Anu Muhammad

The writer is member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports.

Spare our rivers from certain death

The condition our rivers are in right now is a threat to our existence.

Our reality versus government's narrative

Why is there so much difference between the reality of common people and that which the government wants to see or project?

Have we been able to establish a state different from Pakistan?

Through the Liberation War of 1971, the people of this region wanted to establish a state that would not be built in the model of Pakistan. Fifty-two years later, can we say we have achieved that goal?

The unfinished fight for people’s freedom

Bangladesh was supposed to be a country run by its people, but we are dangerously moving towards a country being run by a coterie.

Destructive ‘development’ efforts by Water Development Board

Our rivers are being attacked one after another. India's dams, river connectivity plans, and various projects undertaken within the country, encroachment and pollution are all taking our rivers closer to extinction.

Whatever happened to Bangla being our state language?

There is no usage of Bangla by the state, and it is being pushed to the periphery.

What 50 years of World Bank partnership meant for us

How much good did the World Bank do in our country?

2022: The year the rich won, and the public lost

The rise in the prices of goods has led to many people suffering from a silent famine.

What World Cup frenzy tells us about our youth's aspirations

What are the factors behind the endless enthusiasm of Bangladeshi people over the FIFA World Cup 2022?

When will our public universities get better VCs?

When the president is making his objections, he should consider the whole process that has led to this situation today.

Are university VCs doing their job right?

What kind of reforms are necessary to use the universities for the national interest and to increase our national capabilities?

Is there a way out of Bangladesh's energy crisis? Experts tell all.

"It is time for us to ask how much we have been able to recover from the energy crisis."

Can Bangladesh find a way out of the energy crisis?

The energy sector was made LNG-dependent despite repeated warnings about it by experts.

Will the IMF loan resolve Bangladesh's economic crisis?

Bangladesh is currently going through a grave economic crisis.

Public's very existence depends on the democratic process

Even basic democracy seems to be missing in Bangladesh

Democracy facing an existential struggle

It is a matter of great misfortune, as well as of disappointment and uncertainty, that democracy in Bangladesh is practically absent now.

What future do our youth face?

What are the government’s plans with this huge population segment that is our youth, who are supposed to take the reins of our country in the future?

Is the youth a tool for keeping the government in power?

How does the government plan on utilising this significant chunk of the population?

Where do the subsidies in the power sector really go?

There is a lack of clarity and transparency when it comes to how much subsidy is being provided to the power sector, why the government is providing it, and in fact, who they are subsidising.

Why must the public bear the burden of power sector subsidies?

Speaking to us about this issue is Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University.

Government’s decision to hike fuel prices will hurt every section of society

The rise in fuel prices is an illogical decision that will only harm ordinary citizens and fail to deal with the root causes of the crisis that Bangladesh is currently facing.

GDP: A misleading measure of development

Annual GDP refers to the financial value of all the products and services produced in a country in a given year. This means as a country’s financial transactions increase, so does GDP.

We are the 99%: From factory workers to the new working middle class

In 1886, three years after the death of Karl Marx, the May Day movement took place. Earlier, in his book Das Kapital, Marx analysed the simultaneous rise of capitalism and the development of the working class.

Free our universities of suppression and violence

It is a matter of common sense that a university is supposed to create space and opportunities to generate knowledge, open up scopes for creative ideas and thinking, invite questions against the existing knowledge and system, and raise voices against injustice, discrimination and oppression.

The desperate plight of workers in pandemic

They work in mills and factories, also under tin sheds in squalid conditions. They begin their long days commuting in crammed public transport vehicles or taking long walks, braving monsoon rain or summer heat.

The case for unfettered internet freedom

As human beings, we enjoy the right to think and express ourselves.

From ‘socialism’ to disaster capitalism

“The demonstration of superfluous consumption amidst mass hardship must be eliminated. Thus sumptuous hotel dinners, the exhibition of costly jewellery and dress, and the display of surplus motor space speeding past long queues for heavily overloaded public transport, to mention only a few, must be limited severely.” — Professor Anisur Rahman, Member of first Planning Commission, 1974.

Media under surveillance capitalism

Yes, our world has entered into a new phase of rule which can be termed as surveillance capitalism, at home as well as on a global scale. Shoshana Zuboff, the author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism writes, “At its core, surveillance capitalism is parasitic and self-referential.

Youth against fear and injustice

The public universities, old and new, are in quite a sorry state. It seems that these institutions exist only to offer support for the government’s misrule.

Workers’ cry in workers’ land

Bangladesh is a workers’ land. More than seven million people are working here as manufacturing workers, nearly nine million in hotels and tea shops, more than four million in transport, two million in construction and more than 20 million women and men are actively engaged in agriculture.

In search of a development model that doesn't leave out people and the environment

Is development essentially harmful for the environment? Must we sacrifice the environment in order to achieve much-needed development? Should we allow poisoning of our air, destruction of our forests, and pollution of our water to embrace development? If the answer is yes, how can we survive—how can this mother earth retain its ability to support our existence and our reproduction?

Peoples' master plan for a livable future

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports is proposing the “Peoples' Master Plan for Power and Energy (2017-2041)” as an alternative to the government's master plan.

The struggle continues

I have known the site of Rana Plaza in Savar for almost four decades now. I have to cross Savar to and from the Jahangirnagar campus

YES to Sundarbans NO to projects of environmental destruction

If we say yes to the Sundarbans, then we must say no to the commercial projects harmful for its survival. Whether it is a power plant or any other commercial activity, whether it is foreign investment (FDI) or local investment, whether it is investment from India,

Scrap projects of destruction

I first visited Bashkhali in 1991, immediately after a deadly cyclone devastated the area. I could not walk without touching a dead body or its parts...

Protecting the Sundarbans is our national duty

The Sundarbans, the last reserve forest in the country and a world heritage site, is again under attack. On March 19, 2016, a cargo

Promises or Rhetoric: Climate change and SDG

Without changing the development paradigm, these expensive conferences, goals and agreements will only result in failure. Development must not be reduced to 'growth', and 'construction'.

Is Development Incompatible With Democracy?

We are living in the digital age of growth with deprivation; we see affluence with poverty, globalisation with increasing restrictions on

We need to estimate tax-service ratio

The finance minister has placed the budget of 2015-16 in the parliament that has been prepared under many favourable factors - lower petroleum price in the global market, huge foreign exchange reserve, stable export market, low inflation, and the lowest level of political opposition.