Bangladesh is the most densely packed human domicile in the world among nations having more than 10 million people. With more than 1,100 men, women and children per square kilometre, Bangladesh struggles to provide breathing space to her teeming millions.

One in three of Bangladesh’s 170 million people is aged between 10 and 24 years, and the country is well in place to reap the benefits of this demographic dividend; or so we hear.

In recent weeks, there have been a flurry of diplomatic activities in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, starting with the high-level visit of Myanmar delegation led by Myint Thu, Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Cox’s Bazar.

Bangabandhu spent almost one-fourth of his nearly 55 years of life in prison. The first time he went to jail was when as a schoolboy, in his hometown of Tungipara, he and some of his friends got into a fight with Hindu leaders who had beaten up a Muslim one.

A portion of my bookshelf looks “girlier” than the others. It’s stacked with hardbacks and paperbacks in various shades of pink, pale yellow, glittering gold, and some pops of red and purple. Anyone who walks in and looks at this section of the shelf will know immediately that it contains different variations of love stories, of stories about girls going on holiday and bonding with their girlfriends and reconnecting with themselves, usually having cast off a toxic job or relationship. Think of your Nora Roberts, your Cecelia Aherns and Jojo Moyeses and, if you like to step back in time, your Judith McNaughts.

In July last year, the draft NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Assam had primarily delisted more than four million people from Indian citizenship—a process that is now pending for its final publication on August 31 of this year.

A French animal-rights activist recently said that mosquitoes should be allowed to drink human blood, since they do it to get protein for their eggs. Aymeric Caron, an anti-specist TV presenter, further added that mosquitoes, in fact, should be allowed to bite humans, except in Africa, where people might get infected with malaria.

This epic refrain of Fakir Lalon rings around our collective South Asian conscience every time people of one religious identity inflicts mindless violence on the people of other faiths, like Hindus murdering innocent Muslims in Maharashtra,

I was on my way to Kuakata, a coastal town famed for its breathtakingly beautiful views and a beach where you can see both sunrise and sunset on the lap of the Bay of Bengal.

Disasters today pose a greater threat to mankind than ever before. In the age of climate change, the nature, frequency and ferocity of natural disasters have greatly increased.

The epidemic of dengue fever can overburden the healthcare system in the countries that have been affected by it, including Bangladesh.

We all know that solid tannery waste was used as the principal component of poultry/fish feed previously, but it has been recently banned by the Supreme Court because of its possible adverse health effects for the consumers.

Among many bold initiatives taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, introducing midwifery in Bangladesh’s health system is one of the most significant ones. The country did well in terms of reducing maternal mortality during the MDG era, but latest research reports of a stall in its further progress.

The fashion industry is among the most polluting industries in the world, while demand for inexpensive fast fashion products is increasing the burden on the natural environment.

A recent report published by a local newspaper had us sitting up on our proverbial chairs. Titled “Study finds carcinogenic element creating whitening agents in detergents,” it was about a research study that said that almost all the detergent brands available in the market contain a fabric whiter, called fluorescent whitening agent (FWA), which can lead to severe health repercussions for the users. The agent can cause allergy, skin diseases, kidney diseases, gene-related complications and even lead to carcinogenic reactions in human bodies!

International Friendship Day is celebrated on July 30 in many places. The day was first proposed in 1958 in Paraguay by Dr Artemio Bracho of the World Friendship Crusade as “World Friendship Day”.

Once in a rare while, a debut novel appears unannounced and hits you on the back of your head like a truncheon and leaves you stunned. Such a book is Babu Bangladesh! by Numair Atif Choudhury, which, if I may say so, could be the Midnight’s Children for that tumultuous nation.

With more than three and a half lakh people already having been infected with dengue fever, as per a report by the daily Prothom Alo on July 23, the dengue situation in the country has gone totally out of control. However, data from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) shows that a total of 7,766 people have been infected till July 23 this year. This is because the DGHS only keeps track of data of some particular hospitals and clinics, and those who were infected but did not go to a hospital were excluded from government estimates.

In 1990, when I was striving to enter the world of doctoral research, my father, who was an eminent historian, placed three books on my table with the assurance that if I thoroughly read them, I would be on my way to select a research topic for myself.

In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the fictional omniscient entity “Big Brother” seemed like an absurd possibility even a decade back. For an all-knowing being to exist in a society that had access to a constant flow of information was not common in everyday narratives of the time.