy of Bangladesh has come a long way in the past 50 years. The enduring image of Bangladesh earlier was that of a disaster victim.
25 March 2021
Opinion: A time for truths
It is 58 days since the first Covid-19 infection was recorded in Bangladesh. February now feels like a distant memory, even early March.
4 May 2020
Women must have the right to choose
First there was Mexico City in 1984. Then there was Cairo in 1994. Now there is Nairobi in November 2019. The global community has dealt with the issue of population in these mega-conclaves.
11 November 2019
Poverty’s Third Frontier
When Bangladesh gained independence nearly five decades ago, poverty was the default condition for over 80 percent of the population.
26 October 2019
The truths about the budget that we fail to see
The recently-concluded budget season had to play second fiddle to the cricket season. And why not? Cricket is about passion, budget rarely so. The new finance minister has a foot in both of these worlds holding, as he does, the Comilla Victorians franchise. Mr Mustafa Kamal
9 July 2019
Are policy blind spots driving the urban mess?
Accelera-ting urbanisation is the defining story of contemporary Bangladesh. Projections show that by 2050 urban population will overtake rural population. As Bangladesh hurtles towards its urban future, what a storyline of contradictory hues is unfolding!
13 June 2019
A 'new normal'?
In its 48th year, Bangladesh faces a new existential question to ponder. What now passes as “normal”?
2 March 2019
The Crisis is Impunity
Howsoever one tries to explain it, the death of Dia and Rajib, the two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, on the Airport Road ten or so fateful days ago, can never be called an “accident”.
11 August 2018