A year has passed since the world learnt about the attack of the novel coronavirus. Countries around the world are still grappling with the fallout from the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.

End of the year op-eds, or the thought of it, bring for me anxiety as well as joy. I feel anxious because I can’t decide what to write about, or find issues to vent about, as the year draws to a close.

Ever since a London based agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) partnered with Times Higher Education to measure “academic excellence” against a host of quality indicators at the beginning of the millennium, universities all over the world have been attracted to the idea like ducks to water.

The Election Commission (EC) must be above question. But to be so, it must answer all questions. To ignore, evade, downplay or malign citizens who ask the questions is the surest way to sow doubt in the public mind that an attempt is being made to hide, something that is neither good for the EC and definitely not for the future of democracy.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been a pioneer in terms of developing the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a more balanced way of measuring human development that goes beyond traditional, simple economic indicators of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) vide their letter of December 14, 2020, “temporarily dismissed” the Executive Committee (EC) of the Retired Armed Forces Officers’ Welfare Association (RAOWA) and replaced it with a five member committee consisting of two serving army officers—a Brigadier and Major respectively, a retired member of RAOWA of the rank of Major, and two civil cadre officers of the rank of Deputy Secretary.

US president-elect Joe Biden’s meticulous selection of office-bearers for various portfolios should make one realise the importance of competence.

How do we as consumers make the right purchasing decisions? Most of us these days wish to buy products and services with a reduced environmental footprint.

The Eighth Five Year Plan (8FYP) of Bangladesh is going to be finalised and approved soon. The duration of the Seventh Five Year Plan (7FYP) ended in June 2020.

National Professor Rafiqul Islam, speaking at a virtual event organised by ULAB in remembrance of the martyred intellectuals, mentioned that the job of writing the history of the Liberation War should have been given to the universities from the start and not to the politicians.

The United States has always grabbed global attention for just being what is it—the United States.

On December 12, 2020, it was the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the occasion was marked by a Climate Ambition Summit hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, who serves as the presidency of COP26 taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021.

With the grim reaper back for the second wave of Covid-19, people around the world are desperately looking for a shield.

Bangladesh is celebrating the 49th anniversary of the nation’s Victory Day today.

At present, the RMG industry in Bangladesh employs around four million people, a large majority of them women with dependent families.

On the eve of its 50th birthday, Bangladesh basks with glory and pride. The country has crossed several milestones along the way and is set to achieve many more in the coming years.

Amid the sad, the sordid and the sensational, let us look at some other news. On November 30, Kaavan, dubbed the “loneliest elephant” arrived from Islamabad to Cambodia to start a new life.

What was once a startling thunderclap passed off as a whimper, what was welcomed by millions and celebrated as the rebirth of our democracy, went hardly noticed, what was termed as the victory of the people over the military did not receive any public attention.

I walked out of the doctor’s chamber with my mother when someone took the prescription from me.

It is now officially known that Israel carried out the targeted killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.