Focus on equipping existing health infrastructure properly
The plight of Mayur River shows where the problem lies
Existing tax system has become a major hurdle to Bangladesh’s fiscal progress
Serious economic players must not allow others to find pitfalls. Pitfalls hurt credibility. Yet, our pitfalls are so ubiquitous that foreign investors are scared away by the bottlenecks found strewn in the bureaucracy and the judiciary of this nation....
The trimming of surplus manpower in the State-owned Enterprises is basically downsizing the government to make the state sector cost-effective, efficient and productive. Thus, when we hear of 40,000 job cuts being on the anvil for different state corporations and manufacturing units this fiscal, it does strike a responsive chord in us....
On July 5, the writer attended a conference in downtown Philadelphia's sprawling Pennsylvania Convention Centre, organised by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Muslim American Society (MAS). One session was devoted to "Hindutva in India and America," with two guest speakers from India, Father Cedric Prakash, a Christian from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and an eminent syndicated columnist whose columns appear in The Daily Star, Mr. Praful Bidwai, a Hindu from New Delhi. It was truly a privilege and an honour to listen to and talk with the two fiercely patriotic Indians. If I were to list their accomplishments, that will take up the remainder of this column!...
The government is thinking of discontinuing financial support to 290 schools, madrassahs and colleges for their extremely poor performance in public examinations, subject to a scooping investigation into their state of affairs. Their affiliations might also be cancelled. The audit directorate of the education ministry is to probe further into the matter so that any possibility of political reaction being organised locally can be ruled out....
Tajuddin Ahmed -- the very first Prime Minister of Bangladesh at the dawn of the nation's struggle for independence -- would have turned 78 on July 23 had the piercing bullets of the assassins spared him on November 3, 1975. Throughout his life, this great son of the soil conducted an untiring crusade against all odds and selflessly strove to put patriotism before personal concerns... In this abridged narrative, the life and time of this great leader is told anew by his daughter, Simim Hossain Rimi....
Professor M. Afsaruddin in his article "Social Change in Bangladesh" (DS May 23) has provided an excellent overview on the subject matter. Non-sociologists should be able to get some notion from this short essay about the concept of society. As a matter of fact one cannot however do justice to the subject matter in such a small space. I take this opportunity, however, to add to what the author has presented as a definition of society and some related information. In defining the term society the author missed one very important factor, i.e GEOGRAPHIC TERRITORY. In our work we find the ollowing definition most useful. "A group of people with a common and at least somewhat distinct culture who occupy a particular territorial area, having a feeling of unity, and regard themselves as a...
The present tension between politicians and press in Bangladesh is unfortunate because ideally it should not occur in democratic polity. Press or broadly media is a link between people and politicians. Politicians and media need each other and there should exist personal, political and professional relationships between them. As late Enoch Powell, the British political leader once said: " For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship's captain complaining about the sea."...
We are deeply saddened by the unfortunate and tragic death of Dr. David Kelly who by profession was not only an expert on biological weapons but also by nature an extremely conscientious man. He has served the cause of truth. But the truth eventually turned out quite costly for him. It caused his untimely death. Dr. Kelly had never been in media glare in his long and distinguished career as an arms expert. Therefore, the media attention after the British department of defense revealed his name as the probable source for the BBC story which alleged that the government had 'sexed up' the Iraq dossier, visibly unnerved him....
Allow me to talk about two federations of farmers. One lies in Tushvandar union of Lalmonirhat district called Tushvandar Federation of Farmers (TFF) and the other, in Mohendranagar union under the same district and is named as Mohendranagar Federation of Farmers (MFF). Both the locations are 1 to 2 hours drive from Rangpur. Farmers' cooperatives or federations are not new phenomena in this part of the world and hence should not inject any interest, whatsoever. But the reason I desired to drive there is the composition of the clients in the committee that the federations are comprised of. The members are drawn exclusively from households owning up to 100 decimals of land, called functionally landless and marginal households. It means, by and large, the federations that I am referring...
Killing of 54 Muslims during prayers in an Imam Bargah-cum-Mosque in Quetta on July 4 was a powerful reminder that the monster of sectarianism still strikes at will; the state seems powerless. Since early 1990s this demon has devoured thousands of Muslims who differ on some points from majority. Over the years the state has been able to prosecute and sentence a handful of the killers while most were let off by courts for lack of evidence....
