The Folio Line

02/07/2023

India and Bangladesh resumed trade today with 60 tonnes of green chilli arriving at Bhomra land port. Six trucks carrying 10 tonnes each entered the port. The price of green chilli may decrease in the local market with the import. Several trucks from India are on their way to Bangladesh, which will reach the land port by this evening. Satkhira Kitchen Market Traders Association general secretary Abdur Rahim said green chilli is sold at Tk 400-450 per kg in the wholesale market and Tk 600 at the retail market.

28/06/2023

Eid Mubarak

14/03/2023

Congratulations Bangladesh for winning their historic T20I series against England.

14/03/2023

12/03/2023

Congratulation Bangladesh. What a victory against England!!

05/03/2023

Another Sitakunda blast victim, who was undergoing treatment at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, died last night.

Probesh Lal Sharma, 55, breathed his last at the intensive care unit, reports our Chattogram staff correspondent, quoting CMCH Director Brig Gen Shamim Ahsan.

With Probesh's death, the number of deceased in the incident rose to seven.

Six people were killed on Saturday and over 30 injured in an explosion at the Shema Oxygen Oxico Ltd, a subsidiary of Sheema Automatic Re-Rolling Mills, next to the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway in Chattogram's Sitakunda upazila.

According to locals, the explosion, which took place around 4:30pm, was felt in surrounding areas over at least two sqkm.

Source: The Daily Star

23/02/2023

Amidst the network issues faced by Grameenphone , Banglalink Digital is proactively taking steps to seize the opportunity and bolster their competitive advantage by filling the void.

22/02/2023

Robi has introduced e-SIM for its customers.

All of Robi's prepaid and postpaid customers can activate and manage Robi products and services directly from their smartphones using e-SIM, the telecom operator said in a media statement.

To avail of e-SIM, the customers will have to visit Robi Service Centre or apply online to complete the biometric verification.

Since e-SIM is virtual in nature, there is no concern of losing it, nor is there any need to open up one's smartphone to access it. Not only that, but users can also save multiple e-SIMs on their phones, and access the e-SIM they need when required.

In case the QR code of the eSIM gets deleted, users can download it as many times as needed. Robi users with e-SIM-enabled handsets can use this highly secured smart technology.

Source: UNB

21/02/2023

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday stressed the need for research to preserve, revitalise and develop the mother languages of the world as many languages are being lost.

“I always put emphasis on research. The reason is that enrichment of anything is not possible without research,” she said.

The PM said this while inaugurating a four-day programme of the International Mother Language Institute at Segunbagicha to mark the Martyrs’ Day and International Mother Language Day-2023.

She said the government will take steps to provide fellowship for language research in the International Mother Language Institute.

“I think this institute has a responsibility to preserve all the languages of the world, conduct research on these and know the history of languages. I think it can be done,” she said.

Hasina said she, if needed, will arrange funds to provide fellowship for language researchers.

She said today Bangladesh has attained food autarky thanks to research. “Now research is extensively needed in different sectors including science and health,” she added.

In this context, the PM said the government provides fellowship and stipends to 24 million students in Bangladesh and free textbooks to school students.

She said her government raised the literacy rate to 65.5 per cent from only 45 per cent during the 1996-2001 tenure and got an award from UNESCO for this achievement at that time. Then her government formed a fund with the award money to provide stipends for higher education.

“Coming in power in 2009, now we’ve raised the literacy rate to 75.2 per cent. So, we are advancing (in terms of education),” she said.

“Many languages in different countries are being lost…We want the engendered languages of the world to be preserved here and research to be conducted on these. We’re giving the utmost importance to research. I want International Mother Language Institute to make a huge contribution to preserve the languages,” she said.

Source: UNB

20/02/2023

19/02/2023

Former BNP leader and minister Barrister Nazmul Huda died today at a city hospital. He was 80.

Akkas Ali Khan, secretary general of Trinomool BNP, Huda's new party which got registration a few days ago, confirmed that the expelled BNP leader breathed his last at Square Hospital around 10:25pm.

