Dr. Mohammad Yunus has been fired from his role as managing director of Grameen Bank, essentially because he did not seek approval of his leadership role from Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, from the moment he turned 61. Really, that’s the reason he was fired earlier today. According to the New York Times: […]
The Awami League government just let H.M. Ershad have a pass–it dropped charges brought against him by the BNP led government of the 1990’s. Along with 75 others withdrawals out 836 politically motivated cases,the case against former President Ershad’s moves to buy radar techinology from the United States at a higher price, presumably pocketing the […]
The government of Bangladesh is working with its counterparts in Russia to put in a 2000 megawatt power plant in the district of Pabna. The joint move was put into play yesterday after having been accepted as a feasible policy last May. The final deal will be signed by Sheikh Hasina during a state visit to […]
Bangladesh, like other regional developing economies, has over the years taken steps to open up its doors to foreign investment. The Board of Investment (BoI) recently announced the following changes to its policy: Simpler rules and regulations for foreign companies seeking to open offices in Bangladesh Foreign workers must receive a work permit from BoI […]
Bangladeshis nationwide are commemorating the men who died on this day in 1952, a day that is now seeped in political and cultural significance. Now, nearly all Bangladeshis know and accept the conventionally shared meaning of the day. It is important, however, to remind oneself and each other that some share of the significance of […]
Now this can’t be right. While trying to downplay the day’s ongoing protests, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed the opposition BNP for the skyrocketing price of food and for the stock price scandal overwhelming the Dhaka Stock Exchange. According to a Daily Star report, she said: “The BNP has created issues for calling hartal by […]
Dear readers, please know that the Bangladesh blog will soon invite a new writer who will be responsible for covering the business and finance news in Bangladesh. The new Bangladesh writer, my good friend, is immensely talented. He brings to the table a real hand feel for the business and finance communities in Bangladesh. […]
Citing shortages in its fleet of aircraft, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the most popular international carrier in Bangladesh has suspended direct flights to London, Heathrow. It is important to note that the Dhaka to London route was reinstituted only last year after a disruption of some 12 years. Nevertheless, this move restricts international thoroughfare at a […]
Rising global food prices have put pressure on the Awami League government to make swift moves to procure a larger supply of staple foods. Perhaps fearing nation-wide protests that might well last for sometime–if organizers plan on modeling their grievances on the protest movements in the Middle East– the government has sworn to buy more […]
There’s another protest strike in the works for this Monday. This time, the opposition BNP has promised a massive hartal that will make good use of the grievances of the four rightist parties with which it was in coalition. Global food prices have skyrocketed with attendant increases in the price of cereal grains. Moreover, the […]
The Times has published a good piece on Grameen Bank founder Md. Yunus growing troubles. Columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece some weeks ago on Grameen and, perhaps, due to his own work on women’s capabilities, he might have spread the word that this is a good story to follow. The Times piece does a […]
I had written quite critically on the charges that Grameen Bank founder Dr. Md. Yunus had engaged in accounting impropriety with development aid funds. Grameen Bank recently faced down allegations and was cleared of any wrong-doing. At the time I had written that this mishap provided an opportunity for stakeholders in the micro-finance industry to […]
The Year So Far. Happy New Year to all. By the time this gets posted and read, Bangladesh will have been swept into the parade of countries switching alendars to a new year, 2011, and one sincerely hopes her people will turn to a new way of viewing the world. Bangladesh, its government and its […]
Eight days ago, on December 16th, the Awami League government of Bangladesh arrested, detained and allegedly began to torture BNP leader Salauddin Qader Chowdhury. This is abhorrent news, no matter the turns of fortune in a man’s life, no matter the moral worth of a cause, no matter the government’s writ on the matter. That […]
This might have passed you by; certainly it did me. There’s no surprise here, nothing really worth accounting for; but I’ll go ahead and account for it anyway. Jamaat has come out to say that during the troubles in 1971, the people who constituted both the party, Jamaat-e-Islami and the paramilitary killer brigade, were all […]