AN OPEN DIALOGUE | The Daily Star

  • On the road to prosperity

    Bangladesh has made phenomenal progress in the last two decades in terms of improving the standard of living of the masses.

  • The quest for a better life

    Thirty-nine migrants seeking a better life perished in a refrigerated van, and their bodies were found in an industrial site about 25 miles east of central London.

  • Making the SDG goals a reality

    Bangla-desh has expressed its interest to participate in next year’s SDG voluntary national review (VNR) which will be placed before the UN in July 2020.

  • The battle against privation

    The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a trio who came from three different continents to teach and work together in Cambridge, USA. Abhijit Banerjee hails from India, Esther Duflo grew up in France, and Michael Kremer was born and brought up in the USA and finished his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard. Their research focuses on poverty alleviation, and more specifically on the design of policy to guide development practitioners and government.

  • Why a no-deal Brexit may spell disaster for Britain

    In Ian McEwan’s “Sweet Tooth”, a novel based on the social life of London in the early 1970s, we see a vivid description of conditions that prevailed in the UK which was then facing several crises on different fronts, and was completely torn apart by industrial and social unrest with slowing economic growth and rising unemployment.

  • Is poverty a dirty word?

    In most countries in the world, barring a few, poverty appears to be a dirty word. Even in rich countries such as the USA and UK, it is difficult to find any reliable statistics on the existence of poverty, the level of poverty, or a headcount of poor people. It has recently

  • How to boost FDI

    At some of the conferences on Bangladesh held in the USA, particularly at Harvard University, I have noticed that introductory speeches often mention Henry Kissinger and his infamous remark about Bangladesh being a “basket case” or “bottomless basket”.

  • Brexit: How will Boris Johnson play this game of strategy?

    I am sometimes asked by my family members and confused friends to explain Brexit and the drama that is unfolding every day in the United Kingdom.

  • World leaders fiddle as global economy (and Amazon) burns

    Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), comprising the world’s largest economies, met for three days in Biarritz, France on August 24-26 but failed to address any of the important global issues including climate change, trade war(s), the looming economic slowdown, etc.

  • Repatriation of Rohingyas: Evidence of Myanmar’s lack of preparedness

    The Rohingya repatriation is now rumoured to start in a few days, on August 22 to be specific. “Repatriation [of Rohingyas] is always on the table.

  • An economist’s campaign against age-obsessed billionaires

    It is well-known that once you become rich, you can stay rich with little effort. Some of the super-rich in today’s world, for example, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Jack Ma of Alibaba have accumulated an enormous amount of wealth already and are likely to get richer in future. In the parlance of business, the super-rich or billionaires are on a path to exponentially increase their “net worth”.

  • ‘Name and shame’ as an antidote for non-performing loans

    Right after he took office as the new Finance Minister of Bangladesh (FM), AHM Mustafa Kamal declared at a meeting in Dhaka on January 10, 2019, “From today no more money will be added to the defaulted loans and it will gradually decrease from now on.”

  • Dhaka and the cities of the future

    National Geographic (NatGeo), the international news magazine, dedicated its April 2019 issue to the challenges of urban living and the progression of big cities.

  • Rohingya negotiations through the lens of ‘game theory’

    The Rohingya population in Bangladesh continues to grow. There are now over one million Rohingyas living in Bangladesh, and with each passing year, their number is increasing by approximately 20,000.

  • The proposed budget and its impact on vulnerable groups

    In the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-20, the government plans to spend Tk 74,367 crore, or 14.21 percent of the total expenditure, for social safety net programmes (SSNPs).

  • Why are bumper crops such a headache for Bangladesh?

    A bumper crop used to be good news for Bangladesh in the past. For farmers who have to wait for almost four to six months after the sowing season before they can see the fruits of their labour,

  • Elevating the rank of Dhaka University

    The Dhaka University Alumni Association of New England (DUAANE) organised a seminar in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA on February 24, 2019 to discuss and debate the low standing of Dhaka University in the global academic arena.

  • Are vested interests influencing our economic policies?

    Is Bangladesh heading in the direction where a few at the top control all the levers of power? A story published in this newspaper voices concerns about the harmful effects of influence-peddling at the highest levels of government in Bangladesh.

  • Why do bombs fall on the hungry poor?

    In Angola, an oil-rich country in Africa, over 2.3 million people are now on the brink of starvation due to drought. In Yemen, the United Nations warned that 13 million people are facing the prospect of famine.

  • US Central Bank fights back executive manipulation

    If you live in the US, it is hard to miss the ongoing tug of war between the White House and the US central bank, The Federal Reserve System (the Fed).

  • garments worker

    Garment workers' struggle to find affordable housing

    The garments industry plays a crucial role in our economy. The welfare of the 4.2 million workers in this industry is vital for our achievement of middle-income status.

  • Linking inequality to social unrest: Can UN turn the tables?

    In a speech at the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on March 6, 2019 in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet spoke forcefully for combating inequalities in income and wealth.

  • Facebook, please change your business model!

    Facebook, please change your business model!

    Facebook is one of the largest technology companies in the world. However, the year 2018 was not the best one for Facebook,

  • Rethinking Poverty

    Why redefining the 'poverty line' is necessary

    As the new government in Bangladesh seeks to implement some of the promises it made during the last election campaign, this is an opportune moment for us to review some of our collective aspirations.

  • Some thoughts on RMG wages and the Spice Girls T-shirts controversy

    The wage level in Bangladesh's ready-made garments (RMG) sector has been the subject of a recent controversy with multiple participants: a British peer, a Bangladeshi-American scholar, the all-girls band Spice Girls of the UK, and two newspapers in the UK and Bangladesh.

  • Lessons from recent industrial disasters

    The costs of industrialisation are many. Human beings, wildlife, nature, the environment, and future generations often pay the price.

  • China and its recent technology problem

    Nowadays, hardly a day goes by without another news of Chinese technology companies running into trouble in North America,

  • How southern California fared amidst the recently lifted US government shutdown

    The US is currently in the midst of a semi-political crisis. The so-called “partial government shutdown” was put on a temporary hold on Friday as the Congress and the White House resume their negotiations over funding for a border wall.

  • The challenges to ensure safe water for all

    The Awami League Election Manifesto 2018 promises that many of the modern civic amenities I enjoy in Dhaka city or my ancestral home in Sylhet's Darga Mahallah will be available in every village.

  • Challenges in implementing the new government's manifesto

    Manifesto implementation main challenge”. Thus read the headline on the online edition of The Daily Star on January 7. It quoted the General Secretary of Awami League (AL) talking to reporters at Bangabhaban after the oath-taking ceremony of cabinet ministers.

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