BIDS looks for new head

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) is looking for a new Director General (DG) as the tenure of the incumbent head of the institute, Dr Mustafa K Mujeri, will expire on March 31 next.
The search committee has already made a short list of candidates before picking the next DG. The list will be placed in the next meeting of the Board of Trustees soon. Planning Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal is the chairman of the board.
The three-member search committee is headed by Mr. M Syeduzzaman, a former finance minister of Bangladesh, while two other members are: Dr. Mahabub Hossain, a former DG of BIDS, and the incumbent DG of the institute.
Names of four noted economists have been included in the short list of candidates according to sources. They are: Dr. KAS Murshid, a former research director of the institute, Dr Zaid Bakht, a BIDS research director and now chairman of Agrani Bank, Dr. Binayak Sen, another research director of BIDS, and Dr. Atiq Rahman who worked at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. He, however, served BIDS for a brief period in late '80s.
Thus, it is very likely that the next head of the institute will be ultimately a 'BIDS man'.
BIDS is an autonomous public multi-disciplinary organisation which conducts policy-oriented research on development issues facing Bangladesh and other developing countries.
In 2009, the government provided a research endowment fund worth Tk 200 million (20 crore) to support research activities. Some donor agencies and foundations also provide resources for its activities.
Currently the institution has about a 30-strong research team and another 25-member non-research team.
The institution was ranked 17th among the top think-tanks in South Asia and  the Pacific, 24th among top international development think tanks and 97th among top think tanks worldwide in the "2014 Global Go To Think Tank Report" published by the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania.
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