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Quest for business confidence
Imtiyaz Husain
The last Wednesday meet of businessmen and the motley crowd of bureaucrats old and new, NGO stakeholders, professionals of many disciplines did indeed vent the miasma of perturbed fear and uncertainty that has been perforating the veil of confidence. As the Finance Advisor reiterated that while the numbers did not show the lack of confidence, the general perception was indeed rock solid... [ FULL STORY ]
Visiting IMF Team
Beware of pitfalls of a binding deal
Special Correspondent
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), discredited in many developing countries, has sent a team to Dhaka with certain prescriptions. The team headed by its South Asia Department Adviser Thomas R Rumbaugh arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday and in its first meeting the next day with officials of the National Board of Revenue received a jolt. The revenue officials refused to accept the IMF prescriptions for reforms in the NBR, ostensibly to maximise revenue income through raising efficiency and enforcing accountability. Specifically, the NBR officials rejected the IMF proposal to introduce a joint audit system for income tax and VAT... [ FULL STORY ]
Khaleda's arrest heralds end
of dynastic politics
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The arrest of Khaleda Zia on Monday and Sheikh Hasina about two months ago on corruption charges signalled the end of dynastic politics in Bangladesh. Khaleda inherited politics from her husband the late President Ziaur Rahman and Hasina from her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, both popular leaders who had been assassinated. The two ladies heading the two major political parties, BNP and Awami League, have alternately ruled this impoverished country for long 15 years... [ FULL STORY ]
Election roadmap in focus, politicians unready
Sadeq Khan
The reformed caretaker government and the reformed election commission, with the support of the President (symbol of continuity of elective authority, and supreme commander of the armed forces of the people's republic) and with the backing of military detachments called in aid of the civil administration, have repeatedly expressed their intent and determination to hold free and fully participatory general election by December 2008... [ FULL STORY ]
Antimilitary Provocations
Bangladesh is not Pakistan or Turkey
M. Shahidul Islam
Hitler's generals under-estimated the strength and resolve of the Russian army before attacking Stalingrad during the Second World War, but the Bangladesh military knows the mindset of the people of this country and has acted accordingly during every national crisis... [ FULL STORY ]
Change of advisers likely
Shahriar Noori
The caretaker government headed by Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is considering inclusion of some new personalities as advisers for a smoother operation of the administration, said a reliable source...[ FULL STORY ]
5% Duty on PV to Affect Rural poor
Tax burden hinders promising solar energy growth
Mostafa Kamal Majumder
Bangladesh's nascent solar electricity sector offering great promise to the poor in detached rural communities is now facing grave crisis in consequence of taxation in the current budget thus making the sector's growth prospect very bleak... [ FULL STORY ]
Universities set to reopen soon as situation turns normal
Abdur Rahman Khan
With the campus situation cooling down, the authorities are feeling confident to reopen the public universities and colleges, which were ordered closed due to the student violence of August 20-22... [ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Karl Marx
K. Z. Islam
Marx was a child of his time, the mid-nineteenth century, and Marxism was a characteristic nineteenth century philosophy in that it claimed to be scientific. Karl Marx thought he had found a scientific explanation of human behaviour in history akin to Darwin's theory of evolution. Actually Karl Marx was really a scholar and lived an intense life filled with study and activity. He was a prolific writer and his magnum opus Das Kapital was published in four volumes only one of which came out during his life time. He had thought that the writing of Das Kapital might make him rich, but the first volume sold only 1000 copies. If Marxism would have been established as a science one shudders to think that if Nazism had succeeded then it might have well become established as universal race-theory... [ FULL STORY ]
NEWS NOTES FROM NEW YORK
Fazle Rashid
India's massive military build-up
India is planning a massive military build-up primarily to counter China's military might. The Indian move will also offset the present equilibrium in South Asia. India has taken in hand a programme to beef up its military strength by spending well over $40 billion over the next five years. India's military appetite is to match its growing economic power, said the New York Times in a report... [ FULL STORY ]
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