Why election 2023 needs to be different from the last two

An acceptable election depends on the Election Commission's ability to display its grit and resolve, exercise its writ, remain neutral, and be prompt to address complaints and proactive in detecting violations.
8 June 2022

And the Nobel Prize for Violence Goes to…

No, silly, there is no such prize for violence. That’s just a conversation starter. After all, what better way to invoke the mighty Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) than with a nod to violence?
7 June 2022

Election 2023: Is the BNP still relevant?

With the next general election due in 2023, nobody really knows whether Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main political opposition in the country, will participate in it.
6 June 2022

Issues that should be in focus in budget 2022-23

The finance minister of Bangladesh is scheduled to place the national budget for 2022-23 fiscal year at parliament on June 9.
5 June 2022

Prices of machetes, bamboo and iron rods to go up?

It may seem like an odd assortment of items to be afflicted by the inflationary fever currently in circulation, but following the basic rules of economics—when demand goes up, with existing supply, prices will go up in a free market
3 June 2022

Be careful with ‘over-optimism’ for megaprojects

One important but oft-ignored thing is that design and implementation mistakes delay the revenue-generation phase of megaprojects.
31 May 2022

Of Lemon, Soap, Vaseline and EVMs

Should the Election Commission take the controversial route of using EVMs in the next general election?
30 May 2022

Mega projects, mega dreams: But where is that omelette the government promised us?

The pitfall of measuring development based on macrodata is that it shows the big picture, but fails to account for development achieved, if at all, on a micro/personal level.
29 May 2022

How did the Supreme Court start housing planning for Dhaka’s poor?

On August 20, 1999, over 5,000 slum dwellers mobilised from various informal settlements in Dhaka and gathered in the Supreme Court premises to protest the “wholesale eviction” that was underway that year.
27 May 2022

India’s Sri Lanka policy faces challenge

India’s Neighbourhood First Policy once again faces a challenge in view of the economic meltdown and consequent political turmoil in Sri Lanka. India’s approach in dealing with the crisis in the island nation has been calibrated and cautious.
26 May 2022

Moral policing: A zombie virus

What the Narsingdi Railway incident really reveals about our society's attitude towards women.
21 May 2022

Make the national budget relevant again

The number of risks that our economy currently faces because of all the global instabilities is perhaps unmatched since the early days of Bangladesh’s independence. Amid this reality, the government is set to present the new budget early next month.
20 May 2022

Why don’t we care about research?

“If we knew what it is we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” said Albert Einstein. Indeed, research gives us a glimpse of what the future might hold through the study of the information available in the present.
16 May 2022

Are some people always trying to ‘oust’ the government?

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made a remark that assumes significance given the rueful undertone that her statement conveyed.
15 May 2022

A two-stroke thrombosis

One marker for the oft-chanted prophecy of Bangladesh as the Asian Tiger can be explained through the rise and rise of motorcycles.
13 May 2022

Don’t normalise living in fear

Bangladesh is a nation that is being carried almost entirely by the labour of its underprivileged and uneducated people, who slave away at garment factories and toil abroad to send back remittances.
12 May 2022

Everything that’s wrong with Bangladesh Railway

When was the last time we heard of any positive news about Bangladesh Railway (BR)? I don’t remember coming across any in recent years.
11 May 2022

A not-so-smart proposal for an offshore smart city

In an unprecedented move, the parliamentary standing committee on housing and public works ministry has directly recommended a major development project—to build an offshore smart city claiming land from the Bay of Bengal—directly to the prime minister.
10 May 2022

Building social cohesion: How can education help?

French sociologist Emile Durkheim described social cohesion as organic solidarity arising from peoples’ dependence on each other in a modern society.
9 May 2022

Here’s what the 2022-23 budget must address

The national budget for the next fiscal year will be the third since the start of the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020. Can we expect it to address the current realities, contexts and challenges of Bangladesh?
6 May 2022