Stocks end lower on profit-booking

Stocks witnessed marginal fall last week that ended Wednesday, after remaining upbeat in the previous week, as most of the investors opted for quick-profit booking amid lack of market triggers. The market remained closed Thursday due to public holiday on...

The power of empathy

Empathy is a key element of Emotional Intelligence. It establishes the link between self and others as it is how we as individuals understand what others are experiencing. Researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people's emotions,...

Basking in reflected glory

With the curtain falling on the Rio Olympic 2016, competing nations and participants are taking their stocks. The people in Bangladesh hardly have any expectation from the greatest sporting show on this planet. It is all because in the global...

Reserve management: The rise of official reserves

For many years, Belgium was praised by economists but without followers. When Japanese policy makers decided to pattern the statutes of the Bank of Japan  (BOJ) after the "ideal" case of the Bank of Belgium, they conspicuously avoided authorising the...

There is hope, hope for a better future

In fact, developing countries seek multilateral cooperation enabling them to gain increased access to the knowledge and expertise of other Southern countries and to identify partners in key strategic areas such as industry, trade and investment, environment and natural resource...

BB to ask banks on steps taken to reduce NPLs

The central bank is set to ask banks, having more than 5.0 per cent classified loans on total outstanding, to inform about their initiatives for reducing the volume of such loans, officials said. As per the decision, the Bangladesh Bank...

NBR seeks DCs’ help in VAT collection

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has sought cooperation from the district administrations to ensure compliance with VAT payments by the businesses operating outside cities. The Value Added Tax (VAT) wing under the board has recently sent letters to all...

India renews push for country origination label in jute bags

India has again reminded Bangladesh of complying with the mandatorily marking country of origin in exported jute bags, officials said. "This stipulation is often violated and imports of jute bags without bearing any mark of the country of origin, thereby,...

Making education meaningful

People involved with educating the country's young generation has got reason enough to gloat over this year's higher secondary results. Both pass rate and the number of GPA (grade point average)-5 achievers have registered substantial improvement. Compared with the previous...

South-South trade grows to unprecedented level

The overseas development assistance (ODA) was reduced by 12 per cent in 2014 and increased future flows are uncertain to Bangladesh.  In fact, it hardly could match its 2008 ODA figure in last seven years. Therefore, our experts are coming...

Banks\' NPLs likely to swell further in next quarters

The volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the country's banking sector might even grow bigger at the end of the current quarter (July-September), some senior bankers have expressed the fear.  The bankers have a feeling that some borrowers would default...

Reserve management: A historical perspective

Borio, Claudio, Gabriele Galati and Alexandra Heath (2008) in an insightful survey of the Bank for International Settlements several years ago reflected on trends in foreign reserve management. They noted an alignment of central banks' portfolio management strategies and standards...

Adopting non-polluting energy source before it is too late

Coal is the dirtiest of all fuels. In fact, coal plants are the single largest source of global warming pollution. A typical coal plant (600 MW) generates about 3.5 million tons of CO2 per year depending on its size and...

MDGs basically remain \'an unfinished agenda\'

We are living in an era of hope and thanks to United Nation (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his dedicated team of leadership and more importantly, the global leaders as they have designed, developed and adopted two important global...

The untapped treasures

Resources aplenty in the deep blue sea on the south of the country are awaiting exploitation. But the government does neither have a long-term plan nor the requisite manpower to tap, what is called, blue economy much to the people's...

NBR probing tax compliance, funding sources of trusts

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is probing for any foul play in receiving the sources of funds by registered trusts following global concerns about growing acts of money laundering.   A large part of the funding of trusts comes from...

Foreign firm\'s procrastination defers commencement plan

Counting 25-year concessional period of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) project is yet to start even though over six years have elapsed since agreement signing under public-private partnership (PPP). Though both public and private parties had so far been blamed...

Fund constraints hit Petrobangla hard

Petrobangla has been facing an acute shortage of funds due to the mismatch between procurement of gas and its sale, officials said. The Bangladesh Oil and Gas Corporation (BOGC) requires over Tk 54 billion immediately to make payments to Large...

BSEC to launch e-data gathering system

The securities regulator has moved to introduce Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system to ease and speed up the data and information submission by market intermediaries and listed companies, officials said. After introduction of the e-data gathering system,...

FDI rising, still low

It may be a coincidence. The day terrorists attacked a cafe in Gulshan area of Dhaka was the first day of the current fiscal year (FY17). The incident shocked the whole country. It sent an ominous signal to the businesses,...

Weak bank messaging system increases security challenges

More than a dozen current and former board directors and senior managers of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) - the bank messaging system that helps transmit billions of dollars around the world every day - have said...

Reserve management: Objective, scope and coordination

Reserve management should seek to ensure that (1) adequate foreign exchange reserves are available for meeting a defined range of objectives; (2) liquidity, market, and credit risks are controlled in a prudent manner; and (3) subject to liquidity and other...

The hazards of coal-fired power plants

The scientific community overwhelmingly agree on clear and persuasive evidence that earth's climate is being affected by human activities. Ozone 'hole' discovery in 1980s drew global attention leading to Kyoto Protocol on climate change due to global warming attributed to...

Industrial imports mark modest growth

Overall imports for the country's industrial sector grew over 6.0 per cent in the last fiscal year (FY), buoyed by higher import of capital machinery, officials said. The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) increased...

B\'desh to invite Aussies to invest in SEZs

Bangladesh will offer Australian entrepreneurs to invest in special economic zones (SEZs) during the Australia-Bangladesh Business Forum (ABBF)-2016 in Melbourne to be held next month, officials said.   Increased engagement with industry and policy makers of the two countries and exploring...

Syrian civil war: The battle rages on

Since the civil war in Syria started on March 15, 2011, why does it always take a little boy to make the world weep and see the horrors of this prolonged war? At first, on September 02, 2015, it was...

On human height

LIFE (elifesciences.org) produced a research article discussing trends in human height spanning over a century  (July 26, 2016). We shall heavily draw upon the article below - even paraphrase - for two reasons. First, the findings show that child malnutrition...

Abe under pressure to revive Japan\'s struggling economy

Missing market forecast, data showed last Monday (August 15) that Japan's economy has stalled during the second April-June quarter of 2016. It has also rekindled worries about the government's unsuccessful bid to revive the economy. Contrary to economists' expectations for...

BSEC seeks legal opinion from AG

The securities regulator has sought legal opinion in an effort to revise its directive regarding the sponsor-directors' minimum two per cent shareholding portion in listed companies, the official sources said. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) sought the opinion...

Dealing with mosquito menace

Mosquitos are a pest with no equal. Though not all mosquitos transmit life-threatening diseases, those that do kill approximately 7,25, 000 people worldwide every year. When not fatal, the diseases mosquitos spread can result in bouts of debilitating fever, nausea...