Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that was formerly known as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Even though the country has gone through domestic and international efforts to improve its economic situation, Bangladesh remains an underdeveloped and overpopulated country. For the majority of people who live there, the annual income is only $440US and lower still for others.

Bangladesh grows massive quantities of rice, tea and mustard. Although two-thirds of its people are farmers, more than three quarters of the country’s earnings come from exports through the garment industry. The ‘industry’, which employs more than 3 million workers, exports an average of $5 billion worth of products! 90% of its employees, or slaves if you will, are Asian women. Rents are very high in Bangladesh, especially for the factory workers who only earn about $38 US per month. To try to make ends meet, many of the women in the rural areas trek to the city’s sweatshops that offer horrible working conditions. At these sweatshops, the women work between 10 and 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not including their additional household duties either.

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Rich culture, beautiful tourist spots, and hospitable people. These are the qualities that all great tourist spots have. And, incidentally, these are also the very qualities that you will find in the beautiful country of Bangladesh.

The traditional music of Bangladesh is very much the same as that of the Indian sub-continent. The music in Bangladesh can be divided into three main categories: classical, modern and folk. Both vocal and instrumental classical music is enjoyed in Bangladesh. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan and Ustad Alauddin are two famous classical instrumental players that are internationally known. Modern music is becoming more popular and is practiced widely. Contemporary, pop songs and bands are also enjoying more widespread fame, but are mainly popular in the regions of Dhaka City. Drama and theatre is an old tradition that is very popular in Bangladesh. More than a dozen theater groups in Dhaka City have been regularly staging locally written plays for hundreds of years. Many have also started adopted some plays from European writers. Baily Road in Dhaka is known as “Natak Para” and this is one location where drama shows are regularly held. Many shows are also held at the Dhaka University.

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Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that was formerly known as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Even though the country has gone through domestic and international efforts to improve its economic situation, Bangladesh remains an underdeveloped and overpopulated country. For the majority of people who live there, the annual income is only $440US, and lower still for others.

Bangladesh grows massive quantities of rice, tea and mustard. Although two-thirds of its people are farmers, more than three quarters of the country’s earnings come from exports through the garment industry. The ‘industry’, which employs more than 3 million workers, exports an average of $5 billion worth of products! 90% of its employees, or slaves if you will, are Asian women. Rents are very high in Bangladesh, especially for the factory workers who only earn about $38 US per month. To try to make ends meet, many of the women in the rural areas trek to the city’s sweatshops that offer horrible working conditions. At these sweatshops, the women work between 10 and 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not including their additional household duties either.

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Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that was formerly known as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Even though the country has gone through domestic and international efforts to improve its economic situation, Bangladesh remains an underdeveloped and overpopulated country. For the majority of people who live there, the annual income is only $440US, and lower still for others.

Bangladesh grows massive quantities of rice, tea and mustard. Although two-thirds of its people are farmers, more than three quarters of the country’s earnings come from exports through the garment industry. The ‘industry’, which employs more than 3 million workers, exports an average of $5 billion worth of products! 90% of of its employees, or slaves if you will, are Asian women. Rents are very high in Bangladesh, especially for the factory workers who only earn about $38 US per month. To try to make ends meet, many of the women in the rural areas trek to the city’s sweatshops that offer horrible working conditions. At these sweatshops, the women work between 10 and 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not including their additional household duties either.

