Food cost renders more people poor

BANGLADESH has been consistently producing record harvests of food grains in recent years. This would lead to a conclusion that the rate of consumption of basic food, rice or wheat, is rising or remains at a reasonably satisfactory level. But...

US presidential campaign 2008

In the background of the long, historic US-led terror wars in Afghanistan and Iraq killing thousands of innocent Muslims since the Sept 11 event, US is undergoing a long poll campaign season to elect a new president to take office...

news digest

in Brazilian truck crashSAO PAULO, Aug 20: Fourteen farm workers in Brazil returning home from a coffee harvest were killed Tuesday and another 19 injured when the truck they were traveling in crashed, local media reported. "Everything indicates that the...

NYT paints gloomy picture of US economy

NEW YORK, Aug 20: Writing under the heading 'No end in sight', the New York Times in its lead editorial yesterday painted a rather gloomy picture about the US economy surrounding which the global economy moved. A year into the...

Proposed RTI ordinance proves to be an empty show

The Right to Information Act has been eagerly awaited in Bangladesh by all those who understand and appreciate its significance for good governance of the country. The prevailing Official Secrets Act in Bangladesh is like an impenetrable shield that denies...

The state of technical and vocational education

Technical education is in a shocking state. For example, newspapers reported sometime ago that 31 out of the 38 government's polytechnic institutes of the country are running without principals. And 35 of them have no vice-principals. Besides, 450 posts of...

Implementing RRC's recommendations

With the aim to remove the existing legal barriers to the promotion of investment, the government on October 10 last year formed the 17-member Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC). The tenure of the Commission will expire next October.So far, the RRC...

Career voyage

I am very fond of train journeys. My colleagues sometimes ridicule me at my extraordinary penchant for trains; some wonder why I eschew comfortable air journeys in favour of time-consuming train journeys even on official tours. Surprising as it was,...

news digest

first satelliteCARACAS, Aug 19: China is to launch Venezuela's first satellite in November which will serve to relay telecommunications data and television signals over Latin America, President Hugo Chavez said. The orbiter, named "Simon Bolivar" after a 19th century Venezuelan...

Lending speed to khaki files

The caretaker government after long 32 years has rewritten the directives for the country's main seat of administration, the secretariat, where hundreds of khaki files move from one table to another every working day.Under the new directives, styled, the Secretariat...

The concern about accounting standards

Accounting in many areas of business in the country continues to be pursued in the traditional fashion with accounting looked upon as nothing more than book-keeping or taking a stock of routine expenditures and sales returns. But modern accounting is...

Importers to open shops for selling goods at fair price

CHITTAGONG, Aug 18: In a bid to reducing the huge gap between import price and retail price of essential commodities, the importers themselves are now set to open shops in Chittagong for selling consumer goods at a fair price.Moreover, to...

news digest

Azerbaijan mosque kills twoBAKU, Aug 18: A grenade which exploded in a packed mosque in the Azerbaijan capital Baku Sunday killed two worshippers and wounded six more, an official said. Five hundred worshippers had gathered in the Abu-Bekr mosque for...

Women's Reservation Bill: To live another day

IT took a high level of strategizing. Women stood around the man given the task. They literally "protected" him. And in the end they and he won. He managed to "table" a piece of paper that was in danger of...

Production in state-run jute mills declined

KHULNA, Aug 18: Production has fallen by one-third in seven state run jute mills in Khulna and Jessore region due to crisis of raw jute. It is therefore uncertain whether the mill would be able to fulfil their production target...

Customs dept records 51pc growth in revenue in July

Customs department has recorded 51 per cent growth in revenue in the first month of fiscal 2008-09, thanks to higher import of luxury items, including cars, which helped it fetch increased amount of supplementary duty (SD).The National Board of Revenue...

Premarital medical test needed for healthy conjugal life

NOTHING worse can happen to Rahmat Alii and his wife Laila Perveen. Rahmat is suffering from liver cirrhosis while Laila from Hepatitis B. Rahmat passes his time waiting to meet the angel of death on a hospital bed in Old...

Ethics, morality and the objectives of education

THERE is a strong correlation between institutional education and all pervasive corruption in our country. This perception, indeed, becomes true if we objectively analyse the prevailing corruption in the society. Who are the main actors in corruption? Put on a...

GDP calculation to cover more areas

The government is going to select a new base-year for GDP (gross domestic product) calculation taking into account the contribution of a number of economic activities.Private universities and English medium schools, clinic, hospitals and diagnostic centres, livestock and poultry, non-profit...

Wanted a whitepaper on power and gas situation

The scarcity of both gas and power has emerged as the single most important hurdle to the country's economic development. And it seems that the government is groping in darkness to find a solution to the problem.The mismatch between demand...

Power play in Mauritania

A military party has just opened the second part of their grand puppet show. Venue: the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. Conductor: General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Performers: Democratically elected Mauritanian politicians. Orchestra: Military leaders loyal to General Aziz. Duration: Till when...

Insurers reluctant to renew policies of garment units

A number of garment factories face problem in renewing or getting fresh insurance policy for their fixed property as insurers are reluctant to underwrite risk due to looming volatile situation in the sector, officials and industry insiders said Friday.They said...

news digest

pilgrim in BaghdadBAGHDAD, Aug 15: At least one Shiite pilgrim was killed in Baghdad on Friday and 10 more were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as their bus was heading for a festival in the holy city of Karbala,...

Georgia crisis entrenches Europe and NATO splits

The Georgia crisis has sharpened divisions in Europe about how to deal with Russia and splits within NATO over the wisdom of granting membership to Russian neighbours Georgia and Ukraine.Splits within the European Union over who is to blame for...

Fund constraint delays machine readable passport project

Uncertainty looms large over floating an international tender for introduction of machine readable passports (MRPs) due mainly to delay in allocation of a Tk 20 million fund by the finance ministry.The department of immigration and passport (DIP) sent a proposal...

Drop in commodity prices poses risks to Latin America

The Latin American economic boom of the past five years could take a hit if prices keep falling for the commodities they produce -- from soybeans to oil and metals.Argentina and Venezuela would suffer most from a sustained slump in...

NBR teams on the hunt for bigwig tax evaders

Special teams of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) have been working to identify city bigwigs who are evading taxes despite having large volume of taxable income, an NBR official said.The NBR has formed the teams comprising officials from different...

Globalisation and its impact on insurance industry in Bangladesh

Of late, there are lot of discussions and deliberations on the importance of practising corporate governance in the insurance companies. Broadly speaking, 'corporate governance' covers any aspect of an organisation that is involved in management and performance improvement. There are...

The conventional and the organic food

SOMETIMES when buying at groceries, we are confused by the differences in price between food grown organically and food grown conventionally. Usually, the organic loses the price war argument in comparison to what is called "conventional" food.Of course, we are...

Reasons behind Russian invasion of Georgia

The United States has warned that Russia's continued presence in Georgia would damage its relations with the West.United States of America is rethinking its relations with Russia following the latter's invasion of Georgia. Though the Washington has ruled out any...