Star Interactive / Running on Empty
18 August 2026
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Power and Energy
Economy shows fragile gains
19 August 2026
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Economy
Can pink buses make travels safer for women?
18 August 2026
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Big Picture
We must adopt an area-based population strategy
6 HOUR(s)
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Views
Is Bangladesh’s garment industry ready for the next shock?
19 August 2026
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Big Picture
Telecoms turn to AI to save energy, other costs
19 August 2026
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Economy
Six months of BNP rule: Has the economy turned a corner?
18 August 2026
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MACRO MIRROR
What Japan’s changing Indo-Pacific strategy means for Bangladesh
18 August 2026
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Geopolitical Insights
Why Bangladesh, a global top producer, still imports fish
18 August 2026
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Economy
Can India and Bangladesh build a more equal economic partnership?
17 August 2026
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Geopolitical Insights
Is Bangladesh politics heading for a deadlock?
One thing certain about politics in Bangladesh is that it has an evolving order in the midst of an emerging chaos. If closely observed, it's right now abiding by Newton's first law of motion. The object at rest stays at rest, while the object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction. One of the assumptions of the law of inertia is that it doesn't change unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
25 August 2016
Mitigating fire risks in factories and malls
Although termed a 'fire accident', most fire incidents are far from being accidental. In fact, most fires are preventable.
24 August 2016
“Move”, they said
It's called a sprawl. We just happened to experience a mushroom growth. It happened to us when schools, garment factories, stores, boutiques, offices just stealthily popped up in our neighbourhood.
23 August 2016
Government walking a tightrope
The information being gleaned from suspects and their laptops is that there is external finance being funnelled in through informal channels such as hundi. But the most worrying development is the discovery of bomb making material and knowhow amongst some of those arrested.
22 August 2016
A deforested hill now a green canopy
A few decades ago the Joistapura Hills in Chittagong's Boalkhali upazila were deforested and bald; today they support a rich green canopy. The change has been driven by the simple dream of a single young man: 16-year-old Mozammel Hoque Bakul wanted to have his own garden.
21 August 2016
The tragedy of 21st August
As the nation observes the 12th anniversary of the ghastly grenade assault that was carried out at an Awami League rally in Dhaka city on August 21, 2004, discerning observers have to agree that the horrendous crimes committed on that day has left an indelible impact on the course and character of constitutional politics of Bangladesh.
20 August 2016
A change-maker in the knowledge industry
The knowledge industry is still in its infancy in Bangladesh. Firms like the McKinsey & Company or Brookings Institute are now
19 August 2016
An elephant eloquent, instructive in his death
One can thus feel in one's bones the pain and trauma the wild elephant, separated from its herd by severe flooding in Assam, must have gone through all the way down to Bangladesh.
18 August 2016
A tit (Baluchistan) for tat (Kashmir)
To express support for a breakaway group on the soil of that country would be a diplomatic incivility, but the shield of technicality was invoked to show that the premises of the Pakistan High Commission were the territory of Pakistan. But be that as it may, there is no doubt that the incident has brought about a complete 'rerouting' of India's policy towards Pakistan.
17 August 2016
The Towering Courage of Bangabandhu
For the uninformed multitudes, remembering Bangabandhu on August 15 is perhaps a ritualistic observance when the mind does not delve deep to grasp the historical significance of the tragedy.
14 August 2016
How not to win an election?
It's not easy, but one way to try and maintain sanity is by taking a worldwide view of every situation.
12 August 2016
Our Population, Our Asset
We are a land-short country, somewhat proverbially, as it seems. Bangladesh does not exactly have a galloping population but a
11 August 2016
Human rights cannot be sacrificed in fight against militants
It was an ordinary Friday afternoon in Dhaka when, on 7 August 2015, Niloy Neel and his partner Asha Moni heard a knock on their door.
10 August 2016
History and society in the shaping of terrorism today
Among the anxieties, fears and confusions generated by the grisly tragedy that occurred on July 1 at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, one refrain was fairly consistent...
9 August 2016
Searching for the shadowy Canadian leader of ISIS in Bangladesh
You must be kidding, bro,” a friend of mine from Windsor, Ontario, tells me when I ask him about Tamim Chowdhury, the purported leader of ISIS in Bangladesh.
8 August 2016
Why Donald Trump scares me
Donald Trump has variously been described as “dangerous,” “fraud,” “unhinged,” “racist,” “mentally unbalanced” and “outright nuts.” Vanity Fair magazine's Mark Bowden summed up these epithets in one sentence in a slightly more charitable manner:
7 August 2016
The floating schools of Chalan Beel
They don't go to schools, schools come to them.
6 August 2016
Terrorists in Bangladesh
The poor, marginalised, and uninformed madrasa students in Bangladesh are too weak and disorganised to spearhead any violent or revolutionary movement. This explains why urban, rich, and secular-educated – not rural, poor, and madrasa-educated – youths appear so far to be the main foot soldiers of Islamist terror.
5 August 2016
Goodbye hospitality industry?
The recent government decision to make residential areas residential makes sense. However, authorities seem to have gone gung ho in implementation.
1 August 2016
Child labour and its violent outcome
The horrific story of the murder of Sagar Barman, aged 10, was published in the front page of The Daily Star and other leading dailies of the country on July 25, 2016.
30 July 2016