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In India, terrorism has become a long standing menace turning rampant with every passing day. Unfortunately, the country is becoming more vulnerable from its neighbouring countries, which once were single nationhood. Whenever there is an attack in the country, the intelligence agency reports attribute highhandedness of India’s western neighbour - Bangladesh. The porous Indo-Bangla border has turned out to be the favourite passage for the trouble shooters. Even as the intelligence officials often try to cover up the issue, not willing to disclose the pandora box of their intelligence failure, naked truth cannot be suppressed. The terrorists are becoming more and more smarter. They manage to camouflage the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI), Border Security Force (BSF), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Task Force (STF), and the local police to sneak in to the soil of India, ostensibly with the help local procurer, who are often lured in exchange a few penny. Having accomplished their mission of killing to destabilise the country, they choose the same route to exit from the country. Hinterland along the border, unfenced border, lack of awareness among the villagers residing in the border areas are some of the reasons. Nelson’s eye in part of the Centre because of the pertinent pretension that the region is not as strategic as northern frontier of Jammu and Kashmir is also one of the prime reasons. Down the years the role of the security agencies has come under skepticism, as they fail to combat the terrorist activities. Centre disposes off million of rupees as budgetary allotment to invigorate the security agencies every year. Money on security agencies seems flowing down the drain, when the country witnesses terrorist activities. Bhupinder Singh, Additional Director General, Criminal Investigation Department, West Bengal agreed to the fact that Indo-Bangla Border is porous, and a lot of people cross the border on a daily basis. He said, “Some of the terrorists, who have played a role in some of the major blasts in the country, have come to India crossing the Indo-Bangla border”. “We have arrested some of them, who were involved in terrorist activities in the country. They have confessed that they have been sponsored by people across the border to cross the border and spread terrorism,” he added. Singh also said that some of the arrested terrorists had a link with HUJI. However, he denied any links with other major terrorist groups. The West Bengal CID has also nabbed some youth from the state , who went to Pakistan and received militant training. They then went to Bangladesh, obtained Bangladeshi passports and came back to India and contributed to terrorist activities, according to Singh.

“We have also arrested some Pakistani nationals who went to Bangladesh with their original Pakistani passports, and then crossed the Indo-Bangla border to enter India,” Singh added. Singh anticipated greater role from Border Security Force (BSF) to combat the cross-border infiltration. Additional Director General, Eastern Command, Border Security Force, U K Bansal, speaking to Headlines India, said, “The Indo-Bangla border is a stretch of 4100 kilometre and some part of it is porous. But from where the terrorists enter, is yet to be confirmed as Indo-Nepal border and Indo-Bhutan border are also porous too. He denied receiving any specific information from any of the intelligence agencies that the terrorists had used certain part of the Indo-Bangla border

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A new state for an old nation, Bangladesh has a culture that encompasses factors both old and new. The Bangla language boasts a rich literary inheritance, which Bangladesh shares with the Indian state of West Bengal. The earlier literary text in Bangla is the eighth century Charyapada. Bangla literature in the medieval age was often either religious or adjustments from other languages . Bangla literature matured in the nineteenth century. Its greatest icons are the poets Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Bangladesh also has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by Maimansingha Gitika, Thakurmar Jhuli or stories related to Gopal Bhar.

Mainstream Hindi films are also quite popular, as are movies from Kolkata, which has its own thriving Bengali-language movie industry. As much as two hundred dailies are published in Bangladesh, along sustaining supplementary than 1800 periodicals. However, steady readership is low, nearly about 15% of the population.

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A new state for an old nation, Bangladesh has a culture that encompasses factors both old and new. The Bangla language boasts a rich literary inheritance, which Bangladesh shares with the Indian state of West Bengal. The earlier literary text in Bangla is the eighth century Charyapada. Bangla literature in the medieval age was often either religious or adjustments from other languages . Bangla literature matured in the nineteenth century. Its greatest icons are the poets Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Bangladesh also has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by Maimansingha Gitika, Thakurmar Jhuli or stories related to Gopal Bhar.

Cricket is a single of the virtually all mainstream sports in Bangladesh. In 2000, the Bangla Desh cricket team was allowed Test cricket status & joined the elite league of interior teams permitted by the International Cricket Council to play test matches. Other popular sports let in football (soccer), field hockey, tennis, badminton, handball, volleyball, chess, carom, and kabadi, a 7-a-side team-sport played without a ball or even any More equipment, that is the interior sport of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Sports Control Board regulates 29 different sporting federations.

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Bangladesh is playing International level competitions for almost one decade but there has been no improvement in the standard of their game. Except very few rare wins they were never been able to give a good fight to the opposition. Their recent performance in ICC Championship trophy tells the whole story of their improvement through all these years. A score of 265+ against Sri Lanka doesn’t mean they have a good batting line up. Any counties 2nd or 3rd tier team can make such a score once in a while. True they have few talented batsman in their team like Aftab Ahemad , Ashrful & others . These players can be made world class by proper training & guidance but not by just giving them a chance to play against a McGrath or a Shohaib.

