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
The pandemic has exposed our existing vulnerabilities
The ongoing pandemic has caused huge economic losses for the world. In 2020, growth in South Asia contracted by 5.4 percent, which does not capture the whole story of how terribly its people have actually suffered—but it is an indicator of how the region has struggled over the last year.
21 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Government must have a clear vision to ensure better healthcare
For this year’s World Health Day, the World Health Organization wanted to highlight the importance of building a fairer and healthier world. In terms of fairness, how do you rate our healthcare system? And when it comes to ensuring a healthy population, how would you rate its performance?
6 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Solving the power sector’s overcapacity problem
One of the less talked-about downsides of the pandemic-induced lull has been the increasing financial stress on the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). According to a study last year by the Ohio-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis,
28 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Issues that demand inclusion in the development debate
The reason behind the creation of the concept of Least Developed Countries (LDC) by the UN in the 1960s was to identify a set of nations whose development struggles were not solely based on their own shortcomings, but due to other structural constraints.
5 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Our financial system is just broken
It was good to hear the High Court blasting a section of Bangladesh Bank officials for their alleged connection with financial scams involving People’s Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (PLFSL), a non-bank financial institution (or NBFI) that is now in the process of liquidation due largely to the infamous PK Halder and his associates.
26 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Transforming Bangladesh into a stable success story
After liberation in 1971, Bangladesh faced massive economic and humanitarian challenges right from the get-go. The country was born through struggle, but the struggles were nowhere near over as its economy was quite simply in tatters after the war—and even from before.
10 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Main reasons why the government’s recovery effort has fallen short
Bangladesh is no stranger to disaster management. Since independence it has dealt with numerous natural disasters as well as political unrest and overhauls.
15 January 2021, 18:00 PM
A year when poverty increased, and so did misery
The year 2020 has been like no other in recent history. Even the biggest doomsdayers could not have predicted what was to occur, and how the Covid-19 pandemic was to derail millions, if not billions, of dreams and aspirations.
1 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Is there no one to speak up for Palestine?
On the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Bangladesh, Yousuf S Ramadan, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star about some recent major developments concerning the longstanding occupation of Palestine by Israel and the forces that are contributing to the denial of Palestinians’ human rights.
28 November 2020, 18:00 PM
How Bangladesh can benefit from China’s economic recovery
As the nation holds its breath in anticipation of a potential second wave of Covid-19, five countries including Bangladesh have decided to strengthen sharing of information and coordination of policies and actions to cope with its probable impacts.
21 November 2020, 18:00 PM
Covid-19 And The Economy: Where on the path to recovery are we?
The year 2020 has been a disappointment due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And just one of its many downsides can be seen on the global economy which, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is set to contract by 4.9 percent in 2020—with the IMF saying in its June report that this “baseline projection rests on key assumptions about the fallout from the pandemic.”
13 November 2020, 18:00 PM
Realities of Bangladesh-India relations
In an interview published by The Daily Star on October 27, Dr Ahsan Mansur, while discussing the recent IMF revelation that Bangladesh is set to surpass India in terms of per capita GDP, said something very interesting.
3 November 2020, 18:00 PM
What Bangladesh did right and India could not
Ahsan H Mansur is Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh. In an exclusive interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Dr Mansur talks about the recent revelation by the IMF that Bangladesh is set to surpass India in terms of per capita GDP, and other factors relating to Bangladesh’s growth.
26 October 2020, 18:00 PM
Blame the cops or blame the system?
On October 10, 33-year-old Rayhan Ahmed walked out of his house at 10 pm. At around 4:23 am, Rayhan called his mother from an unknown number and informed her that he had been picked up by the police who were holding him at Bandarbazar Police Outpost.
16 October 2020, 18:00 PM
The elusive zero tolerance for corruption
How many times have we heard government officials and ruling party members mention that this government has a zero-tolerance policy for corruption? The answer is many, of course—that was a rhetorical question. Then why is it that corruption seems to be skyrocketing? That’s the real question.
2 October 2020, 18:00 PM
Democracy in decline?
Dr Ali Riaz is a distinguished professor of political science at Illinois State University (USA) and a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. In this interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, professor Riaz talks about the old and new challenges to democracy and whether democracy globally is on the retreat.
22 September 2020, 18:00 PM
Can more laws save us from becoming a corrupt state?
By using shell companies and moving money from one account to another, Prashanta Kumar Halder laundered at least Tk 3,500 crore out of the country and is now enjoying his life in Canada.
29 August 2020, 18:00 PM
The political fallout of August 21 grenade attack
After the fall of the Ershad government, signs of a democratic future emerged in Bangladesh in 1991. The two major political parties—AL and BNP—that came together in the anti-Ershad movement formed their separate coalitions (with smaller parties), and it appeared that Bangladesh would go down the line of a two-party parliamentarian/presidential system similar to the ones in the US, Japan and other countries.
21 August 2020, 18:00 PM
Kajol may have been found, but justice is still missing
Over 120 days have passed since photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, also the editor of The Daily Pokkhokal, went missing after leaving his office on the evening of March 10.
4 August 2020, 18:00 PM
The different intrigues and agendas tied to the Srebrenica Massacre
This year marked a quarter of a century since the Srebrenica Massacre of July 11, 1995, when around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were allegedly massacred by Bosnian Serbs—during the Bosnian War—in what has been described by some as the “worst war crime” to have taken place on European soil “since World War II”.
26 July 2020, 18:00 PM