A crisis in urban governance
The recent report that Bangladesh's twelve city corporations operate on a collective annual budget of just Tk 230 billion, an amount that severely constrains their capacity, stands as a damning indictment of the nation's urban governance crisis. This figure is astonishingly low for entities that host more than half of...
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Will WTO deal to curb fisheries subsidies work?
In its three decades of existence, the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have negotiated only two new trade deals. The latest one is the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS), which entered into force last week. At the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva in 2022, the members of...
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Denuding hills - a monstrous crime
No fewer than 150 hills and hillocks are now at risk of being completely flattened. This time, the cause is not population pressure or the need to reclaim land for agriculture, but a grave error in survey records that borders on criminality. A report in a vernacular daily has revealed...
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Professions forgotten in the craze for modernity
In both urban and rural Bangladesh, many traditional professions quietly exist, though rarely recognised. These include clock repairers, quilt makers, khundhai artists, and beading artists - trades passed down the generations. Despite their declining visibility, they play a vital role in preserving our cultural heritage. Yet, with the rise of...
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Reshaping national statistical body
Data, census, and statistics are indispensable for effective policy-making and prioritization. They provide evidence for decision-making, inform economic forecasting by identifying future trends and resource needs, and support development monitoring and evaluation of past actions.A government-formed task force has made recommendations to enhance the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) by...
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