Mobile banking expands rapidly in Bangladesh
On the first Friday of every month, Sabina Begum makes the short trip from her single-room shack in a crowded Dhaka slum to a nearby grocery. The grocer, in addition to selling her much-needed supplies, doubles as her financial-services provider.
Ms. Begum hands the grocer cash, and with a few clicks on a basic key-press mobile phone, he sends the money on its way.
At roughly the same time, in a village 300 kilometers away, Ms. Begum’s father, Bosir Uddin, partially blind and slowed by arthritis, walks to a tea shop in the village square, where he waits for the money transfer from Dhaka. It duly arrives in the form a text message to the tea shop 
Japan beating China in race for Indian Ocean deep-sea port
Japan is beating out China in a race to build Bangladesh’s first deep-sea port as the region’s powers jostle for a foothold in the Indian Ocean.
Construction of the 18-meter-deep port at Matarbari on Bangladesh’s southeast coast is set to start by January, Japan International Cooperation Agency said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg News. That’s bad news for a stalled China plan to build a port about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo A...
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo A...
‘Domestic justice system requires reform to address extrajudicial executions’
Cases of extrajudicial executions are being frequently reported from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, says the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) in an oral statement to the 29th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions. ALRC wished to bring to the attention of UNHRC about the fact that over the past four months happened in South Asian countries. It said, in addition to drone attacks by the United States in Pakistan that have killed civilians there, the armed forces and police in these three countries circumvent due process and engage in extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions with impunity.
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Mustafizur stars in landmark series win
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Mustafizur Rahman's 6 for 43 helped Bangladesh beat India by six wickets in the second ODI in Mirpur and complete a series win © AFP[/caption]
Mustafizur Rahman was the hero in Mirpur again, (off)cutting through India's batting with a six-wicket haul to add to his five-for on ODI debut, and launching Bangladesh to their first ever bilateral series win against India...
Mustafizur Rahman's 6 for 43 helped Bangladesh beat India by six wickets in the second ODI in Mirpur and complete a series win © AFP[/caption]
Mustafizur Rahman was the hero in Mirpur again, (off)cutting through India's batting with a six-wicket haul to add to his five-for on ODI debut, and launching Bangladesh to their first ever bilateral series win against India...
BD among strongest performers on electricity access in Asia
Asian countries are making a vital contribution to achieving global sustainable energy goals, a new World Bank report finds. But while the region performs strongly on ensuring electricity access for people and using more modern renewable energy, there is room for further improvement on energy efficiency and access to clean, smoke-free cooking.
The report is the second in a series that tracks the world’s progress toward the three goals of
How Bangladesh became a model for reducing hunger
A recent UN report on global hunger highlights Bangladesh – a onetime food basket case – for having cut chronic hunger by more than half since 2000.
Four decades ago, the newly formed and desperately poor South Asian nation of Bangladesh saw its already-high levels of extreme poverty and chronic hunger skyrocket with floods, leading to the Bangladesh famine of 1974.
Farmers and farmland were swallowed up in rampaging waters, distribution of the imported ...
