A farmer in Satkhira knows that saline water will creep back into his field next monsoon. What he does not know is whether that same field will be farmable at all in ten years. The first problem needs an answer today—a higher embankment, a salt-tolerant rice variety, a new irrigation scheme. The second depends on …
Read more “Build the Embankment First, or the Power Plant? Bangladesh’s Real Climate Question”
Bangladesh’s FY2026-27 budget promises to wean the economy off bank borrowing. The pivot is real as a ratio — but it is mostly an accounting effect, and the deeper problem it skirts is revenue. Image: AI Generated Every June, Bangladesh unveils a budget bigger than the last, and every June the more revealing number is …
Read more “Less from the banks, more from abroad: does the deficit math add up?”
Five decades after independence, local government remains fiscally starved and politically subordinated. The post-uprising BNP-rule is a chance to change that — if an elected Parliament chooses to use it. Image: AI Generated Local government in Bangladesh occupies a paradox at the heart of the country’s political life. The Constitution could not be clearer: Articles …
Read more “Bangladesh’s Reform Moment Will Be Won or Lost in Its Localities”
National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam ┃ Photo: BSS “আমি চির-বিদ্রোহী বীর — বিশ্ব ছাড়ায়ে উঠিয়াছি একা চির-উন্নত শির!” “I am the eternal rebel hero — I have risen beyond this world, alone, with my head forever held high.” From the poem Bidrohi (“বিদ্রোহী”), Agnibeena, first published in 1922. There is something quietly tragic about how …