news digest

Taliban insurgents: USWASHINGTON, June 10: Members of Pakistan's intelligence services and its paramilitaries are supporting Taliban insurgents who enter Afghanistan to attack US and NATO forces, a US think-tank said in a report released Monday. The study by the RAND...

Re-imagining cities: artists' perspective

WOULD not it be exciting if our cities were had colourful and pleasing looks -- something the people can interact with? Just stand and take a moment to look at our cities or when we walk down their grey and...

Manila power utility defies regulatory order

Manila Electric Co defied a government order not to count a big block of disputed votes during its annual meeting late last month and elected candidates to its board, adding to an acrimonious spat between the company's two biggest shareholders.The...

commodities digest

should dominate OIC meetKUALA LUMPUR, June 9: Malaysia wants the fuel price issue to top the agenda at this month's meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Uganda, Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said today. "Malaysia would like...

Making it a pro-investment and export-supportive budget

FINANCE and Planning Adviser Dr. A.B. Mirza Md. Azizul Islam and National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abdul Majid have been having pre-budget discussions for the last few months. Every year such discussions are held to take the advice of...

Crisis management features dominate

The outgoing fiscal has not gone well for Finance and Planning adviser Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam.Soon after the announcement of the national budget, came two back-to-back floods followed by a power-packed cyclonic storm. The natural disasters, besides exacting a human...

Difficult time for capital market regulator

THE capital market regulator-the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is considering amendments to the existing rules for the merchant banks to force the latter for accomplishing one of their basic jobs-to bring in new issues to the stock market.The chairman...

The world wants a vote in an epic presidential contest

These are times when everything is measured against prior expectations, when tomorrow's news was discounted yesterday, and when to be anything but cynical is to be credulous. So perhaps we should not get too excited by the long-awaited confirmation that...

sports digest

OMAHA, Nebraska, June 8: Six-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps won his third gold of the Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational Saturday as top US swimmers try out the venue for the upcoming Beijing Olympic trials. Phelps won the men's 100m...

'Varsities asked to deposit to their treasuries 40% of admission income

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the country's 26 public universities to deposit 40 per cent of the earnings from admission tests to the internal coffers of the universities to boost the funds of their own.The UGC has recently...

commodities digest

growing problemLONDON, June 8: Food riots. Scores of panicked people protesting, burning effigies and chanting. Shops being ransacked, supplies running out as soon as they come in, and stricken communities stockpiling rice, bread and water for fear of going without....

The budget of 2008-2009: fiscal, investment scenario

FINANCE and Planning Adviser Dr. Mirza Asizul Islam said (May 19, 2008) that the budget outlay for the next fiscal year (2008-2009) would be around Tk. 995 billion with widened deficit, but not beyond 5.0 per cent of gross domestic...

Difficult time for capital market regulator

THE capital market regulator-the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is considering amendments to the existing rules for the merchant banks to force the latter for accomplishing one of their basic jobs-to bring in new issues to the stock market.The chairman...

Dispute over 'dispute settlement' makes foreign investors wary

The government's plan to install eight new power plants to generate 1,800 megawatts of electricity might suffer a blow as foreign investors concerned are not agreeable to a condition relating to dispute settlement.The power ministry incorporated a condition in the...

Manila power utility defies regulatory order

Manila Electric Co defied a government order not to count a big block of disputed votes during its annual meeting late last month and elected candidates to its board, adding to an acrimonious spat between the company's two biggest shareholders.The...

India needs to triple energy capacity to meet demand

FT Syndication ServiceMUMBAI: India needs to add the equivalent of about half the electricity generating capacity of the UK each year - or about 30 gigawatts - if it is to maintain its present rapid rate of economic growth, a...

ABB regional head suggests short, long term plans to improve power situation

Bangladesh needs short and long term plans to improve the country's nagging power situation, said the regional chief of ABB Limited.'We think there is a need for short and long-term plans,' Biplab Majumder, managing director and country manager of ABB...

Duty, VAT on MS rod, edible oil, powdered milk may undergo revision

The government is to exempt some major import items from mandatory pre-shipment inspection (PSI) in the budget for fiscal 2008-09, which will be announced today (Monday).The items are: limestone flux including limestone and other calcareous stones of a kind used...

Chinese fund tries to calm west's fears

FT Syndication ServicePARIS: The head of China's $200bn sovereign wealth fund said last week the fund was trying hard to adapt to international demands for greater transparency even though this was contrary to the country's ancient historical traditions."Our government has...

The hungry's right to food

THE central issues that were focused in the just concluded conference in Rome (June 03-05, 2008) on "World Food Security: the challenges of climate change and bioenergy" were soaring food prices, climate change and bio-fuels. The urgency of the issues...

Taiwan reaches out to international students

TAIWAN has had its fair share of gloom and doom over the past decade. Frustrated by a government that has given priority to protecting the island from overdependence on China, rather than on benefiting from globalisation, business leaders, analysts, politicians...

Values of staff put to the test

FT Syndication ServiceLondon: What do you do if you work in the human resource (HR) department of an organisation and you know that a friend, a single parent poised to take on a very large mortgage, is about to be...

Call center: A new boulevard of employment for Bangladesh

The overall Call Center outsourcing market is expected to continue grow steadily, according to a recent research done by Frost & Sullivan Inc., the San Antonio-based research and consulting firm. This firm states that the call center outsourcing market reached...

High oil prices hit sushi trade

FT Syndication ServiceTOKYO: Sushi is in danger of falling victim of high oil prices after fishing industry groups warned that a third of the world's long-line tuna fleet -- the ships that catch high-grade tuna used in the Japanese dish...

Japanese co set to buy 30pc stake in AKTel

AK Khan & Company is set to seek permission of the country's telecom regulator to sell its 30 per cent stake in AKTel after reaching a consensus with a Japanese operator, said a senior official Saturday.He said Japan's premier mobile...

Worldwide concern over severe food crisis

NEW YORK, June 07: There is worldwide concern over severe food crisis. Bangladesh perhaps, which is vulnerable to the crisis, is the only nation where the food crunch and associated price hike, has inspired yet no serious anxiety in the...

Is the US ready for a black president?

At the beginning of the primary elections for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in January, the American people faced a deeply disturbing issue: Were they ready to elect the first black president or the first woman president in the history...

Govt to revise land value every year

The government has taken a move to fix area-wise value of land at the beginning of every year.This aims to streamline collection of revenue and check evasion of taxes through concealment of actual value, land ministry sources said.Land prices will...

Military makes its sacred claim

YOU can measure the continuing power shift in Washington by looking at the costly package of veterans' benefits sponsored by James Webb, the Virginia senator elected on an anti-Iraq war platform in 2006. President George W. Bush has promised to...

news digest

killed in Gaza attacksISRAEL, June 6: An Israeli worker was killed in a mortar attack by Gaza militants Thursday, triggering air raids on the impoverished territory that left a four-year-old girl dead and at least 10 other Palestinians injured. The...