As the number of infections and deaths from Covid-19 increase, economies around the world have started to feel the heat.

I started to write this on the night that is deemed the holiest night of the holiest month of the year by Muslims.

We are already over two months into the extended holiday which is coming to an end soon. It feels as if we time travelled to a new reality after March 25, 2020 which I still cannot fathom.

The world is experiencing an unprecedented health challenge as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. To date, it has spread rapidly in almost all countries in the world, causing the number of cases and deaths to increase exponentially.

We have to talk about the post-corona time, even though Bangladesh has not reached the peak in infection and deaths caused by the pandemic.

As the world reels from the biggest health crisis we have seen in our lifetime, some countries have dealt with the coronavirus pandemic better than others.

Vladimir Lenin once said, “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. Can anything be more relevant to explain the present?

"The virus is slowing us down to the speed of poetry.” – Billy Collins

Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading causes of women’s death in the developing world.

Coronavirus infection is a global public health disaster. The virus has exposed the ugly face and serious weakness of public health service in Bangladesh. It is now important to admit that the public health service is poorly funded and not fit for purpose. We can’t rule out the possibility of another new virus outbreak and pandemic in a few years’ time.

The purpose of this write-up is not to discourage and undermine speed. It’s about choosing something as long as it is healthy and sustainable.

Every country, small or large, rich or poor, have embraced the concept of a balanced and phased reopening where the concerns of the workers, businesses, and health sector professionals are meshed into a workable action plan.

Mrs Manzur was a nation-builder in the truest sense of the word -- and this too while being surrounded by a plethora of notable personalities in her own family.

Covid-19 has gripped the world in its claws and is refusing to let go.

Online teaching, at its best, can create a learning environment to ensure transference of knowledge. However, I am not sure if technology and innovations have reached that point to replace the tribal needs of human interactions that define the complex teacher-student relationship in a physical classroom.

While highlighting the significance of music in human life, Martin Luther, the German theologian and leader of the Protestant Reformation, once said: “Music can make the sad merry, the merry sad… Make the proud humble…”

Bidyanondo Foundation has become quite a household name in recent days.

A virus in distant Wuhan, China did not cause much of a stir initially; but five months on, with five million people infected and more than 3 lakhs dead globally, the coronavirus is a major concern for humanity all over the world. Caught in a stranglehold of death and distress, humans are feeling acutely nervous.

The coronavirus rage is showing early signs of slowdown in most parts of Europe and South East Asia. Strict regimes of social distancing are being eased with reopening of schools and selected businesses, not without controversy though. But it is still advancing in the rest of the world and until an effective vaccine is universally available, it remains a threat to us all.

The technology I have in mind as our saviour in the next pandemic is Artificial Intelligence (AI). In proposing this I am inspired by two things.