He left behind his wife Sigma Huda, two daughters Antora Salima Huda and Srabonti Ameena Huda and a host of well-wishers and friends.

Born in 1943, Huda was elected lawmaker from Dhaka-1 constituency. He served as information minister during 1991-1996 and then communications minister during 2001-2006. He was elected four times from the constituency with BNP ticket.

Source: The Daily Star

19/02/2023

The fire that broke out at a residential building in Dhaka's Gulshan-2 this evening, leaving one killed and several others injured, has been brought under control.

Nineteen firefighting engines along with a team from Bangladesh Air Force brought the blaze under control at 11:00pm, said Khaleda Yeasmin, duty officer of the Fire Service Control Room.

The fire started around 7:00pm on the sixth floor of a 13-storey building on Road-104.

Firefighters rescued 22 people -- nine men, 12 women, and one child -- from the building so far, Shajahan Sikder, assistant deputy director of fire service.

Source: The Daily Star

19/02/2023

At least one person was killed in a fire that broke out on the seventh floor of a multistorey building in Dhaka's Gulshan Sunday evening.

The body was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue in an ambulance around 10pm. The deceased's identity could not be confirmed immediately.

Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of Dhaka Medical College Hospital Police Outpost, said the body of the male reached DMCH.

He said the deceased did not have any burn injuries on his body.

The deceased along with three others was seriously injured after jumping from the seventh floor of the building in panic. The three others are receiving treatment at a hospital in critical condition.

Source: Dhaka Tribune

17/02/2023

Remittances sent by overseas Pakistani workers decreased 9.9 per cent in January on a month-on-month basis, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Monday.
The workers' remittances recorded an inflow of 1.894 billion US dollars in January, as compared to the previous month's figure of 2.102 billion dollars, and marked a decrease of 13.1 per cent year-on-year, showed the bank's newly released data.
With a cumulative inflow of 16 billion dollars during the first seven months of the ongoing 2022-2023 fiscal year (from July 2022 to June 2023), the remittances decreased by 11 per cent as compared to the same period last year, reports Xinhua citing the figures showed.

Last month, the remittances mainly came from Saudi Arabia with 407.6 million dollars, the United Arab Emirates with 269.2 million dollars, Britain with 330.4 million dollars, and the United States with 213.9 million dollars, according to the bank.

Workers' remittances play an important role in Pakistan's economy as they are one of the major sources of foreign exchange.

Source: The Financial Express

17/02/2023

The 16th season of the league will begin from March 31 onwards with defending champions Gujarat Titans set to take on four-time winners Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

The official schedule for the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was announced on Friday in Jio Cinemas. The 16th season of the league will begin from March 31 onwards with defending champions Gujarat Titans set to take on four-time winners Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad at 7.30pm IST.

The tournament will be played across 12 venues in India - Ahmedabad, Mohali, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Jaipur, Mumbai, Guwahati (Rajasthan Royals' second home), and Dharamsala (Punjab Kings' second home). - and will comprise 70 league matches, including 18 doubleheaders. All teams will play seven home and away matches during their league campaign.

This will also be the first time since IPL 2019 that the league will be played across all the traditional venues in India. In 2020, the tournament was postponed from the March-May window to the September-November window owing to Covid and was staged in the UAE. In the following year, following a bio-bubble breach, the second half of the season was played in the UAE. And in 2022, the tournament was reduced to just two venues - Mumbai and Pune - while the playoffs were held in Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

Source: Hindustan Times

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17/02/2023

Dhaka's air quality remained in the "hazardous" zone Friday morning.

With an air quality index (AQI) score of 335 at 9:10am, the capital ranked first in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.

An AQI between 151 and 200 is considered "unhealthy," 201 and 300 "very unhealthy," and 301 to 400 is considered "hazardous," posing serious health risks to residents.

India’s Delhi, Pakistan’s Lahore and Afghanistan’s Kabul occupied the second, third and fourth spots in the list, with AQI scores of 302, 213 and 188, respectively.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants – particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and ozone.

Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.

Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide.

Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person's chances of developing heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.

Source: UNB

17/02/2023

The United Nations plans to slash food aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, blaming a funding shortfall for cuts that agencies warned on Friday would deepen food insecurity and malnutrition in the world's largest refugee settlement.

