DHAKA- The government today approved the ‘Gold Policy-2018’ to ease the import and export of the precious metal as well as ensure transparency in its trade inside the country.
Category: Op-Ed
Fake news and the fairness doctrine
Fake news in America’s public square is a failure of its information marketplace. Remediation should occur through enhanced marketplace competition, not government censorship.
World’s first floating nuclear power plant set to load fuel
Dhaka, May 22 – Akademik Lomonosov, world’s first nuclear floating power unit arrived in the Russian city Murmansk from Saint Petersburg on May 19,2018 for loading of fuel.
Three challenges in contemporary populism research
Today populism seems to be firmly back on the agenda. A series of recent events have shocked and scandalised our global public spheres, causing concern for the future of democracy and puzzling academics, journalists and citizens alike. The Italian and…
Agricultural trade liberalization undermined food security
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury Kuala Lumpue and Sydney, May 21 (IPS) – Agriculture is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes, ‘From ending poverty and hunger to responding…
Can preventive diplomacy avert military conflicts?
By Thalif Deen Stockholm, May 21 (IPS) – In the paradoxical battle against military conflicts, is preventive diplomacy one of the political remedies that can help deter wars before they break out?
Shipping, industry threaten famed home of the Bengal Tiger
By Naimul Haq Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 19 (IPS) – Toxic chemical pollution in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, is threatening thousands of marine and forest species and has environmentalists deeply concerned about the future of this…
Federal central Banks and decadent capitalism
Federal Central Banks (Forum Press, 2018) is a unique study that critically examines the role and impact of central banks in federal and confederal political systems.
Will climate change create more migrants than wars?
By Daniel Gutman Buenos Aires, May 17 (IPS) – Climate change is one of the main drivers of migration and will be increasingly so. It will even have a more significant role in the displacement of people than armed conflicts,…
Indigenous peoples recover native languages in Mexico
By Daniela Pastrana May 18 (IPS) – Ángel Santiago is a Mexican teenager who speaks one of the variations of the Zapotec language that exists in the state of Oaxaca, in the southwest of Mexico. Standing next to the presidential…
Grass planting reduces soil erosion risks in Rohingya camps
By International Organization for Migration Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, May 18 (IOM) – Over two million vetiver grass plants have been distributed by IOM, the UN Migration Agency, in the past two weeks to reduce soil erosion and the risk of…
Saudis open a movie theater, is it ready to open more
An invitation-only gala screening of Black Panther in Saudi Arabia on April 19 has attracted worldwide attention as the country’s first public viewing of a film in over three decades. For Saudis themselves, however, the event was just the latest…
Africa gains momentum in green climate solutions
By Sam Otieno Nairobi, Kenya, May 17 (IPS) – Promoting the widespread use of innovative technologies will be critical to combat the hostile effects of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and many African countries are already leading the…
17 orgs feeding, healing the world thru regenerative agri
From Danielle Nierenberg Transitioning to more sustainable forms of agriculture remains critical, as many current agriculture practices have serious consequences including deforestation and soil degradation. But despite agriculture’s enormous potential to hurt the environment, it also has enormous potential to…
Has Suva Expert Dialogue managed to secure climate insurance
By Zulker Naeen In the context of Loss and Damage, most financial instruments that have been proposed did not solve the problems faced by the developing countries. In quest of the financial instruments for addressing Loss and Damage, under the…
Climate finance: The Paris Agreement’s “lifeblood”
By Friday Phiri Bonn, May 15 (IPS) – As negotiators concluded ten days of climate talks in Bonn last week, climate finance was underlined as a key element without which the Paris Agreement’s operational guidelines would be meaningless.
Gaza bloodbath result of not-needed use of force
Omar Shakir As hundreds gathered Monday in Jerusalem to celebrate the move of the U.S. Embassy, about 100 kilometers away, Israeli forces fired on Palestinian demonstrators protected by the fence separating Israel from Gaza. They killed 60 people and injured…
Sustainable food systems not need new recipes
Many believe that the food and agricultural sector is different to all other economic sectors, that it is unique, and that it requires special economic models to thrive. After all, we expect the global food and agricultural system to respond…
The exit wounds are fist-size, bone is pulverized into dust
Jason Cone New York/Gaza, May 14 (IPS) – The exit wounds are fist-size. Bone is pulverized into dust. This is the reality for half of the injured patients received in my organization’s clinics since the launch of the Great Return…
Flawed capitalism on both sides of the Atlantic
Given the scale of poverty and inequality in contemporary Britain (and indeed in the United States), no right-thinking person can presumably be fully happy with the organization of a system of rewards that leaves so many people under daily and…
Why Macron in not the new left
Since his election in May 2017, international observers have fairly unanimously welcomed Emmanuel Macron as today’s modernizing figure in French politics and depicted him as a pro-European Social Democrat with an assertive reformist touch. Yet, it took no longer than…
To have children or not: The importance of finding a balance
While the world’s population has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, little is still understood about fertility transition and the reasons behind it.
Look at past disasters to prepare for the future: New Report
Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery: Are we prepared for the next Pompeii? Washington, May 8 — The great disasters of the past – like the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD or the hurricane that devastated Santo Domingo…
Economic mobility across generations around the world
If you are born into a low-income family, what are the chances that you will rise higher regardless of your background? The ability to move up the income ladder, both in one’s lifetime and with respect to one’s parents, matters…
EU Company Mobility Package: Implications For Social Europe
Will the ‘freedom of establishment’ – one of the basic freedoms in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) – mean that companies can pick and choose the national regulatory regime most favourable to them? Or will…
Ireland’s cervical cancer crisis Began in the US
Women were incorrectly cleared as cancer-free Kelly Flannery Cervical cancer need not be a death sentence. Between vaccination, routine screening, timely follow-up, and early detection, cervical cancer is preventable and highly curable. When a woman dies from cervical cancer, something…
Climate talks: Lively session on common time-frames for NDCs
Bonn, 10 May (Prerna Bomzan) – Parties at informal consultations under the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) agreed to draft conclusions of a procedural nature on common time frames for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) referred to in Article 4.10…
How Europe’s band-aid ensures Greece’s bondage
By Yanis Varoufakis All the happy talk about impending “debt relief” and a “clean exit” from Greece’s third “bailout” obscures an uglier truth: the country’s debt bondage is being extended to 2060. Worse, by ossifying Greece’s insolvency, while pretending to…
Role of voting in reviving democratic practice
Since the beginning of the year the world has witnessed 24 national elections in which nearly 100 million people cast their votes. All together in 2018, there will be a total of 68 planned electoral processes in 45 countries ranging…
School bus, corporate tax cut likely in next budget: Muhith
Dhaka, May 15 – There will be an announcement to introduce school bus and corporate tax will be reduced in the upcoming budget, finance minister AMA Muhith said Wednesday.