Investment versus economic growth

Investment, one of the key drivers of economic development, has been defined as 'net addition to the existing stock of capital'. Capital is a combination of capital machinery, buildings and transports used for the purpose of production. These elements of...

Nobel economists, others urge end to \\\'war on drugs\\\'

Global efforts to thwart the drugs trade have failed and the time has come for a radical rethink, according to a group of Nobel-prize winning economists, a former U.S secretary of state, the deputy prime minister of Britain and others....

Baltics can keep lights on if Russia turns off the gas

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia depend on Russia for all their gas imports, but they each have defences in place to ensure sufficient energy supplies if Moscow cuts off gas exports in an escalation of the Ukraine crisis. Russia's Gazprom has...

Making education attractive to slum and working children

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in creating access to and achieving gender parity in primary education. According to the MDG progress report 2012, the country is about to achieve the goal of universal primary education for all. The net enrollment...

Intake rules at public universities need review

Public universities in developing countries play an important role in empowering the citizens through various means. Like in other such countries, the public universities have been shaping the middle class of Bangladesh since earlier decades of the last century. Dhaka...

Efforts on to implement Padma Barrage project

Water resources officials are accelerating efforts at the top level over executing the Padma Barrage project to save some 21 south-west districts of the country from water crisis and salinity. Sources in the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) said the...

Breakthrough in Chinese funding for deep-sea port in the offing

Chinese funding for construction of a deep-sea port in Bangladesh may see a breakthrough soon as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to visit Beijing next month, officials say. A meeting at the ministry of foreign affairs last week took...

BTB set to get fewer staff than sought

Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) is going to get one fourth of its workforce it sought under the board's new organogram to be effective from the upcoming financial year, officials said. The new organogram along with BTB service rules is now...

Bangladesh needs priority-driven budget

In addition to traditional administrative responsibilities, the government of a country has numerous plans and policies to meet the objectives of social development and economic growth. For implementing the policies, the government has to spend huge funds on administration, defence,...

People seek more shelters during cyclone in Khulna

People in the disaster-prone areas of Khulna are keeping their fingers crossed about their safety in case a hurricane or cyclone lashes those places. Shelters are inadequate. Even most of the existing shelters are in a dilapidated condition because of...

FDI and economic growth

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is actually transfer of capital from a source country to a host country. It is done in order to earn more revenue by grabbing the facilities offered by the host country. The surplus capital of any...

Corporate income tax: Should it be reduced or not?

One of the first lessons taught in Economics is to distinguish between a positive and normative statement. The example of a positive statement would be, 'the temperature today is 30 degree Celsius', and the example of a normative statement would...

Rivers of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a riverine country. About 800 rivers including tributaries flow through the country constituting a waterway of total length around 24,140 km. Most of the country's land is formed through silt brought by the rivers. The rivers of Bangladesh...

The moral standard of Islamic banking

The history of banking is as old as the human civilisation. But the modern banking system flourished in Europe after the Renaissance and expanded across the globe including the Muslim world just after the political victory achieved in Europe. At...

Dissociated from the world of reality

Obsession and addiction loosely refer to similar meaning. But when it comes to psychology, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction widely differ from each other. OCD is an anxiety disorder produced by intrusive thoughts -ones that produce uneasiness, fear, apprehension and...

List of 10 mega projects under Road Div ready

The ministry of communication has prepared a list of 10 mega projects under its Road Division to press an urgent demand for Tk 35 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, officials said. The demand is 90 per cent of the...

Trade deficit widens further

The country's overall trade deficit widened further because of higher import payments and relatively lower export growth, officials said Thursday. The trade deficit rose to US$ 4.94 billion in the July-March period of this fiscal year (FY), 2013-14, from $3.56...

Women in administration: The challenges

On the shelves of BRAC village libraries, popularly known as Gonokendra', you can find books on various subjects that aim at satisfying the thirst for knowledge of the village people. Various publishers continue to send books to the officials who...

An inspirational biography

Khuda Buksh: The Pioneer of Life Insurance in Bangladesh is a well-written and interesting book about a fascinating individual.  Clearly Mr. Khuda Buksh was one of the outstanding life insurance men of his generation in Asia and his story can...

Nation cannot afford to lose its arable land

Bangladesh is located in the lowest part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river systems with a long coastal belt along the Bay of Bengal. The country is endowed with diversified species of flora and fauna. Agriculture is the major economic activity...

Fault line in health service

Not all is quiet and well on the health-service front in this country. Its hospitals are making news for all the wrong reasons.  No civilised nation has ever experienced clashes, let alone such negative incidents repeatedly between physicians and relatives...

Thailand falls into deeper crisis

A court in Thailand has ordered prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra removed from the office for "abuse" of power. The country now appears to be plunging into a deeper crisis. The development has come as a big setback for the prime...

BD proposal for local value addition at 30pc for LDCs opposed

Bangladesh proposal on setting local value addition criterion for least developed countries (LDCs) at 30 per cent, instead of 40 per cent, in preferential trade among the Developing-8 (D-8) countries has triggered strong opposition from most of the bloc members,...

DCCI holds meeting with diplomats tomorrow

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) will hold a meeting with the foreign diplomats in Dhaka tomorrow (Saturday) aiming to increase Bangladesh exports in different countries, said the chief of the trade body. The government has set the...

Stocks see decline

Stocks returned to the red on Thursday after three sessions' positive trend with sluggish trading activities as investors remained in cautious mood.The market started with a positive note, but could not sustain as session progressed. Eventually, DSEX, the prime index...

DSE, CSE open positive

The prices of most of the shares on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) saw positive trend in early hours of trading on Thursday, the last trading day of the week. DSEX, the prime index of the...

Dhaka to seek duty-free facility to Russian market in July

Bangladesh will seek duty-free market access of its products to Russia when a high- powered official delegation visits that country in July next, officials said. The commerce minister Tofail Ahmed will lead the Bangladesh delegation, the officials added.   Products, mainly...

Horror of abduction stalks

Committing a crime and then laying the blame on others is often a common theme in most of the Bangladeshi or Indian thriller movies that are box-office hits. The theme is smartly tailored to create an air of tension and...

Developing citizen-centric public administration

There has been a paradigm shift from traditional hierarchical bureaucratic public administration to a citizen-centric modern public administration. This has happened due to globalisation, rapid technological advancements, rising expectations of the citizens from the public servants in terms of better...

Non-banking financing: Role of Factoring

Apart from traditional bank borrowings there are few non-banking financing options such as housing finance, leasing and hire purchase. "Factoring" is also a non-banking financing scheme that aims to provide temporary cash flow problems and, or improve liquidity of a...