Archive for October 15th, 2006
Sunday, October 15th, 2006The Grameen Bank head office at Mirpur in the capital wore a festive mood yesterday as hundreds of people from all walks of life gathered there to greet Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.Colourful processions were also brought out in different parts of the country in celebration of the glory Prof Yunus and his Grameen Bank earned the nation by winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 on Friday. People danced and sang in joy and happiness to celebrate the country's first ever Nobel Prize."Amid today's unity and happiness, we are looking forward to a similar unity among the politicians," Prof Yunus ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Police, middlemen and a section of government officials illegally collect Tk 21 crore a year from the citizens as massive corruption and irregularities occur in issuing passports, a Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) research report said.Of the amount, the officials and employees of the passport department get Tk 13.81 crore, while police of Special Branch get Tk 7.02 crore, revealed the report titled 'Providing passport services: An investigative research' at a roundtable at the National Press Club in the capital yesterday.Terming having passport a citizen's right, the report suggested elimination of bureaucratic tangles, modernising the department with technologies, enhanced budget and ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006In early 2003, the alliance government in keeping with its tilt for striking unsolicited deals in energy sector secretly leased out Khalashpir coal zone in Rangpur to Hosaf group, the company that played a vital role in plundering Barapukuria coal mine and power projects.The way the deal was made is much more opaque than that with Asia Energy. There was no involvement of government experts in awarding the lease to Hosaf and no explicit justification for selecting such an inexperienced company with dubious records in coal sector.The Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) in 1962 discovered the coal zone and ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Sramik Karmachari Oikyo Parishad (Skop) will enforce 24-hour countrywide strike today demanding implementation of different agreements in various industries in the country including readymade garment (RMG), sugar, jute, railways and water transport sectors.Skop has made preparations to blockade the highways, railways and waterways for four hours today from 8:00am to 12:00 noon.Meanwhile, Garments Sramik O Shilpa Rokkhya Jatiya Mancha at a press conference yesterday expressed their solidarity with today's strike and withdrew the 24-hour strike called for tomorrow.Skop's demands also include stop denationalisation, eradication of injustice in different pay commissions and revision of the labour law as per the ILO ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Marium Bibi doesn't know what the Nobel Prize is, but she realises that Dr Muhammad Yunus, who had played a vital role in altering the course of her life, has received something extraordinary.The 70-year-old woman was the first recipient of the small loans by Dr Yunus's Grameen Bank in 1976, through which a destitute Marium managed to build a prosperous life later on."Back then, I was very poor and had been leading a miserable life with my five sons," she said while talking to The Daily Star at Bazal Master Bari premises at village Jobra near Chittagong University under ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006The government has not approved in the last three years an amendment proposal of Grameen Bank--whose poverty-alleviation schemes through microcredit in rural areas have been successful--to start similar activities in urban areas where around 30 per cent people live below the poverty line.The international community had recognised the relentless efforts of Dr Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank in poverty alleviation in rural areas through microcredit decades before his Nobel Peace Prize win on Friday.Based on the success of Grameen Bank's poverty-alleviation schemes in rural areas, Dr Yunus submitted in 2003 a proposal for amendment to the Grameen Bank Ordinance, ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Foreign leaders, NGO activists, diplomats and Bangladesh expatriates poured in their felicitations yesterday on Dr Muhammad Yunus being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Indian political leaders, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has hailed the Nobel Peace Prize to Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus as the world's recognition to his contribution in resolving poverty, our New Delhi correspondent reports.In a congratulatory letter to Yunus, Singh said, "The Grameen Bank chief is an outstanding South Asian and I as a South Asian rejoice."Describing Yunus as his friend, Singh told accompanying Indian journalists in Helsinki, where he is attending India-European Union summit, ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006A poverty-stricken nation, natural disasters, corruption, political violence and recent terrorism by Islamist militants are regular issues about Bangladesh that are projected to the international media. But, Friday and yesterday was different. Media across the globe proudly delivered the news of Dr Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh winning the Nobel Peace Prize.The New York Times ran a report under the headline 'Bangladesh Banker to the Poor Win Nobel Peace Prize'. It says the prize is for grassroots efforts to lift millions out of poverty that earned Yunus the nickname of 'banker to the poor'.It describes Yunus as ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has forcefully suggested the creation of a European Union (EU)-type union in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).In an interview to The Economic Times, a leading Indian economic daily, he said, "In the road ahead, as I see it, the formation of a EU-like union in Saarc is a must. It is only an integrated economic system in which Saarc members can cooperate and collaborate with each other and start moving forward. Micro-financing will have to be a part of it.""If this model can be evolved, common place political issues like in Kashmir ...
(read more) Sunday, October 15th, 2006Accompanied by her family members and relatives, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left for Saudi Arabia yesterday to perform Umrah. During her seven-day official visit as guest of the Royal Saudi government, the prime minister will have talks with the Saudi leadership on a number of issues of common interest.She is scheduled to return home on October 21 while some members of her entourage might stay back for a few more days, sources said.A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the PM took off from Zia International Airport for Jeddah at 7:35pm. The visit is supposed to be ...
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