Women’s contribution to agriculture and access to land: Covid-19 and beyond
The Daily Star and Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) jointly organised an online discussion titled “Women’s contribution to agriculture and access to land: Covid-19 and beyond” on December 27, 2020. Here we publish a summary of the discussion. Speakers’ serial has been maintained as per the flow of the discussion.
Khushi Kabir, Chairperson,
ALRD and Coordinator, Nijera Kori
The issue of women s contribution to agriculture as well as access to land is a crucial issue but it is not given proper recognition. Women play a huge role in agriculture, be it the cultivation of land or processing of the produce or even in households.
BIDS among 100 top think-tanks worldwide in 2020 Star Business Report Star Business Report
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) has been ranked as one of the top 100 think-tanks worldwide, according to the 2020 Global Go to Think Tank Index (GGTTI) released on Thursday.
The autonomous public multi-disciplinary organisation advanced 10 notches to 94 in the 2020 GGTTI from 104th position the previous year, according to the index prepared by The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at The University of Pennsylvania.
This is the 15th edition of the GGTTI since the index was launched in 2006.
This year, 3,974 plus university faculty and administrators, journalists, policymakers, think tank scholars and executives, and donors from every region participated, said the report released by The Lauder Institute of The University of Pennsylvania.
Next budget must focus on boosting revenues
Speakers tell IBFB webinar
24th January, 2021 12:19:09
Reforms in tax policies, encouraging investment and raising revenue collection should get priority in preparing the next fiscal’s budget, economists and business leaders said on Saturday.
The recommendations came at a webinar on National Budget 2021-22, styled: Policy Recommendation oraganised by International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB).
President of IBFB Humayun Rashid made the opening remarks while Former Chairman of NBR Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid presented the keynote paper.
Former Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Atiqur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattachrya, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Director General Dr Khan Ahmed Sayeed, Legal Economist and Vice President of IBFB MS Siddiqui and Chairman of BSRM group of companies Alihussain Akberali, spoke as the panel discussants.
During his childhood, Md Mujbur Rahman would see his mother waiting for days to receive money sent by his father through the post office from Adamjee Jute Mills, the then biggest operational jute mill in the world.
The wait for the postmaster to inform about the receipt of the money sometimes took up to a month.
Today, 51-year-old Rahman, the only breadwinner of his five-member family, sends money in seconds via mobile banking channels to his spouse living more than 285 km away south of Dhaka.
Over there in Betagi, a remote sub-district in Barguna, his spouse Nipu Begum gets a message of the receipt of the money in her phone. Withdrawal of the money, popularly known as cash-out, is some hundred yards walking distance for Begum and her children.
Bangladesh Economy 2020: Rising from the rubble
The year 2020 began with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the horizon. The novel coronavirus was spreading in Europe, the destination of over 60 percent exports from Bangladesh, after wreaking havoc in China, its largest trading partner.
Bangladesh felt the heat of a looming global crisis though the virus had not yet made its way into the country.
The bad news came a couple of months later. On March 8, the authorities confirmed the maiden case of Covid infection in the country. A week later, the first death from the virus was reported.
Soon, the country s economy, one of the shining stars in Asia, came almost to a halt as the government imposed countrywide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.