IN THE crowded alleys and neon-lit corners of Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, and Sylhet, a vulnerable population often goes unseen 鈥� Bangladesh鈥檚 street children. They are the children who sleep under bridges, work at tea stalls, wash cars at intersections, and beg for survival. According to estimates by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, there are over...
CORRUPTION remains one of the most pressing and deeply-rooted challenges today. Despite noticeable economic progress and ambitious development goals, the pervasive influence of corruption continues to undermine institutions, distort public service...
A FRUSTRATED Nabarun Bhattacharya in one of his poems denied that the country he was born in that he referred to as the valley of death was his after witnessing rampant killing and bloodshed all around. Because, it no more resembled the land he had known before.
THERE are certain things in our fast-changing world that occasionally give me a feeling of guilt, if not sinfulness. Artificial intelligence is one of them. This apologia is an account of this uncanny sense of wrongdoing, without seeking redemption.
AS BANGLADESH rapidly constructs highways, power plants and large-scale infrastructure projects, a quieter, less visible crisis is unfolding that threatens to undermine the very progress it seeks to achieve. It is a crisis of environmental accountability, driven by...
CORRUPTION remains one of the most enduring and pervasive challenges facing Bangladesh. From petty bribery to grand scale embezzlement, corruption infiltrates various sectors of public and private life. Despite significant economic growth and...
ONE year after the July uprising shook Bangladesh to its core, families of those killed and injured during the uprising have expressed deep sorrow and frustration, lamenting that they feel forgotten and neglected. Their emotional wounds, intertwined...
EACH monsoon, Dhaka turns into a city fighting against water. Even moderate rain results in urban flooding that hinders everyday life and mobility because of encroached streams and weak drainage systems. The vulnerable populations are most...
PARVEZ Alam鈥檚 second book, Madina, published in the year 2020 from Adarsha, is a powerful intervention within the community of the new readers in Bangladesh. Undoubtedly, it is an ambitious project that offers critical discussions of contemporary statehood and justice in the context of Bangladesh. In my reading, I found it a thought-provoking text which presents...
THE July 7, 2025, letter from President Donald J Trump to Dr Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the government of Bangladesh, reads like a familiar echo of an old, misguided economic playbook. In it, the US warns of a 35 per cent tariff on all Bangladeshi goods entering American markets, citing long-standing trade deficits and the need for reciprocal trade...
THE global development landscape is at an inflection point. As multiple major donors slash official development assistance, with USAID鈥檚 closure as a symbolic turning point, the traditional north-to-south aid paradigm is disintegrating. The effects will be stark: many low- and lower middle-income countries face a sharp reduction in external support, risking...
IN THE political history of Bangladesh, election periods have always been of paramount importance. From the Pakistan Movement to the birth of Bangladesh, the mass uprising of the 1990s, or the aftermath of the 2024 鈥楯uly Uprising鈥�, the right to vote has consistently been at the centre of political discourse. Although the three elections after 1990 were considered free...
THERE has long been speculation that the Easter bombing of April 2019 had a relationship to Sri Lankan politics. The near simultaneous bombings of three Christian churches and three luxury hotels, with a death toll of 270 and over 500 injured, by Muslim suicide bombers made no sense in Sri Lanka where there has been no history of conflict between the two religions...
IN TODAY鈥橲 digital world, cyber threats don鈥檛 always hide behind complex codes or technical tricks. Often, they come through the front door 鈥� disguised as job applications, resignation letters, or support requests. While organisations spend heavily on cybersecurity technology, they often overlook a more critical entry point: the human resources department...
LAST week in Mitford, Dhaka, a horrific video made rounds on social media: a man was beaten to death with stones in broad daylight while hundreds of people stood by 鈥� watching, recording whispering 鈥� but doing nothing. Some even filmed the killers as they danced on the lifeless body. According to reports, members of the Ansar were nearby. Yet, they too did not intervene...