About 730,000 Rohingya, a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar's Rakhine state, fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an army crackdown the U.N. said was carried out with genocidal intent. Including others who left in prior waves, nearly 1 million live in huts made of bamboo and plastic sheets.

The World Food Program (WFP) said it would reduce the value of its food assistance to $10 per person from $12 starting next month. Donor budgets have been stretched by the pandemic, economic downturn and crises across the globe.

The WFP appealed for $125 million in urgent funding, warning of "immense and long-lasting" repercussions on food security and nutrition in camps rife with malnutrition, where more than a third of children are stunted and underweight.

Source: TBS

17/02/2023

The coal-fired Rampal Power Plant, which was kept shut for a month until Wednesday last week amid a shortage of coal, is likely to see further disruption in electricity generation if the government fails to come up with a sufficient amount of dollars to import the key raw material, officials said.

"Continuation of power generation at the power station largely depends on the LC opening situation," said Subhash Chandra Pandey, project director of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited that implements the Rampal Power Plant.

"As per the ongoing shipments and our contracts with the suppliers, we don't see any possibility of disruption for the next two months. However, if a sufficient amount of dollars cannot be ensured for coal imports, production might be interrupted in the hot summer," he said while talking to reporters at his office at Rampal in Bagerhat.

Source: TBS

13/02/2023

About 87% of domestic workers have no experience of taking a weekend off.

This was discussed at a workshop on “Gender Violence at Work: Research Report on Women Domestic Workers in Bangladesh” at Jahur Hossain Chowdhury Auditorium, Jatiya Press Club, Dhaka on Sunday, said a press release.

DNET, on behalf of the Bills-Suniti project, conducted the event titled “Grooming and Gender Violence in the Workplace: A Research Project on Women Domestic Workers in Bangladesh” by BILS, Suniti (Securing Rights of Women Domestic Workers in Bangladesh) project on rights, dignity and protection of domestic workers.

However, a small portion of them avails about 1.5% earned leave, about 3% paid maternity leave and about 6% unpaid maternity leave. About 99% of domestic workers surveyed on skill development did not receive any training related to skill development.

Data from 456 residents, 370 part-timers and 150 employers using both quantitative and qualitative methods and qualitative data were collected from relevant stakeholders for this study.

However, about 85% of employers felt that life skills training would increase their rights awareness and job recognition.

About 99% of domestic workers are not provided with any type of occupational hazard or hazard protection equipment.

Domestic workers never get various social security like severance pay, post severance pay, provident fund, gratuity, pension, accident benefits, medical allowance, etc.

Besides, 100% domestic workers do not have a formal employment contract. They are employed by the employer through an oral contract.

From experience, about 26% of domestic workers have had their wages cut due to absenteeism or tardiness.

In the case of domestic workers who stay at home, they have to work 10 to 14 hours a day.

On the other hand, daily domestic workers can work independently as per the work contract.

Domestic workers in Bangladesh do not have weekly or festive holidays.

Director of Labour Department Billal Hossain Sheikh said: "There should be specific laws for the protection of domestic workers, as well as there should be punishments. Awareness alone doesn't really do much.”

Sushmita Paik, deputy director of National Human Rights Commission Bangladesh, said: "We think about all the backward people of the society, including the minority groups, but we do not think about the domestic workers. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must move forward with them, leaving no one behind.”

M Shahadat Hossain, co-founder and executive director of DNET, said: “The research findings suggest a lot needs to be done to ensure the safety and security of domestic workers in Bangladesh. The right step toward would be take steps to shift them informal to a formal sector. The government can play an ensure role in this regard.”

Notable among those present at the workshop were BILS Joint Secretary General Dr Wajedul Islam Khan, Oxfam Bangladesh Project Coordinator Tarek Aziz, ILO National Project Coordinator Eni Drong, Labour Rights Journalists Forum General Secretary Ataur Rahman, Change Initiative researcher and chief executive Md Zakir Hussain Khan, Global Affairs Canada Senior Development Advisor Sylvia Islam, Global Affairs Canada Head of Corporation Joe Goodings, World Bank Consultant ABM Khorshed, among others.

