Sonia Akhter is a mother who lives with her middle-class   family in Gopalganj. She came to Dhaka with her measles-afflicted daughter Ramjana on June 22 for treatment at the advice of the doctor there. She at first went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with Ramjana where she was told to go to

Formulating an annual budget has never been easy in Bangladesh, given the plethora of demands and paucity of resources. But 2026-2027 fiscal is perhaps the most challenging time for balancing the two sides of the economy embedded in the annual estimate. A brief resume of the backdrop of the challen

It is not a news that will startle the readers but deserves repeating as a reminder. Since the colonial times, the ‘cvilised’ west has looked upon the rest of mankind as the ‘other’, lacking in the qualities that made them “civilised’, particularly in technologic

Unarguably, Donald Trump's just concluded visit to China has not been redolent of legendary veni, vidi, vici vintage. Some commentators have described it as a pathetic disaster and a landmark diplomatic faux pas the like of which has not been seen in recent years. The sound bites accompanied by the

Democratic culture, practised in Bangladesh since inception, has been marked by marginaisation of opposition. Towards the end of the autocratic rule that ended in a violent overthrow in July movement in 2025, the main opposition was completely throttled, its leaders either behind bars or on the run

It has become customary to disaggregate the impact of economic shocks on the global and national or regional economies. Needless to say that in broad terms the conclusions are the same in broad terms pointing to the same direction viz decline. While the world economy is the composite of all regiona

The Biblical Armageddon between good and evil was set to take place on 7 April, the deadline set for Iran to acquiesce to Donald Trump's peremptory directive to open the Strait of Hormuz. His profanity-laden message on social media, replete with four-letter word and swearing in good measure, issued

It has been the dirtiest of all wars, if by dirty is meant a cunning, stealthy, unprovoked and no-holds barred war. America and Iran were ostensibly (from the aggressors' point of view) negotiating under the good offices of the Omani mediator.  Given three subjects for negotiation, Iran lost n