Irrespective of whether LDC graduation is delayed or not, we must face the music sooner or later. It is time to bite the bullet and focus on productivity. Understanding how firms increase productivity must be at the top of our agenda.
Bangladesh is a small fish in a big pond. Mr. Rahman must show enough courage to defend the country’s sovereignty while recognizing Bangladesh’s limits and acting rationally as a national statesman: That requires him not to design foreign policy based on whatever the prevalent mood is on social media.
Who is the Facebook or Instagram of this era? Which AI platforms are being deployed into children’s bedrooms, classrooms and social lives without full transparency about internal research? Which companies are already measuring how certain prompts, filters or recommendation engines affect adolescent self-image, loneliness, or compulsive use?
If Bangladesh treats artificial intelligence simply as another digital tool, it risks falling behind in a world where advantage increasingly rests on capability and commodified intelligence rather than labour alone.
Your legacy will now be determined not by the years you ruled, but by how you confront the consequences of those years. History punishes arrogance -- but it sometimes honours repentance
By erecting solar canopies over these historic arteries, we can generate thousands of megawatts of clean energy while providing the shade necessary to preserve our water levels. Beneath these canopies, the state must build structured aquaculture systems, renting them back to local farmers.
Modi’s outreach to Tarique Rahman, Dhaka’s invitation for the swearing-in, and Delhi’s decision to send a senior representative all point in the same direction: Pragmatic minds, and a shared recognition that India and Bangladesh do better when they work with each other
The failure of the observer mission to engage with the question of inclusiveness suggests a selective view of the elections
The people of Bangladesh do not ask that the government solve all or even any of their problems. They ask only that the government not be the source of their problems and that it simply does its job without favour or fanfare. And above all, they want normalcy, they want civility, they want decency.
Emerging markets ETFs’ rally has been somewhat of a surprise: They own shares of companies in less-developed nations. For decades, these stocks took a backseat with investors who would rather pay up for shares of giant companies in developed nations like the U.S. But now, many factors are working in emerging markets’ favor.
One of the core reasons behind Bangladesh’s political malaise is blind partisan loyalty. The tendency to select candidates based on party identity, factional allegiance, religion, or gender -- rather than competence -- has repeatedly rendered parliament ineffective. The entire nation has paid the price.
A Bangladesh that wants diplomatic space to grow must first secure strategic space. If it wants autonomy, it must first make coercion unprofitable. That is the hard, unromantic truth of the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.
Success depends on three commitments that cannot be deferred: Speed. Visible, funded action in year one. Not plans for action. Action. Resources. Specific, budgeted commitments, not proposals
Whatever the causes, Bangladesh cannot wait indefinitely. It must build damage-reducing infrastructure without delay. This does not replace a water-sharing settlement; it reduces damage while politics drags on, and it must be designed with geo-politics in mind.
Society needs a new compact to rein in the empire of corporate giants. This is as true for Bangladesh as it is for the rest of the world. Else we will all descend into the servitude of a new feudal system headed by giant corporations and the handful of their beneficiaries.