Source: Dhaka Tribune

13/02/2023

A joint rescue team of Bangladesh continues to play its part in the rescue effort in Turkey following the February 6 earthquake, one of the deadliest natural disasters ever to hit the region.

The Bangladesh team has so far brought out a 17-year-old girl alive from the debris and recovered nine bodies, Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director of the fire service headquarters media cell, said Sunday.

The team consisting of 34 members from the army and 12 from the fire service left Dhaka Wednesday at 10pm and reached Turkey's Adana Military Air Base Thursday at 9:46pm.

Later, they reached Adiyaman city in southeastern Turkey and started search and rescue operations, Shahjahan said.

The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude quakes that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart on February 6, rose to 33,179 Sunday and was certain to keep increasing as search teams locate more bodies in the rubble, reported AP.

Authorities said more than 92,600 other people were injured in the disaster.

Source: Dhaka Tribune

11/02/2023

Ashraful Hossain Alom, better known as Hero Alom, has recently said he wants to form his own political party.

The celebrity, who recently contested the Bogura-4 and Bogura-6 constituency by-polls as an independent candidate, revealed his intention on a talk show "Khaled Muhiuddin Jante Chay," hosted by Khaled Muhiuddin, the chief of DW Bangla.

When asked if he wanted to join any political party, Alom said he would rather form his own political party.

Asked about the goals and purpose of his political party, the YouTube star said, "I want to bring change. The political parties have to change their attitude. I want to work with newcomers who will work for society. I don't want anyone from any big party."

"People have been watching Awami League and BNP for a long time. Even if a banana tree stands against these parties, people will vote for the tree. That's what the people are saying," Alom added.

Source: The Daily Star

11/02/2023

England-based Bangladeshi sprinter Imranur Rahman created history on Saturday by becoming the first Bangladeshi to win a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship.

The 29-year-old sprinter clocked his best timing of 6.59 seconds to win the gold medal in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan tonight.

Imranur, the two-time fastest sprinter of Bangladesh, had clocked 6.70 seconds in the heats – finishing third -- earlier in the morning to seal a semifinal berth. Then he improved his timing to 6.61 seconds to move into the final as the second best, finishing second only on photo-finish.

Imranur then further improved his personal timing by clocking 6.59 seconds in the final to take home the gold medal.

Bangladesh's fastest female sprinter Shirin Akter, however, bowed out from the heats after clocking 7.93 seconds in her event.

Source: The Daily Star

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10/02/2023

Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Friday urged all to read the recently distributed textbooks and to judge those only after that.

"Religion is a sacred thing. Is it fair to spread falsehood about this? First read the textbooks yourself, then judge," she said.

The minister said this while addressing a courtyard meeting on Ishanbala Qasem Ulmul Madrasa premises under Nilkamal union of Haimchar upazila in Chandpur this noon.

While talking about the criticisms of different textbooks, the education minister said: "Some are saying this should not be there or that should have been excluded. We have already said that the students of class six and seven would get two new textbooks next year. There are no anti-Islamic things in these books. We give priority to people's sentiment and respect that.

"Is it fair to spread falsehood regarding Islam? Never allow these things. Please keep one thing in mind, those who are the activists of Sheikh Hasina, will never do anything anti-Islam," she added.

Dr Dipu Moni at the meeting heard all the complaints of inhabitants of ward-1 to 6 of Nilkamal union and tried to give solution to those.

Source: Dhaka Tribune

10/02/2023

Nasa's Curiosity rover has found wave-rippled rocks -- evidence of an ancient lake -- in an area of the planet expected to be drier, the US space agency said.

"This is the best evidence of water and waves that we've seen in the entire mission," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2012, beamed back stunning pictures of rippled patterns on the surface of rocks caused by the waves in shallow lake billions of years ago.

Curiosity had previously found evidence that lakes once covered parts of Mars in the salty minerals left behind when they dried up.

But Nasa scientists were surprised to find such stark evidence of water in the Gale Crater that the rover is now exploring.

