In yet another sign of rapid deterioration in the quality of life in Dhaka, a recent study, published by the US-based scientific journal PNAS, has found the city to be the worst-affected around the world due to extreme urban heat.

We are all familiar with the sight by now: everyone in a family—adults, children, parents—sitting together, but each concentrating on their personal device, usually a smartphone or a tablet.

As India inches towards fresh general elections in 2024, there is a wind of change in the political landscape.

The recent signing of an MOU between the Bangladesh government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), affirming the latter’s willingness to help in the ongoing relocation of Rohingyas to Bhashan Char, is welcome news—albeit a couple of years delayed.

An unthinkable and deplorable situation has risen out of the rigid position taken by the Minimum Wage Board (MWB) that was formed to fix the minimum wage for the hapless tea workers of Bangladesh.

Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in how rivalry for the leadership of the Muslim world and competition to define Islam in the 21st century are playing out in a world where the Middle Eastern states can no longer depend on the United States coming to their defence.

In the 1970s, American sociologist and economic historian Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-2019) proposed an approach to view the global economic system as an interplay between three groups of countries: core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries.

Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia have won the Nobel Peace Prize for their relentless struggle to protect freedom of expression.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone, but it has been especially so on children.

When Vithika Yadav returned to India in 2008 after living in the United States, she saw that many young people—especially girls—didn’t have a space to openly talk about the difficult issues they faced. Gender-based violence, child marriage, and other harmful social practices remain commonplace, and are hardly ever discussed.

Humans are social creatures. While all animals have a need to communicate, none have quite the same ability or need to organise themselves into communities the way humans do.

At the end of this month, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), under the presidency of the United Kingdom, will begin.

Cities have been the epicentre of Covid-19 pandemic since 2020. City authorities have been the frontline responders—from running testing stations, to managing food distribution, to disposing of corpses. Yet, they are often under-resourced and their critical role in policy implementation is often overlooked.

Local e-commerce platforms have experienced exponential growth in recent years due to improved living standards and changing shopping behaviour.

Satyajit Ray’s 1976 film “Jana Aranya” is as much a socio-political commentary as it is about the dark underbelly of India’s business world.

The other day, I was listening to this popular song by Kafil Ahmed, one of the few gono sangeet artists of our time.

Vaccination against Covid-19 has been at the centre of most discussions related to the pandemic management across the world.

Fairooz Faizah Beether, a fourth-year student of Khulna University, recently received the 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Changemaker Award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

It’s part of human nature to favour symmetry, uniformity, and evenness over something that is uneven or “disorganised.”

We all can recall from our student days one or more teachers who touched our lives in a special way. They inspired us to aspire higher and served as our role models.