BPL action heats up with Chattogram leading the table

The 2025-26 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has reached a fever pitch after 20 matches, with vintage performances from local stars overshadowing the looming diplomatic crisis surrounding the upcoming T20 World Cup, reports BPL, reports UNB.Mustafizur Rahman, fresh from the controversy...

Ctg suffer Rossington blow as Nisham joins Rajshahi

Chattogram Royals suffered a major setback in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after their in-form opener Adam Rossington was ruled out of the tournament due to a finger injury, reports BSS.The England recruit was instrumental in helping Chattogram top...

Kyiv scrambles to repair ruined power grid after Russian attack

KYIV, Jan 10 (Reuters): Kyiv's water and heating systems were back on after being briefly shut down amid intense cold on Saturday, as engineers scrambled to stabilise a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes,...

Shah's son urges to seize city centres

PARIS, Jan 10 (AFP): Major Iranian cities were gripped overnight by new mass rallies denouncing the Islamic republic, as the son of the ousted shah urged protesters on Saturday to plan to seize city centres.The two weeks of protests have...

History will always recall Justice Murshed

Presently, his biography is not mentioned in school or college textbooks, neither in Bangladesh nor elsewhere. Yet, was he not a significant presence in our 20th-century history? I can cite a few examples, as other writers have done. In 1943,...

From financial inclusion to systemic risk

Bangladesh's microcredit sector is not a conventional financial industry; it is the outcome of decades of social mobilisation, institutional innovation, and an integrated development philosophy that blends finance with health, education, disaster response, and livelihood support. The draft ordinance issued...

GESI as a development framework

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, more commonly referred to as GESI, has increasingly become a defining lens through which development practitioners, policymakers, and international organisations assess and plan interventions. Yet, despite its widespread use in project proposals, policy documents, and...

Less about ideas, more about institutions

For much of the past decade, development debates have been dominated by ideas rather than institutions. Grand visions, national strategies, technology roadmaps, and long-term plans have proliferated across emerging and developing economies. Artificial intelligence, clean energy, digital finance, and infrastructure...

Suffering of the poor in winter

The extreme cold wave sweeping across the country this winter has far exceeded normal seasonal patterns. Dense morning fog, icy winds, and prolonged sunless days are severely disrupting the lives of ordinary people, turning winter into a silent humanitarian disaster-particularly...

Fake medicine on social media

Social media is making our lives easier. However, nowadays, it is also posing a serious public health threat: fake medicine. s to the senior citizen age group, specifically those aged 50 and above. Their usage rate is very low. In...

LPG crisis exposes regulatory gaps

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is no longer a luxury; it has become an essential cooking fuel for millions of households across the country. As domestic natural gas reserves dwindle, authorities have for years encouraged domestic use of LPG as an...

Global economic prospects and Bangladesh

Forecasting or projecting the world economic conditions for the near future is a regular exercise of a number of international bodies or organisations. The projections are primarily linked to a number of 'ifs' and 'buts', which minimises the scope for...

Making essential drugs affordable

The government's decision to expand the list of essential medicines to 295 and bring all of them under price regulation comes at a time when the cost of basic treatment is increasingly outpacing the ability of ordinary families to pay....

Major industrial groups seek Tk 165.5b bailout funds

Constrained by stated severe liquidity crunch in the country's industrial sector, eleven conglomerates seek some Tk 165.5 billion in interest-free loans from the government to sustain operations and meet staff-payment obligations, sources say.The SOS (save our soul) appeal comes from...

Four DU professors face charge over roles during July Uprising

The Dhaka University (DU) administration has decided to frame charges against four professors of the Department of Sociology and form a probe committee over their alleged roles during the July 2024 mass uprising.The accused teachers are Prof Jinat Huda, Prof...

DSEX extends gains riding on banking shares

The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) closed the first week of the New Year high, extending gains for a third straight week. The market rally is driven by renewed buying interest in heavyweight banking stocks, as investors...

Terrifying moments on the tracks

Trains move on, but some journeys remain unfinished in the mind. In candid conversations with The Financial Express, four veteran locomotive masters of Bangladesh Railway recall moments of fear, bravery, and responsibility on the rails that still haunt them One...

Foreign fund flow into BD corporates falls to $9.80b until Nov

Corporate external borrowing drops as persisting economic sluggishness dampens businesses' appetite for funds with the short-term overseas debt stock having declined to $9.80 billion until November.Officials and money-market analysts see such unrelenting contraction in private-sector foreign debts not as a...

Visitors throng the Dhaka International Trade Fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre

Visitors throng the Dhaka International Trade Fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre in the capital's Purbachal on Friday. — Focus Bangla

Temp dips to 6.80C in Panchagarh as cold spell prevails

The cold wave and dense fog are likely to persist for several more days across the country, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).The overall weather situation would remain dry with a temporary partly cloudy sky during the next 24...

Tarique becomes BNP chairman

Zia-family scion Tarique Rahman becomes Chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to succeed his mother who died recently. The party declared on Friday night that the BNP Standing Committee in its meeting "unanimously" decided to elevate Rahman to chairman from...

Tailwinds may lift economic growth to 5.0pc in FY26

Bangladesh's slow-pace economic growth may be ramped up to 5.0 per cent by tailwinds before this fiscal year ends on June 30, 2026, as estimated by BMI, a unit of Fitch Ratings. "We maintain our growth forecast of 5.0 per...

Vast fields of winter vegetables, including mustard, stretch out in the Aminbazar area of Savar.

Vast fields of winter vegetables, including mustard, stretch out in the Aminbazar area of Savar. The photo was taken on Friday. — K Asad-Uz-Zaman

Russia joins Chinese, Iran warships for drills off S Africa

SIMON'S TOWN, South Africa, Jan 96 (AFP): A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels in military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.The exercises draw together several nations...

USTR agrees to consider Dhaka’s proposal of cut in tariff

National Security Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman met with US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon.He also had a separate meeting with Assistant USTR Brendan Lynch, said the Chief Adviser's Press Wing in Dhaka on Friday,...

RMG exporters worry over possible order shift

Apparel exporters have raised concerns that the government's proposed 20 per cent safeguard duty on yarn imports, aimed at protecting local spinning mills, could push buyers to shift orders to other countries.According to industry sources, some buyers have already expressed...

Titas regrets low gas pressure

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution PLC today expressed regret for the temporary inconvenience caused to residents of Dhaka city due to severe gas pressure shortage in the gas pipeline, reports BSS."Although the damaged pipeline in Turag River was repaired, but...

Price of .bd domain cut by 36pc

The price of Bangladesh's country code top-level domain .bd has been reduced by 36 per cent following a second round of review, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb announced on Friday.In a Facebook post, Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb...

DMTCL hands over Anwara Udyan to DNCC

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) on Friday officially handed over the documents of Anwara Udyan, adjacent to the Farmgate Metro Rail Station, to Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).DMTCL Managing Director Faruk Ahmed handed the park's documents to DNCC Administrator...

MoF asks specialised banks to stay within mandates

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has instructed specialised banks to distribute loans according to their mandates after it was found that they were going beyond their authorised areas.Officials say the specialised banks were formed with the target to make loans...