Mahmudul Hasan

Hundreds of thousands of cattle are set to remain unsold this Eid season thanks to coronavirus, which has eaten up the income of the country’s burgeoning middle-class and also instilled the fear of coronavirus contagion among the upper class for partaking in the sacrificial ritual.

Panic gripped Sultana Ahmed of the capital’s Mohakhali DOHS the moment she learnt that live slaughtering and meat processing of cattle was barred in her neighbourhood this Eid-ul-Azha to minimise coronavirus transmission.

Fireflies, the unassuming insect species, have a short lifespan, but for as long as they live, they shine ever so brightly.

In early March, Md Yousuf, proprietor of Srabon Printing Press in the capital’s Gopibagh area, thought business would return to normal the following month after a prolonged downturn marked by low work orders.

With amusement parks across the world slowly starting to reopen while keeping social distancing guidelines and other restriction in place to prevent mass coronavirus infections, it remains unknown when similar establishments in Bangladesh will resume operations.

Getting around Dhaka city, these days, has become bit of a plight for those who were reliant on their chauffeurs to drive them around.

When Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of Covid-19 infection in early March, Saleh Mohammed Shuhel, the proprietor B. Baria Motors that sells motorcycles, had thought his business would not be spared from the claws of the raging disease.

As coronavirus pushes shopping online, e-commerce and f-commerce platforms are betting big on selling cattle digitally for the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha to get a slice of the cake of a market in which over one crore livestock are sold during the festival.

bKash has rolled out a new facility that allows people to transfer funds to non-account holders, in a move that may cut reliance on cash and increase the mobile financial service’s (MFS) accessibility.

Every cloud has a silver lining, this famous adage rings true for Islami Bank as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic seems to have acted as a boon for the financial institution.

Nazim Ahmed, a retired banker residing in the capital’s Mohakhali DOHS, was mired in consternation last week when he realised his daughter was showing major COVID-19 symptoms: fever, dry cough, fatigue, sore throat and body ache.

There is a gold rush to be found in the hand sanitiser market now, it seems. Or else, nothing explains the entry of Berger Paints Bangladesh into this domain, which is so far removed from its bread-and-butter of decorative paint.

Equating fairness with beauty has been an agelong practice in the Indian subcontinent and much of Asia, one which spawned an immensely booming market for skin lightening creams and perpetuated the myth further with their advertisements.

Green financing is rapidly gaining traction in the Bangladesh market thanks to the country’s specific focus on issuing green loans, according to an International Finance Corporation (IFC) report.

That we are a nation obsessed with the social media platform Facebook is a foregone conclusion.

Coronavirus has transformed people’s everyday life significantly. Transactions and spending have overwhelmingly been altered by the disease, which is lethal and highly contagious.

Uber seemed to have had another trick up its sleeve when it announced last month that it was shutting down its highly popular food delivery arm, Uber Eats, in Bangladesh from June 2.

Local organic skincare product brand Skin Café has ventured into the foreign territory after it got the nod to list its products on the Amazon US site, a development that can be viewed as a trailblazing moment for a Bangladeshi company.

April was undeniably the worst-ever month for Amena Akter, a second year honours student of a college in Dhaka.

Corona Tracer BD, a contact tracing app that warns users if they are near someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, is off to a good start as individuals are increasingly downloading the solution to keep the contagion at bay.