"We've climbed through many lake deposits during our mission but have never seen wave ripples this clearly," Vasavada said in a statement.

"This was especially surprising because the area we're in probably formed at a time when Mars was becoming more dry," he said.

Source: The Daily Star

06/02/2023

A huge earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and injured thousands more on Monday in Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.

The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit before sunrise in bitter winter weather, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.

Source: Reuters

04/02/2023

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today alleged that BNP backed Ashraful Hossain Alam, popularly known as Hero Alom, in the by-elections to undermine the parliament.

Hero Alom contested the Bogura-4 by-polls on February 1 as an independent candidate.

"Fakhrul [BNP secretary general] said Hero Alom was defeated by using the state machinery. He [Fakhrul] felt very sorry for Hero Alom. He thought that Hero Alom would win. But Hero Alom has now become zero. BNP brought Hero Alom to the election race. They backed Hero Alom in the elections to demean the parliament," he said.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, was speaking at the "peace rally" organised by the Dhaka City (South) unit AL on the premises of Kamrangirchar Hospital.

Source: The Daily Star

04/02/2023

For the first time in more than three months, Bangladesh Jewellers Samity (Bajus) today reduced the price of gold by 1.24 per cent or Tk 1,166 per bhori in line with a fall in the price of the precious metal in the local market.

From now on, the price of one bhori of 22-carat gold (11.664g) will be Tk 92,263, said Bajus in a press release today.

The association had been hiking the price of gold for over three and a half months from October 24, 2022 -- since it last slashed the price.

The new price will come into effect from today, said MA Hannan Azad, chairman of Bajus standing committee on fixing and monitoring prices.

In mid-January this year, Bajus hiked the price of gold to Tk 93,429 per bhori, the highest so far in the country's history.

Source: The Daily Star

03/02/2023

Hosts Bangladesh got their campaign off to a winning start by beating Nepal 3-1 in their opening fixture of the SAFF U-20 Women's Championship at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur on Friday.

Bangladesh took only three minutes to break the deadlock when Aklima Khatun raced on to a long ball from Shaheda Akter Ripa and beat the Nepal goalkeeper Kabita with a placing shot. The lead was doubled 10 minutes later, with captain Shamsunnahar finding the back of the net following another long ball from inside the Bangladesh half.

Nepal, however, pulled one back in the 24th minute, courtesy of Manmaya Damai whose effort had help from the post as it nestled in.

Just as Nepal was looking desperately for an equaliser, Bangladesh sealed the victory with Ripa finding the far corner of the net with a wonderful volley from just outside the box in the first minute of stoppage time.

Source: The Daily Star

03/02/2023

A comet is streaking back our way after 50,000 years.

The dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It will come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometres) of Earth Wednesday before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years.

So do look up, contrary to the title of the killer-comet movie “Don’t Look Up.”

Discovered less than a year ago, this harmless green comet already is visible in the northern night sky with binoculars and small telescopes, and possibly the naked eye in the darkest corners of the Northern Hemisphere. It’s expected to brighten as it draws closer and rises higher over the horizon through the end of January, best seen in the predawn hours. By Feb. 10, it will be near Mars, a good landmark.

Scientists are confident in their orbital calculations putting the comet’s last swing through the solar system’s planetary neighborhood at 50,000 years ago. But they don’t know how close it came to Earth or whether it was even visible to the Neanderthals, said Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

When it returns, though, is tougher to judge.

Every time the comet skirts the sun and planets, their gravitational tugs alter the iceball’s path ever so slightly, leading to major course changes over time. Another wild card: jets of dust and gas streaming off the comet as it heats up near the sun.

“We don’t really know exactly how much they are pushing this comet around,” Chodas said.

The comet — a time capsule from the emerging solar system 4.5 billion years ago — came from what’s known as the Oort Cloud well beyond Pluto. This deep-freeze haven for comets is believed to stretch more than one-quarter of the way to the next star.

While comet ZTF originated in our solar system, we can’t be sure it will stay there, Chodas said. If it gets booted out of the solar system, it will never return, he added.

Source: UNB