BLACK soya beans, popularly known in Japan as 鈥榢uromame鈥�, are fascinating legumes recognised for their glossy black colour, sweet-nutty flavour, and high nutritional value, earning them the reputation of a superfood. While the pale-yellow soya bean dominates the global oil and feed industry, black soya beans belong to a more elite category, valued not merely for...
AFTER a long hiatus of 14 years, the primary scholarship examination returned to the education system in 2022 with brief examinations. After another suspension in 2023 and 2024, the examinations have now been reinstated in the comprehensive form. Government primary schools, Primary Teachers鈥� Training Institute-adjacent checking schools and primary schools...
THE world pauses to mark World Teachers鈥� Day every October 5. Bangladesh joins the global community in honouring educators, reflecting on their evolving role in society, and recognising their enduring contribution to shaping the minds of future generations. The theme for 2025, 鈥楻ecasting teaching as a collaborative profession,鈥� underscores the urgent need...
THE health and family welfare ministry contemplates outsourcing or contracting out the responsibility for delivering health care in the form of a package of basic services. The process of outsourcing must, however, be strategic. One example of such...
I AM more than an average drinker of coffee. On a typical working day, I will take three large cups of the hot drink. My day starts with the first cup just before the Fajr prayer. The second is around half past ten in the morning, and the last one is in the afternoon.
HE HAD moments of discomfort and embarrassment 鈥� pressed into calling the Qatari Prime Minister by his host to apologise for striking Doha and made to pay lip service to the prospect of a Palestinian state 鈥� but Israel鈥檚 Benjamin Netanyahu had many reasons...
GOLD has always captured human imagination. For centuries, it has been valued as a symbol of wealth, a store of value and a safeguard in uncertain times. From the days of ancient kingdoms to today鈥檚 modern economies, gold has been the metal...
IN MORE than three decades in uniform, I have rarely heard a Jamaat leader speak a word against the military. Nor did scandals of money or women ever cling to them in the way they stained others. That restraint, that discipline, was their strength. And when Hasina鈥檚 fiefdom banned and brutalised them, it only polished their image, turned them into martyrs of state...
EVERY monsoon, the serene beauty of southeastern Bangladesh鈥檚 hills turns into a landscape of peril. For communities in districts such as Bandarban and Rangamati, relentless rainfall is not merely a seasonal event; it is a precursor to a silent, swift killer: landslides. Unlike riverine floods, which offer visible cues, landslides are often unpredictable and instantaneous...
A UNIVERSITY for students of the seven colleges earlier affiliated to the University of Dhaka raises its head, born out of government failures but with promises. A full sight is still forthcoming. The seven colleges, placed under the National University, founded in 1992, from the custody of the University of Dhaka, placed back under the University of Dhaka in 2017...
IT WAS the first of July, a school holiday, when I lived through what I can only describe as every parent鈥檚 nightmare. The day began as usual. After the Fajr prayer, I left quietly for the university, believing all was in order at home. My five-year-old younger son was still asleep 鈥� or so I thought 鈥� while my wife and our elder son were resting in another bedroom. With...
SHEIKH Hasina鈥檚 mafia-style autocracy ended on 5 August 2024. However, in a Hasina-free Bangladesh, we cannot simply put all the blame on one person and claim innocence from culpability for acts and circumstances that led to the rise of the autocracy. People who ran the country for decades and the opportunists who maintained strong links with the corridors...
Bangladesh is renowned for its massive river system. It has predominantly four major river systems: the Brhmmaputra-Jamuna, the Ganjes-Padma, the Surma-Meghna and the Chittagong Region river system. Within the systems, the country is criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, canals and tributaries: the Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Brahmaputra, Surma, Kushiyara, Teesta...
IN THE crowded wards of Dhaka鈥檚 hospitals, where young doctors juggle endless shifts for little pay, the cracks in Bangladesh鈥檚 healthcare system are becoming impossible to ignore. The problem is not merely about overburdened infrastructure or inadequate facilities; it is about the human resource crisis brewing at the very heart of the system. Doctors and nurses, the...
THE Bangladesh Civil Service examination, conducted by the Bangladesh Public Service Commission, stands as the most prestigious and competitive gateway to first-class cadre services in the republic. More than just a recruitment mechanism, it serves as a decisive institution in shaping the leadership, competence and ethos of the country鈥檚 public administration. The...
