SOEs issue SOS calls
At a time when banking scam and money laundering were making screaming headlines, the debt incurred by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was relegated to the back burner. Now the Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance has identified 19 of the 122 SOEs in precarious financial positions with a total debt...
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External financing crucial to power green transition
The global transition to clean energy is often presented as an environmental imperative. For climate-vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh, however, it is something far more fundamental: an economic necessity, a development strategy and, increasingly, a matter of national security. Yet despite ambitious national commitments and a growing policy push toward...
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Education system should be humane
What a recent report based on the inspection titled, ‘Foundational Literacy and Numeracy of all Primary School Students in Dhaka and Narayanganj Districts’ conducted under the primary and mass education ministry showed about the basic knowledge acquired by primary schoolchildren was anything but encouraging. It cannot also be said that...
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Questionable exit policy for loan defaulters
Bangladesh Bank has decided to facilitate borrowers with bad loans through an exit facility. Accordingly, it has decided that the applied and unapplied interest on those loans may be waived in accordance with Bangladesh Bank's guidelines. At a first glance, this appears to be a positive initiative for reducing non-performing...
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Illegal sand extraction threatens the Padma
Uncontrolled sand extraction is taking place at several points along the Padma River in Daulatpur and Bheramara upazilas of Kushtia, posing a serious threat to the environment as well as to the lives and livelihoods of local people. The indiscriminate use of dredgers for sand extraction is accelerating riverbank erosion,...
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