Analysis

A New Bangladesh Must be Built on New Ideas

As we chart our future as an innovating nation, we must ask ourselves: Will we continue to be a nation that tolerates and even encourages heresy, heterodoxy and esoterism, or will we ignore the lessons of history and become a closed society, one that is hostile to new ideas?

The Perils of a Government in an Ivory Tower

Call the vote. Step down from the balcony. And let an elected government answer, at last, to the only sovereign that matters. The antidote to our present malaise is not another announcement. It is an election.

Sultana's Dream: What Women Want in 2025

While no model for increasing women's political representation is perfect, the crux of the matter is that the political desire for a workable solution is what is absent. This is what must change if women are to experience the fruits of Bangladesh 2.0.

Breaking the Establishment: The Politics Behind Mamdani’s Rise

Tonight, Mamdani’s victory isn’t just his. It belongs to every person ever told you’re too different, too foreign, too inconvenient to lead. It belongs to those who were silenced, sidelined, written out of the script by those who claim to define “electability.”

Ringing Out the Old, Ringing in the New

The conventional view of politics is an old-fashioned journey

The Rise and Fall of the July Revolution

The choice lies with us -- the collective will of the people across all sections of society. The coming months, leading up to the election, will determine which road Bangladesh takes.

The FDI Mirage

Why the local economy is suffocating and what can be done to fix it

From Fate to File: The Modern Tragedy of a Man Killed by Development

A nation’s worth is not measured in kilometers of rail, but in how it values those who walk beneath them. When a government can proudly announce five lakh taka for a death it caused, it tells us not how poor the country is, but how impoverished its conscience has become.

What Can Commercial Banking Learn From Investment Banking?

Commercial banking in Bangladesh is dominated by relationship banking, which is what breeds irregularities. But the way forward lies in reform rather than rejection.

Is It Time for Bangladesh to Look Beyond the Dollar?

The time for action is now. Bangladesh must look beyond Western-dominated financial institutions and embrace a multipolar financial world that offers better terms, greater sovereignty, and sustainable development.

The Shifting Power Landscape in the Middle East

From Pakistan to Egypt, and possibly up to Morocco in the long run, this vast region is becoming the playground of the GCC, BRICS, and a transnational Financial Industrial Complex

The Culture of Cunning

The damage is not only ethical but psychological. Once the collective mind learns to justify wrongdoing as survival, no institution can function. Our tragedy is not that we lack intelligence, but that we misuse it. We have mistaken cunning for cleverness and substituted wisdom with opportunism.

11 Things You Need to Know About Enforced Disappearances and the Detention of Army Officers

Everything you wanted to know about the detention of the 15 army officers and the cases against them but were afraid to ask

A Question of Trust

Why is Bangladesh rushing a typhoid vaccine lacking sufficient -- in fact any -- efficacy data? This level of irresponsibility is unacceptable. We have the capacity to supply good-quality vaccines for the protection of our children, and this should be a national priority.

India’s Foreign Policy and the Game Theory of Power

India has made non-alignment and multi-lateralism the cornerstone of its foreign policy since independence. But now the time may be coming when it will have to choose a side.

Taking Greening Bangladesh Seriously

Without proper planning, scientific implementation, public engagement, and addressing the root causes of deforestation, the pledge to plant 250 million trees will not succeed