Corruption is too insidious a menace to be controlled by ad hoc, pick-and-choose measures, the way chronic cancer cannot be helped by some selected painkillers.

The report emerges from a critical moment in Bangladesh’s history.

As we publish the fifth and final instalment of our anniversary special, The Daily Star marks 35 years of journalism with its gaze firmly set on the future.

Bangladesh entered the IMF programme at a moment of deepening stress. By late 2022, foreign exchange reserves had fallen below $20 billion, down from over $40 billion just a year earlier. Import bills had surgedwhile export growth and remittances weakened.

As we stand at the threshold of 2026, the global economy is not merely navigating a cycle of inflation or shifting trade balances;

The money and financial markets build the bridge between the goods and services as well as the labor market.

Bangladesh’s social protection system has a long history of experimentation and has played a meaningful role in reducing poverty since the early 1990s.

Bangladesh is at a crossroads of several major social and demographic trends. Women are at the centre of these trends.

Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change and its impacts.

The notion of democracy is traditionally interpreted and analysed in the political domain. But it is important to recognise that beyond political democracy, the notion of democracy has multiple dimensions - economic democracy, social democracy, cultural democracy etc.

After more than three decades of policy debates, hundreds of research papers, and countless newspaper columns,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to research labs or tech giants but has become a driving force in shaping global industries. It is playing a key role in market forecasting, bringing efficiency to supply chain operations and manufacturing goods.

Since the advent of Covid19 in March 2020, Bangladesh has faced a series of external shocks. Combined with macroeconomic mismanagement and corrupt practices, t

After remarkable progress and growth, especially under elected governments from 1991 to 2015, Bangladesh now faces numerous challenges. Political and macroeconomic instability; troubled public finances and banking systems; poor-quality education and health services; an undiversified economy, stalling private investment, and rising joblessness. These problems all intersect at one location: our failing towns and cities. 

Bangladesh is ageing rapidly. By 2050, nearly one in every five citizens will be 60 years or older. Yet today, most elderly persons in Bangladesh receive care from unpaid family members, most of whom are women, with little or no public support. While caregiving remains a deeply rooted social norm, the growing burden of elder care in a changing society is fast outpacing traditional systems. It is time for Bangladesh to reimagine care for its ageing population, not as charity or family obligation, but as a pillar of public policy and human dignity.

At a time when the Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming industries and economic activity, Bangladesh’s education system is stuck in a foundational crisis—failing to ensure basic literacy, problem-solving ability, and employability for too many graduates.

The world is facing irreversible water “bankruptcy”, with billions of people struggling to cope with the consequences of decades of overuse as well as shrinking supplies from lakes, rivers, glaciers and wetlands, UN researchers said on Tuesday.

Fear of new technology is not new. Whether new technology will replace human beings is a question that has been haunting humankind from time immemorial.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to pose the biggest disruption to global labour markets since the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

Chaabi, treats thresholds, light and memory as active ingredients of daily life, archiving family objects beneath the floor and choreographing arrival so inhabitation feels cinematic. Chaabi won the Gold Medal in the Residential category of the ARCASIA Awards 2025, a rare recognition that has brought wider attention to his quietly experimental approach to architecture.