Industries reeling from persistent gas crisis
Industry insiders have said that due to years of interruption in gas supply, export-oriented industries and other manufacturing units were facing an acute crisis...
Tags : crisis
Foreign fund cuts to worsen Rohingya crisis: Touhid
Foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain urged the international community to come forward to support Rohingyas, noting that any foreign fund cuts would make addressing the Rohingya humanitarian crisis even harder...
MYANMAR鈥橲 CRISIS: Regional threat, strategic response
MYANMAR鈥橲 ongoing civil war has reached a critical point, with the rise of ethnic armed organisations significantly altering the balance of power in the country. Among these groups, the Arakan Army has gained substantial control over Rakhine State, capturing key border areas near Bangladesh. This shift in power has further complicated the already...
BANKING SECTOR: Legal complexities worsen default loan crisis
The legal framework for handling non-performing loans (NPLs) in Bangladesh has become dysfunctional, allowing wilful defaulters to exploit loopholes and delay repayment, according to a report by the task force on economic reforms...
Beximco incurs losses amid banking crisis, factory halt
The Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited incurred a loss of Tk 243 crore in the second quarter (October-December) of the financial year 2024-25, losing Tk 2.58 per share....
COLLEGE AFFILIATION CRISIS: Identity, bureaucracy and broken promises
IF THERE were ever a time to pitch a Netflix drama based on the chaos of Bangladesh鈥檚 education system, the current saga of the University of Dhaka and its seven affiliated colleges would be it. We can call it campus wars or the bureaucratic labyrinth. The tale has everything: students in revolt, high-stakes drama, a pro-vice chancellor with a penchant...
Dollar holdings by banks hit 5-yr low
The dollar amounts held by Bangladesh鈥檚 commercial banks dropped to a five-year and six-month low in December 2024, reflecting the severe impact of Bangladesh Bank鈥檚 mismanagement amid a prolonged dollar crisis...
BNP says it鈥檚 worst victim of Jan 11
Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Mirza Abbas on Friday said that the BNP was the worst victim of the January 11, 2007 events, rejecting claims that the party was attempting to provoke a repeat of the 1/11 political crisis.
1m people fled Sudan war to S Sudan: UN
Over one million people have now fled the Sudanese war into neighbouring South Sudan, according to the United Nations, which said the figures illustrated the scale of the unfolding humanitarian crisis...
KSA-bound passengers stage demo over vaccine crisis
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-bound migrants and those intending to perform Umrah staged demonstration in Dhaka on Tuesday after failing to receive mandatory meningitis vaccination to travel the Middle East country...
19.5m Yemenis in need of aid as crisis worsens: UN
More than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, a senior UN official said Wednesday, expressing concern over a worsening humanitarian crisis and for children suffering from malnutrition...
Tackling fertiliser and energy bill crisis
BANGLADESH is grappling with overdue fertiliser and energy bills, driven by $800 million in unpaid dues to international suppliers and compounded by limited foreign reserves and inflation. These challenges, worsened by poor decisions of the previous government, such as costly, poorly planned projects like the Adani Power deal and the...
BPGMEA places 5 proposals
The Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association has placed five proposals to address the energy crisis...
Over 50pc loans of 21 NBFIs now defaulted
Fifty per cent of the loans issued by 21 non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) turned non-performing as of September, revealing a dire financial crisis in the sector...
When healing is crime
THE ongoing genocide in Gaza is not simply a human crisis. It is a tale of paradoxes 鈥� of black and white, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil. In Gaza, there is unspeakable cruelty facing incredible courage, ugly betrayals in the midst of relentless sacrifice, constant lies opposed by glaring truths, and the worst forms of oppression against limitless resilience...
Public trust and policing crisis
DURING the previous regime of 15 years, the people of the country faced deep-rooted grievances and deprivation, aggravated by pervasive and systematic repression. Misgovernance, rampant corruption, unchecked arbitrariness, and the abuse of power fuelled widespread anger and antagonism among the populace. Amid this...
Bleak future for children, youth
RECENTLY, we travelled to Cox鈥檚 Bazar, where around one million Rohingya refugees live in 33 congested camps. Among them are hundreds of thousands of children 鈥� more than...
Loan facility to crisis-hit business groups, banks continues
The interim government has continued to provide crisis-hit commercial banks and large business groups with emergency loan assistances with the offering of Tk 180 crore to the Beximco Group in the past week, said officials...
Global south on brink of disastrous debt crisis
COUNTRIES across the global south are experiencing climate, poverty and development crises 鈥� all made worse by the unbearable costs of debt servicing. Indeed, according to Development Finance International, 鈥楥itizens of the Global South now face the worst debt crisis since global records began.鈥� Low-income countries, which have seen the amount...
Nation in crisis: which way out?
THIS piece is not about the crisis or the chaos that the country is now facing after successfully toppling the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Rather, it is about the crisis of confidence and social capital or trust 鈥� interlinked, nonetheless...
Addressing mental health crisis of victims stressed
Speakers, including academics, on Thursday stressed the need for initiatives to address the mental health crisis of those injured and families of those killed during the student-led mass uprising in July and August...
Macron races to choose new PM
French president Emmanuel Macron raced Wednesday to meet a self-imposed 48-hour deadline to name a new prime minister after he hosted party bosses in a bid to hammer out a consensus and avoid a protracted political crisis...
Macron eyes broad alliance to form new French govt
French president Emmanuel Macron has called for a 鈥榤eeting of different political forces鈥� to hammer out a programme for a new government, the Greens party leader said on Monday amid a political crisis triggered by prime minister Michel Barnier鈥檚 ouster...
Ghana鈥檚 ex-president Mahama wins election
Ghana鈥檚 former president John Dramani Mahama won a historic comeback election victory on Sunday after voters appeared to punish the ruling New Patriotic Party over its management of an economic crisis...
Policy swings, corruption lead to forex market crisis
Regulatory mood swings and corruption during the Awami League regime created disorderly conditions in the foreign exchange market, which led the foreign exchange reserves declining to levels too low for comfort, according to the White Paper on the State of Bangladesh economy submitted to chief adviser Muhammad Yunus on Sunday...
Natural disasters cause $310b in economic losses in 2024: Swiss Re
Natural disasters have caused an estimated $310 billion in economic losses around the world this year, swelling six per cent from 2023 as the climate crisis takes its toll, reinsurance giant Swiss Re said Thursday...
Yunus鈥檚 UN proposal to resolve Rohingya crisis
UPON publication of the report by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan in August 2017, there should not have been any debate over the Rohingya people鈥檚 nationality and citizenship issues. According to media reports, in 2017, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement regarding the...
Authorities need to attend to fertiliser, seed crisis
THIS is worrying that potato growers in the north are faced with a shortage of seeds and fertiliser. The shortage, coupled with high prices of both seeds and fertiliser, is likely to impact the potato production in the 16 northern districts, where two-thirds of potatoes are produced. As agricultural authorities have not ensured enough supplies, prices have increased sharply. Farmers in the region allege that syndicates...
Fertiliser crisis worries Rajshahi farmers
Along with the ongoing seed crisis in the peak of potato cultivation season, a shortage of fertilisers has added insult to injury to the northern farmers as they have to pay up to Tk 450 extra for per sack of fertiliser...
Safe water and sanitation for all
THE world is facing a serious water crisis, with 26 per cent of the global population still lacking access to safe drinking water, and a staggering 46 per cent are deprived of basic sanitation facilities. These alarming statistics, revealed in the UN World Water Development Report 2023, serve as a grim reminder of how far we are from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure safe water...
