While Bangladesh’s involvement with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will open up new avenues of growth in essential sectors like trade, investment, tourism, connectivity and education, we must also watch out for the potential ramifications.

While it is good to know of the many initiatives the government has undertaken to streamline the public transport sector, we would like to bring to the government’s notice some basic issues that should be taken care of, if the government is sincere about bringing discipline in the transport sector.

As this newspaper reported yesterday, transnational syndicates have apparently been using Bangladeshi territory to smuggle small firearms from one Indian state into another.

Although the literacy rate has reached 73.9 percent in 2018 (up from 48.8 percent in 2008), there is much work still to be done.

The nature of the foreign minister’s outburst against the UN, both abrasive and devoid of diplomatic suaveness, has shocked and surprised us.

It is most unfortunate that despite there being strict laws against illegal sand-lifting from rivers, such practices continue unabated all across the country.

On July 31, we wrote an editorial about the tragic death of Titash Ghosh in Madaripur due to a three-hour delay of the ferry carrying him that had to wait for a high official to arrive,

We are bewildered to learn that the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) only has data on the state of 67 bridges out of the 18,000 nationwide.

We appreciate the PM stressing on the need for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to play a pivotal role in forging unity of the Muslim community and stopping the conflicts among Muslim countries, at a recent meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

We are outraged at the allegations of corruption that were raised against the Jahangirnagar University authorities in the ongoing development works of the university.

A two-day summit commenced yesterday bringing together ministers and officials of 31 countries to discuss the potential of sustainable development of blue economy among nations bordering the Indian Ocean.

The government is set to procure a further 21 weighbridges on key highways to check overloading. The practice of overloading transport-laden lorries is causing a lot of damage to roads and bridges. Experts tell us that the authorities buckled under pressure from

It is disquieting to learn that at least 15 people, including a hall provost, were injured in the clashes between the two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in the Shaheed Abdus Salam Hall of Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU). As the

Women employment in urban areas has seen a decline since 2010, says a recently published report. While the report also mentions an increase in women’s employment in rural areas, the fact that female participation in employment in urban areas has marked a 3.5 percent decline between 2000 and 2017, is alarming. Lack of jobs and self-employment opportunities, and high unemployment among young educated women have been marked as some of the key reasons behind the declining number of urban working women. Moreover, lack of support from family, inadequate child care facilities, insufficient access to tertiary education and early marriage, are discouraging urban women from joining the workforce.

A planning Commission report has revealed that once Bangladesh graduates from its least developed status to a developing country in 2027, it could lose USD 7 billion export earnings every year as it will no longer enjoy the trade benefits it currently is entitled to. One such benefit is zero duty on its shipments to the European Union, Canada, Australia and many more countries. In fact, the government’s impact assessment on LDC graduation report says the loss could be as much as USD 13 billion by 2031. So how can Bangladesh prepare to mitigate these shocks?

The dengue outbreak this year has badly exposed some of the undersides of our healthcare sector and has stretched our resources thin.

The news of 1.9 million people being excluded from India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is certainly worrisome.

Investigative journalism carried out by this newspaper has unearthed the presence of powerful syndicates that are reaping huge monetary benefits by supplying illegal gas and electricity connections to three slums in Dhaka: Chalantika, Korail and Bhasantek.

It’s appalling that a crime as widespread as enforced disappearance continues to be denied by the government despite the severity of the crime and the well-documented sufferings of families who were separated from their loved ones.

We are dismayed by the poor state of affairs at the Kalia Upazila Health Complex in Narail where, according to a report by The Daily Star, 15 out of the 21 posts for medical staff are lying vacant.