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...

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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...

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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...

Fate and divinity notwithstanding

THE mosques in the country should be seen overflowing with people tonight as they would be praying long into the night in huge number in keeping with the Islamic religious tradition in the expectation that the ones in prayers who...

Pleas for reforming grading system

The universities that earlier followed the North American 'curriculum', had grading system. Now most of them, both in public and private sectors, have introduced the grading system. Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) have sent orders, asking for the introduction...

Soaring prices of feeds severely hit poultry sector

Soaring price of poultry feeds has thrown another blow to the country's bird-flu affected poultry sector as the overall prices of feeds have almost doubled over the last one year pushing the production cost roughly by 20 to 40 per...

Planned urbanisation for a solution

FROM a city of some two million people at the time of the independence of the country, Dhaka's population has swelled to some 15 million. With four or five million more people by the year 2015, Dhaka is expected to...

Global economy to grow at 4.1pc rate in 2008

NEW YORK, August 14: A growth rate below 3.0 per cent is considered a period of economic recession by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The global economy will grow at the rate of 4.1 per cent in 2008 and will...

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home after Muslim clashesALEOSAN, (Philippines), Aug 14: Villagers in the southern Philippines began trickling back to their ruined homes Thursday, two days after government forces expelled Muslim insurgents who had stormed the area. Loreto Cabaya, mayor of Aleosan town, led...

Preparing for the 'post-gas era' economy in Bangladesh

The port city of Chittagong, which is also called the commercial capital of Bangladesh, has been facing severe gas and power crisis since long. However, the source of both the crises is again gas, since most of the power plants...

Addressing unemployment

WHY unemployment is bad for any economy is obvious. The unemployed ones are not productive, they do not add to the net of goods and services. They are rather dependants consuming what others produce, say, in the family, community or...

US Congressional body reports high incidence of tax evasion by companies

NEW YORK, August 13: The tax dodging is a global phenomenon. It is not unique to Bangladesh only. Tax dodgers everywhere have transactions with on-shore banking. Billions of dollars are being stashed in banks outside one's own country.A recent study...