Mahmudul Hasan

It is natural to assume that whenever disasters strike, a country’s hospitality industry is usually the first to feel its effects but is the last to recover, since expenses here are deemed non-essential.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continuing to force consumers from around the world to shop from home, online sales in Bangladesh were expected to see turbocharged growth similar to international trends.

Binge, the country’s first internet protocol TV (IPTV), is now coming up with Bengali original video content, buoyed by the tremendous response in the first three months of its launch.

Coronavirus is here to stay and face mask, whose use was mostly confined to medical institutions, have become a non-negotiable part of people’s everyday dress code -- a reality that has tempted clothing brands in Bangladesh to have a crack at giving an aesthetic spin to the humble piece of protective gear against airborne disease.

City Bank has rolled out UnionPay debit cards, joining a growing list of lenders in Bangladesh offering cards of the world’s biggest card issuer.

Brain Station 23 has recently signed a deal with Modhumoti Bank to develop the latter’s new digital banking platform Go Smart, in a testament to the homegrown software developer’s strong advancement in providing state-of-the-art fintech solutions to local banks and financial institutions.

Kotha, Bangladesh’s maiden social and lifestyle app, is set to embark on a glorious maiden voyage from the Bay of Bengal to Indian Ocean’s island Sri Lanka as part of the company’s ambitions to be a continental superpower as a social networking service provider.

Holding court over video conferencing platforms have become an inextricable part of the daily life of corporate and government officials in these pandemic times. But the services rendered by the platforms are not free and sending payment for them to outside of Bangladesh was rather tricky.

Amid all adversities, comes a piece of good news for more than one crore accountholders of Agrani Bank who are yet to savour the delight of digital transactions since the state-owned bank has no online banking services for its customers.

Airlines and hotels are desperately trying to lure in holidaymakers by way of offering discounts and attractive packages now that the country’s top tourist destination Cox’s Bazar has started hosting guests again after about a pause of five months.

Bangladesh’s manufacturing prowess is getting yet another stamp of global approval. The South Korean tech giant Samsung has decided to manufacture its latest flagship devices, the Note20 and the Note 20 Ultra 5G, in the country.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continuing to propel contactless transactions, Uber’s recent partnership with bKash on enabling automatic trip-end payments is paving the way for a bigger vision for the San Francisco-based tech giant.

Standard Chartered has executed the country’s first-ever blockchain transaction by issuing a letter of credit for Viyellatex, in a development that can go on to make the process of trade, both at local and global levels, much streamlined.

The chatter of well-heeled ladies as they try out glistening bangles or necklaces typically filled the air of the sprawling flagship showroom of Jarwa House on the capital’s Gulshan Avenue.

Rajib Miah, a dairy farmer from Shahjadpur upazila in Sirajganj, thought the worst was behind him when the government lifted the countrywide shutdown on 30 May and was looking forward to recouping the losses brought on the pandemic.

Soon after Bangladesh reported its first confirmed COVID-19 cases on 8 March, the on-demand cleaning service provider HandyMama got busy working up a strategy to incorporate disinfecting and antiviral cleaning to its list of services.

Opening a new business or expanding the existing operations amid a pandemic do not make sense as demand invariably tends to be too low.

Sales at retail clothing stores in the capital are growing ahead of Eid, albeit at a snail’s pace.

One of the beneficiaries from this unprecedented spell of being cooped up at home has been the online media streaming platforms as people all on a sudden have a gulf of free time in hand.

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change, said the most famous naturist Charles Darwin back in the 19th century.