Ovarian cancer: What you need to know

Being a woman is a blessing - they say. However, being a woman is also a curse, when it comes to carrying 'women only' diseases, like ovarian cancer. In Bangladesh, despite having high death tolls due to maternal causes, cancer...

Avoidable violence in UP election

The apprehension was always there. And it has happened all the same. When the decision on holding union parishad (UP) election on political party lines was recommended, the seed of violence was actually sown. Politics need not be so intrusive...

Land quality and access to technologies

Not all land is of the same quality. Land at higher elevation may suffer from infertility and be exposed to droughts and hence may not be as productive as a parcel of land at lower elevation which may benefit from...

The case for higher estate taxes

According to conventional wisdom, inequality is an inevitable byproduct of strong economic growth. Talent, innovation, and entrepreneurship will inevitably capture the lion's share of the income being generated, and efforts to redistribute wealth can only be counterproductive, because they weaken...

Trade deficit drops on higher export growth

The country's overall trade deficit recorded a declining trend in February following higher export growth than import payments, officials concerned said. The overall trade deficit came down to US$4.06 billion during the July-February period of the current fiscal year (FY),...

Unnecessary tax holidays set to go next fiscal year

The budget for fiscal year (FY), 2016-17, is expected to withdraw unnecessary tax holiday facilities which in the past were offered to help boost industrialisation and attract investments, officials said. A list of such tax measures, which are deemed needless,...

FDI crosses $2.0b level for first time in country

The annual inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) crossed the $2.0 billion level for the first time in Bangladesh last year. Updated statistics on FDI, released by the central bank, showed that the net inflow of FDI stood at $2.23...

Govt drafts policy to help execute dev projects in time

The government has drafted a policy on the Project Preparatory Fund (PPF) aiming to facilitate timely and successful implementation of its development projects, officials said. The main objective of the fund is to provide for completion of preliminary activities before...

Giving every child a fair chance in life

All children have the rights to survival, developing and reaching their full potential without discrimination, bias or favouritism. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also draws our attention to the need to fight discrimination: "irrespective of the child's...

Accommodating the urban population

Housing in all major cities of densely populated countries has always been a pain in the neck for the governments. In some places, accommodation is aplenty, but both the sale value and rent of residential accommodation are sky-high. Again there...

Impacts of climate change

Although Chaitra is supposed to conclude the Basanta (spring) season, this month on the Bangla calendar has long become warmer. But this year, it was mostly an unfamiliar Chaitra with the sky overcast for days and rains surprising unprepared people...

Regional trade: Harmonisation of standards progresses at a snail\'s pace

Complying with the standards of products in international trade is becoming increasingly difficult. Developed countries and multinational corporations are gradually setting complex set of standards. Developing countries are also forced to follow the track which is burdensome for their producers...

Informed investment decisions can prevent mkt manipulation

Investors' prudent investment decision guided by reasonable expectations is seen as an important factor in stabilising the stock market. Capital market experts and portfolio managers laid emphasis on the level of financial literacy on the part of general investors. They...

Govt won\'t provide subsidy to LPG users

Reviewing the draft strategy paper on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) usage, the government has disapproved of a proposal for giving subsidy to consumers when piped gas supply will stop, officials said. If the government position stands, households will have to...

Recast BB board discusses how cyber heist occurred

The reconstituted central bank board discussed in detail Wednesday how the cyber heist in its overseas reserves occurred and how such fraud could be prevented. Officials said the recast Bangladesh Bank board in its maiden meeting asked top management to...

Who will monitor compliance issues?

Mushrooming of the country's private hospitals has helped the people to get health services at their door steps. The services in the private hospitals are expensive, no doubt. Yet those have helped many patients from skipping even far more expensive...

Healthcare: Challenges are too many

Bangladesh with one of the highest population density and meagre resources faces a lot of challenges in ensuring a minimum of healthcare facilities. Since its birth, it has been struggling hard to overcome many challenges in its task of improving...

Pro-active investment authority to help attract FDI

Sanjiv Lamba, visiting member of the executive board of Linde AG, said Bangladesh needs uninterrupted power supply, a pro-active investment authority and proper enforcement of policy to attract foreign direct investment. "Despite some constraints, I would still suggest investors to...

Indefinite transport strike begins on Sylhet roads

SYLHET, Apr 6: As an Indefinite strike has been started since this morning vehicles of all types remained off the Sylhet-Salutikor-Companiganj-Bholaganj road and on the Sylhet-Gowainghat road to press for immediate repair of the important roads. The transport workers and...

Marketing humanity

A rudimentary notion in marketing as a field of study is that one must cater to human emotions and interests in order to successfully sell a product. This is an intuition in business that is very obvious, yet significantly difficult...

Smart option for banks to manage credit risks

The failure of a bank or the case of a bank experiencing a crisis usually has negative impacts on other banks in the economy through informational conflagration or an increased cost of borrowings. The impacts are likely to be higher...

Recovering stolen BB reserve money through lawsuits - II

The US Patriot Act 2001 and the US Criminal Money Laundering & Civil Forfeiture Act 1986 are the two most powerful legal weapons for fighting money laundering activities and financial crimes in America. In the Bangladesh Bank's reserve hacking incident,...

Europe\'s generational war: The focus on the present has far-reaching consequences

Throughout the industrialized world, governments are rushing to hand out money to the elderly. Germany's government has not only reversed an increase in the retirement age intended to make pensions more affordable; it has recently announced a 5.0per cent increase...

Credible financials, entry of quality issues ‘hold the key’

Experts and stakeholders emphasised the listing of companies having strong fundamentals, visible regulatory actions, reliable financial statements and risk-management capacity of institutional investors for lifting the capital market out of the ongoing moribund state. A top official of AB Bank,...

The cost of indifference

The decision made by the cabinet last Monday to remove 'unapproved' commercial establishments from the designated residential areas of Dhaka, the most densely populated city in the world, is bound to raise both confusions and serious doubts in public mind....

PMB can\'t spend even cut-down allocation

The Padma Multipurpose Bridge authorities may not be able to spend even the cut-down revised allocation for the current fiscal year for slow-paced work. Sources said the project office has yet to start in full swing construction of the main...

NBR to link up with VAT machines of businesses

Government's revenue authority has planned to establish interlink between the electronic cash register (ECR) of shops and the VAT online system to crosscheck transaction data for preventing tax evasion. There will be a chip in the ECR machine to help...

Smart ways to fight poverty and provide economic opportunity

Bangladesh has made spectacular progress over the recent years. The country has halved poverty and the economy has grown by about 6.0 per cent a year. But many challenges continue to frustrate its development efforts. According to the World Bank,...

Telecommunication: The role of towercos

Across the globe, telecommunications are recognised as a necessity to improve the quality of life. Increasingly, mobile telephony and data have been central in making access to information and services available regardless of locale. However, maintaining seamless connectivity is a...

Economics and Saudi oil output curbs

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and de facto leader of the OPEC oil cartel, was determined so far to protect its global oil market share by continuing the on going level of production. And that has contributed to...