On April 5, The Daily Star published a report titled "Banks face bigger crisis" on its front page. The report, citing a think-tank, said that the decision to slash the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and allow state-owned banks to keep half of their funds with private banks, will lead to the crisis ballooning further, instead of solving it.

As private banks experience serious liquidity crises, it is essential for the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to intervene before things worsen any further. BB slashed the cash reserve requirement (CRR) by one percentage point down to 5.5 percent, effective from April 15.

The government decided to change the English spelling of five districts a few days ago. It seems to me that the correction has not been done properly. I was happy to see that the government had attempted to correct their spellings but was disappointed with the end result.

Rebecca Haque's piece entitled “Shadowtime: Notes on living in two temporal scales simultaneously,” published in this paper on March 25, has drawn my attention. It is without doubt a wonderful piece, which

The Daily Star has recently published a report on traffic jam based on a study by BUET. According to the study, traffic congestion eats up around five million working hours every day and costs the economy thousands of crores of taka every year.

The Accident Research Institute at BUET has recently released an important research report about traffic congestion in Dhaka. It said that about 5 million working hours are wasted in the city every day because of congestion.

There are numerous wooden furniture factories in our cities that completely ignore workers' safety and health concerns. They use toxic chemicals for furnishing and can often be seen covered with such materials.

The Daily Star on March 23 published a front-page story titled “His fight takes new turn.” The story depicts the struggle of Limon Hossain, a RAB shootout victim, who is now a lawyer.

Recently, the government has decided that public exam papers would be finalised 25 minutes before the exam takes place. In the past, the government took numerous measures to check the question leak epidemic.

In 2005, the government for the first time increased pension for public servants who were to retire under the sixth National Pay Scale (NPS). The subsequent NPS's in 2009 and 2015 also saw increase in pension. All these increments caused some level of disparity among pensioners, but the eighth in 2015 did so the most.

Each year, the coastal regions of our country are affected by different types of natural disasters triggering huge losses. This is not a new phenomenon.

Middle Eastern countries have reduced the overall salary they pay to expatriate workers. They have also adopted the policy of replacing as many foreign workers as they can with their own citizens.

In our country, law enforcement agencies often enjoy impunity. In the name of disciplinary actions, law enforcers who violate rules of engagement or commit corruption, escape from justice. A few days ago, an opposition activist

The issue of ragging in universities in Bangladesh has really come to the limelight over the last one month. I was horrified at the news of a Dhaka University student committing suicide after being subjected to ragging. According to his friends, the individual who ended up committing suicide was often humiliated for the way he looked.

Bangladesh has received overwhelming international praise for giving shelter to the hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas fleeing the

On March 21, The Daily Star published a front-page story titled “Mosquitoes farmed, in fact”. The report mentioned that several water bodies in Dhaka serve as the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Roads in Gopalganj Sadar thana are in bad shape and increasingly becoming unsuitable for both the passers-by and the vehicles. Household waste is dumped indiscriminately on the roads, creating odour all around. Sand and bricks are kept by the roadside for months. As a result, the roads have become narrower.

Combating chikungunya

In this era of the internet, a large number of our citizens use different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. It's heartening that many of them use these platforms for various purposes, from business to

On March 2, I checked in early at the Dhaka airport, hoping for a few relaxing hours at the departure lounge before the takeoff. But the mosquitoes at the airport had other plans.