Being in the business of measuring poverty is a challenge for the World Bank. If poverty declines, critics accuse us of trying to showcase our success. If it rises, they say we are ensuring that we stay in business. And if it stays the same, they accuse us of trying to avoid these two charges.

The rising trend of foreign currency loans availed by the private sector is a relatively new phenomenon in Bangladesh since access to international markets was liberalised in 2008.

Industrial policy needs to address issues of education and skill development for facilitating higher capabilities for export diversification, attracting FDI and integrating with the global value chain.

The successful implementation of the NSSS will provide a strong basis for Bangladesh to extend proper social security to its poor and vulnerable populations. It recognises the differences in risks at different stages of the life cycle and provides support to various demographic groups.

October 15 was the International Rural Women Day. The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on October 15, 2008.

THE winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in the field of economics, Angus Deaton, professor of Economics and International Affairs of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, spent his career working on consumption, poverty and inequality.

Unfortunately, the world's rich countries currently are making things worse. Foreign aid – transfers from rich countries to poor countries – has much to its credit, particularly in terms of health care, with many people alive today who would otherwise be dead. But foreign aid also undermines the development of local state capacity.

What will kill RMG in Bangladesh? Trans-Pacific Partnership or security fears? It may certainly be the second one and not the first. To begin with, the full text of the TPP is not yet available.

Given that Bangladesh has the lowest debt-GDP ratio in the region (29 percent), when compared to Sri Lanka (73 percent), Pakistan (67 percent) and India (65 percent), we can easily afford investing another $10 to 20 billion in our hugely inadequate infrastructure.

By barring MNOs from starting their own MFS, BB effectively promoted interoperability. This encouraged 25 million subscribers to sign up in four short years. bKash, for example, had signed up three times as many customers (19 million) in four years as EasyPaisa operating in Pakistan for about seven years.

In these times of interconnected economies, China's recent economic troubles seem to be the last straw that broke the camel's back. First of all, less growth in China spells trouble for its trading partners. But there is another worrisome development for ROW. China, after years of goading from IMF and US economists, is undertaking a policy shift in an attempt to change its economic growth paradigm.

In a move that saw Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nationalist government facing the stiffest resistance from pacifists and opposition parliamentarians alike, the Japanese Diet (Parliament) last week voted into law a bill that will allow Japan to deploy its military in combat roles beyond its territorial boundaries for the first time in seven decades.

When the 'Digital India' initiative of the Indian Prime Minister receives the backing of none other than the Google CEO Sundar Pichai, one can't help but look at it with admiration.

Whenever I used to pass through John F Kennedy Airport, the massive advertisement of 'Incredible India' would draw my attention.

The reason many people do not like a market economy lies in the acid test of harsh competition. To them, the market economy is a story of losing jobs by being made redundant in the workplace.

After another long wait,the eighth pay scale for government officials and employees has finally been approved.

We need to develop stricter rules and punish the wrongdoers to protect our shareholders, thereby developing a healthy capital market.

The hackneyed expression “strictly business” would have us believe that business, at its core, is meant to be devoid of emotion.

Pressure from the IMF suggests that, with time China will indeed move towards a more open capital market. But that creates other challenges for Asia's largest economy.

Global development path has been based on the philosophy of accelerating growth by way of burning fossil fuels.