EVERY four years, something strange and magnificent happens across Bangladesh. Flags appear — not the red and green of the nation itself, but the sky blue and white of Argentina and the yellow and green of Brazil. They drape from apartment windows in Dhaka, wrap around the pillars of tea stalls in Sylhet, and billow from bamboo poles in villages that have no...
BANGLADESH’S agricultural future will be determined not only by how much food it can produce but also by how it powers that production. For decades, discussions on food security have focused primarily on seeds, fertilisers, irrigation coverage and crop yields. Energy, though central to modern agriculture, has often remained a secondary concern. Yet as fuel prices...
IN 2008, during my tenure with the University of Dhaka, I had a three-month postdoctoral fellowship at the Forum on Contemporary Theory in Baroda, India. I made friends with some Indian researchers there. Once I asked one of them about major writers in India. Most of the names they mentioned in response to my question were from Bengal. I wondered and asked...
In today’s hyperconnected world, cybersecurity has evolved from a technical concern into a core element of national security and strategic capability. Nations are no longer judged solely by economic or military strength, but also by their ability to defend digital infrastructure, protect sensitive data and respond effectively to cyber threats. As governments, financial...
FOR years, national education policies have suffered from the absence of a coherent, long-term vision. The education minister’s recent comments indicate that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government is more inclined to go with the wind than to undertake the policy shift needed to address the sector’s structural challenges. While addressing a workshop on the...
THE Education Sector Analysis 2026, presented by UNICEF, lays bare a learning crisis that threatens to undermine the country’s development ambitions. The findings are particularly alarming because they reveal that increased access to education has not translated into meaningful learning outcomes. Only half of children aged 7–14 possess foundational reading...
THE proposed budget for the 2026–27 financial year is impressive by almost any numerical measures. At Tk 9.38 trillion, it is the largest budget in Bangladesh’s history. Allocations for education and health care have reached unprecedented levels. Social protection programmes have expanded. Tax relief has been offered on a range of essential commodities. Support has been promised for entrepreneurs, freelancers, exporters and vulnerable groups...
EXTREME heat is rapidly becoming one of Bangladesh’s most serious but least acknowledged climate threats. In April 2024, temperatures in parts of the country crossed 42°C during one of the longest and most intense heatwaves on record, forcing school closures and disrupting daily life on a wide scale. The event made clear that extreme heat is no longer an occasional...
THIS happened a decade ago. The chair of the department where I studied at the University of Dhaka in the early 1990s invited me, along with others, to an exchange of views on the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project, officially HEQEP but jokingly ‘hiccup’ even to many university teachers. The University Grants Commission project, which the World Bank funded, was meant to upgrade university teaching, research and institutional facilities...
MORE than 15 years after his death, Michael Jackson remains one of the most recognisable cultural figures on the planet. New artists continue to dominate charts, social media produces celebrities at unprecedented speed and digital platforms constantly reshape popular culture. Yet Jackson’s influence endures in ways that extend far beyond music. His title as the “King of Pop” survives because he fundamentally changed how entertainment is communicated, consumed and remembered...
INDIA’S continued push-in strategy along the Bangladesh border reflects a blatant violation of both domestic and international laws and a dangerous departure from the principles that should govern relations between neighbouring countries. Especially alarming is the forced transfer of the Rohingyas registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in...
