THE national flag carrier Biman has been limping along with its under-utilized fleet of aircraft due to fewer pilots to fly the planes, on the one hand, and unwillingness of the higher management to push through existing plan to operate on long routes, on the other. Worse yet, lacking in commercial sense management high-ups have become captive in the hands of a corrupt vested group that exploits Biman's present situation to their unfair advantage.  It's hardly surprising that, Biman...

BANGLADESH has moved up on  Human Development  Index by a notch placing  at 142nd among 187 countries  in the UNDP's Human Development Report,2014. Bettering  last year's  record by one step  though modest is significant in many ways For, in spite of  turbulent politics  our people could  pull off a sustained, even improving  trend in  human development indicators. In other words , they could do even better given reasonably stable  politics. That said, particularly noteworthy is that Bangladesh  is in the...

THE month of Ramadan which united us in a collective experience of disciplined worldly and spiritual lives is coming to a crowning glory. It is heralding the biggest and the most joyous of festivals in Islamic calendar. The month-long fasting that tested our capacity for abnegation and self-restraint and made us empathetic to the plight of the less fortunate is rewarded through Eid meaning auspicious joy. The spirituality has created a groundswell of emotional fervour demonstrated through the  urban dwellers'...

THE International Civil Aviation Organisation has set November 24 as the deadline for nationalities all over the world to avail Machine Readable Passports (MRP), giving almost two lakh Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia a headache as they race against time to obtain the new passports. Under the new deadline, workers without the MRPs will be considered illegal workers and embassy officials in Riyadh are working overtime to make sure the new passport is available to all the workers in...

The old story is being repeated. When it comes to Eid celebrations every year, it is almost always the workers in a large segment of garment sector who are pushed into agony, indeed often downright suffering. Now that reports of 500 factories yet to clear the salaries and bonuses of their workers have come in, it is only proper that we demand to know why these units have failed to do what they should have done weeks ago. Eid is...

It seems flouting HC rulings on river protection has become something of a routine affair. The latest incident revolves around the filling up of 7 bighas of Buriganga river bank by sand traders. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) remains strangely silent on this illegal activity. The so-called eviction drives conducted every now and then do little to protect rivers against sand traders and other occupiers. These river grabbers are merrily filling up portions of the river bank that...

THAT a mobile court has caught four factories red handed in the act of producing poultry feed using waste material from tanneries is an exercise that must lauded. We have covered this issue in our paper previously and the health hazards caused in the human anatomy as a direct result of consuming poultry and fish that have fed on such fake and poisonous feed. Although the pre-Eid drive has confirmed existence of illicit activity by a section of producers,...

BANGLADESH Mahila Parishad has come up with a report based on collation analysis of facts published in newspapers that portrays a horrific picture of repression against women and children. The period covered is January 1 to June 30, 2014, and the revelation is startling. In those six months, the number of victims of repression stood at 2,208, averaging 368 per month. The incidence of rape is quite high at 431, of whom 84 were gang-raped and 45 killed after rape....

IN yet another case of brutal torture in police custody, a student of City College of the capital has been undergoing treatment with one of his legs damaged beyond repair at the burn unit of the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).  After arresting the student nicknamed Jisan on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a fellow student,  some members of the Dhanmodi police allegedly even threatened to kill the boy,  unless his family members paid them a...

THE local footwear industry is now worth Tk.7,000 crore per annum. What we are witnessing is nothing short of extraordinary, where small entrepreneurs are churning out good quality footwear which is competing with foreign brands in chic areas of the capital city and servicing the countrywide demand. We are witnessing local industry specialising in other products making investments in leather as the demand for footwear continues to post healthy growth. Besides already established brands, new entrants are taking on...