Plough $42b into farming by 2030

Asia and the Pacific nations, including Bangladesh, need to pump as much as US$42 billion into the agriculture sector by 2030 to eliminate hunger from the region, an authoritative study has reckoned.And the investments will yield $1.1 trillion in economic...

Hungry for solutions to a looming food crisis

The world has been witnessing an irrefutable reversal in the progress towards reducing hunger and malnutrition. Although Asia stands as an exception so far, the pace of reduction of hunger has slowed down in the region, indicating a similar reversal...

Reforming and revitalising NAM

The 18th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held from October 25 to 26 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the theme, "Upholding the Bandung Principles to Ensure Concerted and Adequate Response to the...

Curbing meddling by the tobacco industry

The tobacco industry's new rhetoric that smoking is harmful and that its so-called less risky products will reduce the global tobacco epidemic, should see the industry stop opposing or fighting government efforts to reduce tobacco use. However, this is not...

PMO steps in to uphold country's image abroad

Against the backdrop of detecting harmful lead compound in turmeric, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked the authorities concerned to restrict export of the widely consumed spice and uphold the country's image abroad, officials said.It suggested imposing a complete...

BD's cereal output gets thumbs-up from ADB

The Asian Development Bank has lauded Bangladesh for achieving self-sufficiency in rice output, but voiced worry over falling income of the farming community."This progress was largely driven by the Green Revolution technologies that put high yielding seed varieties in the...

Govt focuses more on bank borrowing

The government borrowed nearly Tk 280 billion from the country's banking system in more than 100 days of the current fiscal year (FY) to meet the budget deficit, partially.A falling trend in sales of national savings certificates along with a...

Philips Curve: Flat, dormant or dead?

High-growth monetary policy to combat unemployment tends to push inflation up and slow-growth policy to combat inflation tends to raise unemployment. This inverse inflation - unemployment trade-off has been a short-run phenomenon because the aggregate supply (AS) curve is moderately...

Consumers at receiving end

Consumers have always been at the receiving end in this country. Sellers and providers of essential goods and services do hike prices of their goods and services at will and bother little about quality. The media, as observed world over,...

Metro rail company functioning without paid-up capital

The metro rail company has been functioning for the last five years without paid-up capital as this important provision is absent in the official document of the organisation.Sources said in absence of paid up capital, the Ministry of Finance (MoF)...

FTA with US to benefit BD

Bangladesh looks to sign a free trade area (FTA) deal with the United States as it failed to get restored the generalised system of preferences (GSP) facility.The Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) has recently studied the pros and cons and found...

NBR clears confusion over 'input' definition

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Sunday identified a number of products and services that cannot be shown as inputs (raw materials) for claiming VAT rebate.The Value Added Tax (VAT) wing under the NBR has issued an order which...

Catching Hilsha in defiance of ban

The 22-day ban on Hilsha fishing is in its last leg. By the time the ban comes to an end on October 30, the authorities will not feel particularly pleased with the performance of the various agencies responsible for enforcement...

Economic diplomacy: South and South-East Asian perspective

Economic diplomacy is the use of the full spectrum economic tools of the state to achieve its national interest, including external economic sector, foreign aid or official development assistance, export, import, foreign investment, lending, free trade arrangements, joint economic commissions....

Farm credit disbursement picks up

Farm credit disbursement grew by nearly 2.0 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of fiscal year (FY) 2019-20, as demand for such loan started generating after floods.Disbursement rose to Tk 35.55 billion from July to September of FY '20...

FSIBL growth embarks on tech, diversification

First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) is committed to meet need-based customers demand through introducing new product and services, the bank's top executive said.The Shariah-based Islami bank has also put thrust on bringing the unbanked people into the banking network...

Sustainable development and education

By the time of publication, representatives, senior officials, and Heads of State and Government of 120 countries from around the world will have converged on Baku in Azerbaijan for the XVIIIth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).To many, it may...

Govt plans fair rawhide prices from next Eid

The government plans to introduce a system of fixing rational prices of rawhide of sacrificial animals from next Eid-ul-Azha in a bid to prevent repeat of the price debacle seen this year, officials said.To this end, the authorities concerned for...

BFSA to intensify watch on errant hotels next week

Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) will intensify its monitoring drive against errant hotels and restaurants from the next week considering the interests of the consumers.As part of the move, the national agency for ensuring hygiene and food safety has taken...

Jute ministry pushes for steps on tariff barrier

The Ministry of Textiles and Jute has sought necessary government steps to settle the issue of anti-dumping duty imposed by India on Bangladeshi jute goods, officials said.In a letter, Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi has recently requested Commerce...

Stocks end flat after volatile trading

Stocks finished almost flat in the outgoing week that ended on Thursday as investors mostly followed cautious stance amid ongoing volatile market trend.Week on week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 1.01 points...

Premier Bank puts thrust on financial inclusion, digitisation

The Premier Bank Ltd is putting all its efforts to move from a conventional bank with digital transformation, said its managing director M. Reazul Karim on Thursday. In an interview with the Financial Express to mark the celebration of the...

In the lap of the Himalayas

Sathpal Rathore hails from North Delhi. Nobody can ignore his masculine body structure. Driving is his profession and may be his passion also. His dauntless driving on the curved path in the mountain areas gives a feeling of thrill and...

Serving the wretched and helpless

At a time when baser instincts, brutality at its worst, crimes of the most atrocious types are browbeating society, even the most optimistic souls sink. As the country's premier engineering university is discredited for turning at least some among the...

Swiftly ending tobacco epidemic requires government action, not empty promises

New information published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows that action taken by just 11 countries - most of them low- or middle-income - has resulted in 20 million fewer adult tobacco users in 2017 compared with 2008....

'Parallel administration' in public universities?

Public universities in the country are passing through a critical juncture. There is a growing dismay in society about the conduct of some students and teachers in the country's highest institutions of learning. Once regarded as ideal institutions of nation...

Poverty and Nobel Prize for Economics

This year's Nobel Prize for Economics went to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Dufflo (MIT professors in profession and husband and wife in personal life) and Michael Kremmer of the Harvard University. The win owes to their "experimental approach" to global poverty...

Why society turns more and more brutal

The country is writhing under a spree of extreme forms of savagery, violence, vengeance and inhumanity right now. The news that a university student with top grade results at the JSC, SSC and HSC levels beat his school teacher father...

UN team to assess impacts

The United Nations is set to weigh up the environmental impacts of several under-construction coal-fired power plants on the world heritage site Sundarbans, officials have said.A joint delegation from the World Heritage Centre, a UN body, and International Union for...

Now NBR drawback office to refund VAT

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to issue VAT refund for export-oriented sectors and international organisations from its drawback office, instead of VAT field-offices, in a bid to simplify the refund system.The Duty Exemption and Drawback Office (DEDO)...