ICC should have a rational vision in promoting cricket. Just by giving chances to the minnows in big events will not serve any purpose. ICC should try to make sure that the players from counties like Bangladesh & Zimbabwe get enough exposure before playing for their nation. It can never happen just by playing the domestic matches in their respective countries. Ashraful can never get a chance to face a bowler of Lee’s speed playing in Bangladesh. All the top cricket playing nations should share this responsibility under the guidance of ICC. ICC can come up with a proposal like “every test playing nation (of course except Bangladesh) should have few foreign players in their domestic competition”. It will also help players to adapt themselves in different conditions. ICC need to take few pioneering initiatives else we will never see any improvement in the standard of cricket played in Bangladesh, Kenya or Zimbabwe.

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The education systems of Bangladesh have long since left their stymied past and now look forward to a brighter future. The government has made education of the masses one of their top priorities and as such has set up a number of programs and initiatives designed to help the people of Bangladesh obtain a fairly good level of education regardless of gender or class.

In the past, Bangladesh education was primarily an English-controlled upper-class affair with all courses given in English and very little being done for the common people. The Bangladesh education board has taken massive steps to leave such practises in the past and are looking forward to education as a way to provide a somewhat poverty stricken nation with a brighter future.

Currently the education system is divided into 4 levels or stages. The first is the Primary level which incorporates grades 1 to 5. The second is Secondary level which covers grades 6 to 10. Then there is a Higher Secondary level which consists of grades 11 and 12. If a student wishes to pursue further studies, tertiary education institutions are available. There are 11 government universities in Bangladesh and some 20 private universities which provide tertiary education. Students can choose to further studies in engineering, technology, agriculture and medicine. At a variety of universities and colleges.

At all levels of schooling, students can choose to receive their education in English or Bengali. Private schools tend to make use of English-based mediums while government-sponsored schools use Bengali mediums of study. There is a third brand of study that is usually made use of by the very poor or orphaned. The Religious Branch of education is a sort of religious schooling system and teaches all the basics of education in a religious environment. Similar in some ways to the priory system of Christianity, these Madrasa take in countless homeless children and provide them with food, shelter and education. Religious studies are taught in Arabic and the children also usually serve the related Mosques.

Current projects to promote the education of children in Bangladesh include compulsory primary education for all, free education for girls up to grade 10, stipends for female students, a nationwide integrated education system and a food-for education literacy movement. A large section of the country’s national budget is set aside to help put these various programs into action and to promote education and make it more accessible. Recent years has seen efforts pay off and the Bangladesh education system is strides ahead of what it was only a few short years ago.

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DHAKA, BANGLADESH (28 April 2004) - Boosted by expansion in both domestic and external demand, Bangladesh’s economy is forecast to grow 5.7% in fiscal 2003 and 6% in fiscal 2005, according to a major Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released today.

The Asian Development Outlook 2004 (ADO), an annual ADB publication that forecasts economic trends in the region, says the recent data pointed to an expected increase in industrial production and agriculture in the years ahead.

The forecast marks an acceleration of growth from the country’s recovery in agriculture and industry in FY 2003 (1 July 2002 to 30 June 2003), when gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was an estimated 5.3%. “The macroeconomic prospects for FY2004-2005 appear favorable with upside potential from a more buoyant global economy,” the ADO says.

Agricultural growth is expected to increase, with preliminary indications suggesting a bumper aman (winter harvest) crop.

A higher budgeted fiscal deficit for FY2004 and a more relaxed monetary stance are expected to spur domestic demand.

Services sector activities, particularly trade, transport, and finance are likely to improve significantly with the anticipated further recovery in export-oriented manufacturing and continued strong food crop production.

Although growth in manufactured exports is projected to moderate with the phasing out of the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) at the end of 2004, domestic-oriented private economic activity is expected to strengthen as the Government makes progress on structural and economic reforms.

The ADO calls for further improvements in competitiveness of the garment industry as well as an improvement of the overall environment for investment climate including infrastructure development.

The current account surplus is likely to fall considerably during the remainder of FY2004, but remain marginally positive the whole year. This forecast is contingent on the growth in imports continuing to offset the rise in exports. It is also reliant on remittances from overseas workers not changing dramatically due to the instability in the Middle East and fallout from the ongoing fight against terror.

Inflation is likely to increase to 4.7% in FY2004 due to an increase in food prices. Inflation rate for FY2005 is projected to be at 4.2%.

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