What if Darwin wore VR glasses?

Today most people think of gaming, virtual reality glasses and video when asked about virtual reality. The concepts of virtual reality in these areas have been around for some years, but what if we look beyond this media space. Do...

On journeys — forever

For some life's journey begins with a bang, for others quite insignificantly and still for others modestly. When a boy or a girl born in an unenlightened home of a remote village tentatively ventures into schools away from the known...

Paying for the welfare state without raising taxes

The current value of the US government's unfunded pension and Medicare liabilities is $46.7 trillion, or roughly two and a half times US GDP (gross domestic product). Other estimates put that figure much higher. In the United Kingdom, a similar...

Budget pays inadequate attention to public transport

Despite acknowledging the importance of 'a planned and integrated public transport system in Dhaka and the adjacent areas', the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20) paid inadequate attention to the sector. In his budget speech, the finance minister...

Poverty eradication

Bangladesh has done pretty well in cutting income poverty. The Seventh Five Year Plan (2016-2020) - a document that reflects national hopes and aspirations at least for five years - in its preamble put poverty reduction as one of the...

Rising population trends threaten SDGs in Asia & Africa

The world's developing nations, currently fighting an uphill battle in their attempts to implement the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are facing another stark demographic reality: a rise in world population by 2.0 billion people in the next 30 years:...

Time to treat Ctg clinical waste

CHATTOGRAM, June 20: Clinical garbage is fast polluting the port city for apparently no management of such trash from several hundred hospitals and clinics here.The places around the infirmaries are littered with such waste having an overpowering stench, thus posing...

Understanding youths in social context

"Praise youth and it will prosper." — Irish proverbYouth has endless potential which makes the young the most important and productive guiding force of any nation. Development of a society as well as a country largely depends on the exploration...

Not the perfect shot in the arm

The government has been at the receiving end for years because of very dismal performance of the stock market, an important barometer of a country's economic health. It has tried a few measures from time to time to buoy up...

Classroom teaching more important than GPA index

There is yet another initiative for bringing about a change in the format of exam results of public examinations. Whether this will happen to the primary education completion (PEC) examination results also is not known. This is because the education...

Africa's gig opportunity

The growth of digital platforms in Africa could offer new opportunities to bridge the current gap between often-insecure informal work and formal employment. Portable benefits, which move with a freelance worker from gig to gig, could drive this transition.There are...

IMF seeks clarification of 'wilful defaulters'

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed interest to know about the definition of wilful loan defaulters, which will be used for identifying them legally.The visiting IMF mission's interest was shown at a meeting held at the Bangladesh Bank (BB)...

Conference enriches knowledge of youths about rivers and water channels

Cultural homogeneity that inhabitants of South and Southeast Asia experience today stems from the flow and sacredness of its rivers. In this lush riverine country, how religions and ideals are formed around the rivers is an essential academic discussion to...

Long road ahead for country’s IT to go

Twenty-four Bangladeshi technology companies participated in Japan's largest IT related trade show in Tokyo in May 2019. Japan IT Week Spring 2019 was a gathering of technology businesses to engage with potential Japanese buyers of technology and showcase their solutions...

The crisis of the "unnewsed" population

We once believed in utopian dreams about how a digital world would challenge power structures, democratise information and put power into the hands of the audience. Twenty years ago, I even wrote a university dissertation on how the internet was...

Sport for Development and Peace

Sport has a unique and universal appeal to attract and inspire people. That makes it a highly effective tool for engaging individuals, communities and even countries for taking actions to improve the health of their populations, especially children and youths....

The spectre of securitisation: Financialisation promotes dangerous speculation

Financialisation has involved considerable 'innovation', often of opaque, complex and poorly understood financial instruments. These instruments typically have large debt components involving leveraging, deepening connections across markets and borders.Three important financial innovations that have changed the financial landscape - by...

BB moves to popularise Islamic bonds

The central bank has taken a move to make Islamic bonds popular by enhancing the volume of Islamic Bond Fund and creating scopes of the bonds' multiple uses.As part of the move, a 10-member working committee has already been formed...

Japan-BD economic dialogue on July 04

Public and private sectors of Japan and Bangladesh will sit in Dhaka on July 04 to resolve issues hindering trade and investment environment between the two countries.Sources said the date of the 4th Joint Japan-Bangladesh Public-Private Economic Dialogue (PPED) was...

New VAT law: Amendments necessary to align with global best practices

The government has finally notified that the new VAT law (VAT and Supplementary Duty Act, 2012 and Rules 2016) will go into effect from July 01, 2019. Consequent upon this, all rules, orders, statutory regulatory orders (SRO) and notices issued...

Smooth graduation: Learning from experiences of former LDCs

Only five countries have managed to graduate out of the 'Least Developed Country' (LDC) status and became 'Other Developing Countries' since the formation of LDC group in 1971. However, in terms of economic structure, these countries are quite different from...

VAT: Fresh concerns for consumers

There has been a lot of clamour about the new VAT law. Over the past few years, consumer rights groups have discussed the topic, columnists and economists have inked their observations through columns and on television while trade bodies have...

Strengthening corporate governance with forensic accounting

In recent times the term corporate governance has become a buzzword in the corporate world across the globe. It is not a new concept in the business arena, yet the areas of its application are changing with evolving needs. In...

Industry and trade under the fourth industrial revolution

As Bangladesh is set to graduate out of the Least Developed Country (LDC) status, a global-scale fourth industrial revolution powered by cutting-edge technology is also on the horizon. As 21st century world prepares for a new age economic transformation, mechanisation...

Securities regulator takes exception to proposals

Strong criticism from the stakeholders over the proposed tax on stock dividend and retained earnings have prompted the authorities concerned to weigh the scope for reviewing the measure.The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) said on Monday it would sit...

Businesses want upping limit, economists favour continuity

The budget proposal to keep the tax-free limit for individual taxpayers unchanged has evoked mixed reactions among business people and economists.Businesses wanted the ceiling to be adjusted with inflation to keep low-income people from paying taxes, but economists favoured continuation...

BD, UAE to work together on food safety

Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will work together on food safety measures for the mutual benefits of the two countries. As part of the move, the UAE's state minster for food safety affairs will have a meeting with...

Budget implementation: Challenges and limitations

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, along with the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, proposed the national budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 in the Jatiya Sangsad on June 13, 2019. The proposed budget, amounting to Tk 5,231.90 billion, is the largest-ever in...

Technology to cope with scarcity of irrigation water

Bangladesh is an irrigation-water-scarce country in the absence of sufficient surface water for the purpose. As a consequence, farmers all over the country are to depend increasingly on underground water irrigation method. But excessive use of underground water for irrigation...

Liquidity crisis: A wake - up call for the banking sector

The banks and financial institutions of the country are now facing difficulties at maintaining healthy liquidity due to increasing size of non-performing loans (NPLs). As such, they cannot provide financing to prospective businesses and industries. The country's GDP (gross domestic...