Jaishankar’s remarks on Bangladesh: A deeper understanding is necessary
India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently made some strong remarks about Bangladesh at the Delhi University Literature Festival.
27 February 2025, 02:00 AM
A turning point or a missed opportunity?
A reflection on Bangladesh's post-Awami League crisis and the need for unity and reform.
16 December 2024, 05:00 AM
Principles, party, power or politics?
The student movement’s ability to inspire people to stand up to a vicious oppressor was truly remarkable.
14 August 2024, 02:00 AM
The irresponsible remarks of our responsible persons
History and ordinary people in general will remember very well what happened over the last week or so.
25 July 2024, 04:00 AM
What options are left for us to fight unbridled corruption?
Unfortunately, all the mechanisms meant to address corruption seem to have been weakened, if not completely destroyed, one after another in recent decades.
7 July 2024, 10:00 AM
We need humility, not hubris, to turn the economy around
While a privileged minority, sitting in their high castles, continue to enjoy a larger and larger share of the fruits of “development,” it is becoming obvious that the vast majority are increasingly struggling.
13 June 2024, 03:00 AM
The many immoralities behind the scheme
Bangladesh truly is unique in the sense that its government keeps granting individuals the opportunity to whiten black money, despite its questionable record of success. An amount of Tk 78 crore was whitened in the 1977-78 budget, Tk 850 crore during 1987-90, Tk 1,000 crore during 2000-01, Tk 4,403 crore during 2005-06, Tk 9,683 crore during 2007-08, Tk 1,213 crore during 2009-10, and Tk 20,600 crore in 2020-21.
6 June 2024, 18:00 PM
The many immoralities behind the govt’s black money whitening scheme
What message is the government trying to send with its black money whitening facility?
6 June 2024, 10:50 AM
Why I’m all for Elon Musk buying Twitter
If we are to have an inclusive society, we can’t simply “cancel” those who we don’t agree with.
17 April 2022, 17:21 PM
Pain and anger in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is known as the country of smiling people because of their friendliness. But recently, the island nation has been experiencing an explosion of pain and anger.
6 April 2022, 18:00 PM
A deadlier pandemic lying on the world’s and our doorsteps
While Covid-19 captured the attention of the world for the last two years or more, another pandemic has been silently killing countless numbers of people around the world.
31 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Pre-election promises, post-election disappointments
According to a recent report, due to the insistence of lawmakers, the government is going to repair religious establishments and build new bridges across the country at a cost of Tk 5,132 crore.
29 March 2022, 18:00 PM
‘Inflationary pressure higher than what official figure suggests’
Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), talks about inflation and the discrepancy between official and real data in a conversation with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star.
22 March 2022, 18:00 PM
‘Political will is the missing catalyst for quality education’
Dr Manzoor Ahmed, professor emeritus at Brac University and vice-chair of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) Council, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star about a new book, of which he is a co-author, on the political economy of education in South Asia.
26 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Our youth are craving opportunities
In a first-of-its-kind study, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the finance ministry found that around 1.6 million young people lost their jobs and about 20 million youths faced income loss due to the pandemic.
19 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Is Bangladesh Bank’s new decision good for the banking sector?
Over the years, experts have identified two major problems in Bangladesh’s banking sector.
13 January 2022, 18:00 PM
‘Prosecuting Assange will have a devastating impact on press freedom’
Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist working for the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano. She has worked on all WikiLeaks releases of secret documents and partnered with Glenn Greenwald to expose the Snowden Files about Italy.
21 December 2021, 18:00 PM
In a climate of exploitation, marginalised groups are easy pickings
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), speaks to Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star about the discrimination faced by marginalised communities and the rise of fundamentalism in Bangladesh.
31 October 2021, 18:00 PM
‘There can be no excuse for not formulating the EC law’
Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar is global vice-president and country director, The Hunger Project, and secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan). In this interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, he talks about the constitutional obligation of formulating a law to establish the Election Commission and why politicians so far have ignored it.
18 October 2021, 18:00 PM
‘Mental health has always been a neglected issue’
Dr Mehtab Khanam is Honorary Professor, Department of Psychology, Dhaka University, and a renowned psychotherapist. In an interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Dr Khanam talks about the state of mental health awareness in Bangladesh and how much it affects general well-being.
9 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Development for whose benefit?
When we ask the question, “Who should development benefit?”, the answer should be quite straightforward: “the people.” But in reality, that is not often the case.
29 September 2021, 18:00 PM
Time to address the growing wealth gap in Bangladesh
In a recent report, the World Bank stated that better targeted social protection programmes and reallocation of existing transfers to the poorest segment of society could reduce poverty from 36 percent to 12 percent in Bangladesh.
22 September 2021, 18:00 PM
Winners and losers of the West’s ‘forever wars’
Today marks 20 years of the 9/11 attacks on the US masterminded by Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and a bunch of “ragheads” (as angry racist US soldiers called them) sitting in some cave in Afghanistan, as per the West’s dubious official narrative of what transpired on this day.
10 September 2021, 18:00 PM
From the graveyard of empires, the US retreats
Twenty-years after 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan by US and NATO forces, the US is on the cusp of withdrawing its forces from the proverbial “graveyard of empires”, with the US military claiming its withdrawal is more than 90 percent complete.
15 July 2021, 18:00 PM
Iran nuclear agreement and the future of US-Iran relations
As of now, the US and Iran are yet to conclude their talks in Vienna “on the terms of Washington return(ing) to the [Iran nuclear] agreement,” according to The Guardian.
3 July 2021, 18:00 PM
Have we done enough to address the problem of drug abuse?
On May 27, The Daily Star reported that detectives had claimed to have seized LSD, an extremely potent hallucinogenic drug, for the first time in the country during a raid in Dhaka.
25 June 2021, 18:00 PM
What does and doesn’t happen when money changes colour
On May 19, the finance minister said, “The scope [to whiten black money] will be there as long as undisclosed incomes will be there.” (The Daily Star) Before commenting on this statement, let’s take a step back and think how we got to this point.
28 May 2021, 18:00 PM
Our health sector is ‘sick’ because of government apathy
In a report published on May 1, this newspaper revealed that according to a recent study, the Covid-19 treatment cost is abnormally higher in private hospitals compared to public hospitals.
19 May 2021, 18:00 PM