By Jawad Hossain Nirjhor The ready-made garment industry employs around 3.5 million workers and accounts for 80 percent of the total export earnings is mainly depends on women workers .Following the countrywide demonstration last year, the minimum wage for the garment workers was slightly increased. On the eve of May Day, it is time to ... Read more
Sections
Junk science
Scientists are increasingly worried about the amount of debris orbiting the Earth, writes Dr K.H. Amin February 10th 2009 began like every other day in Iridium 33’s 11-year life. One of a constellation of 66 small satellites in orbit around the Earth, it spent its time whizzing through space, diligently shuttling signals to and from ... Read more
Impact on environment and health
Shipbreaking in South Asia Impact on environment and health Md. Abu Sayed Shipbreaking, referred to as ship recycling, is a type of ship disposal involving the dismantling of an obsolete vessel’s structure for scrapping or disposal. It includes a wide range of activities, from removing all gears and equipment to cutting down the ship’s infrastructure. ... Read more
Climate change and neglected tropical diseases
Khalid Md. Bahauddin Recent investigations attribute more than 150,000 deaths per year and a global disease burden to climate change. An area that has received particular attention is the potential impact of global warming on shifts in the spatio-temporal distribution of disease vectors, and hence the frequency and transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases. Vectors, pathogens ... Read more
Organisational culture
Mamun Rashid From an academic perspective, we can look at the way Edgar Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, defines organisational culture as ‘a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well ... Read more
Climatic hazards: Vulnerability and adaptation
Dr Moazzem Hossain It is now widely recognised that the coastal regions of the world would suffer severely both in economic and social fronts from the direct impact of global warming and rising sea level. It has been noticed that in recent years sea-level rise, frequent storms and cyclones, and riverbank erosion have taken a ... Read more
12,000km in 357 days
Sea turtle routes tracked The first turtle that was tagged in Bangladesh with a satellite chip to track its journey last year has travelled over 12,000 kilometres in 357 days and is now coming back to Bangladesh coast from Sri Lanka. Urmee, the name of the turtle, has crossed the path until March 23, 2011. ... Read more
Bay the global hotspot
More than 10,000 endangered whales and dolphins of six species have made the Bay of Bengal and the Sundarbans estuary a safe home, a month long survey reveals. A group of Bangladeshi wildlife scientists headed by Dr Anisuzzaman Khan carried out the survey and recently revealed that the Bay is still a good abode of ... Read more
Amur tigers in population crisis
The effective population of the critically endangered Amur tiger is now fewer than 14 animals, say scientists. Approximately 500 Amur tigers actually survive in the wild, but the effective population is a measure of the genetic diversity of the world’s largest cat. Very low diversity means any vulnerability to disease or rare genetic disorders is ... Read more
Rare goose spotted
A rare species of goose was spotted for the first time in the country in Hakaluki Haor of Moulvibazar district last Saturday. A group of bird watchers led by eminent bird specialists Dr Enam al Haque and Paul Thompson have found the ‘lesser white-fronted goose’ on the concluding day of the two-day bird enumeration session ... Read more
‘Climate change reshapes tropical forests’
bbc.co.uk Future climate change could change the profile of tropical forests, with possible consequences for carbon storage and biodiversity, a study says. It suggests that if current trends continued, the drier conditions would favour deciduous, canopy species at the expense of other trees. US researchers based their findings on the changes they recorded in a ... Read more
Managing biodiversity to slow down climate change
DR. M.A. BASHAR Adaptation is the habitual process of adjustment to a new or changing environment. These changes of environment could be negative or positive to the survivals in an ecosystem. Adaptive capability is the ability of a system to adjust to climate change to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to ... Read more
The organisational machine
Sarwar Ahmed What is an organisation? As you reach for Wikipedia in today’s digital world, you have access to a whole repertory of knowledge for free. An organisation is a social arrangement that pursues collective goals, controls its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its environment. An organisation consists of people who ... Read more
Chernobyl birds small brained
Birds living around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident have 5 percent smaller brains, an effect directly linked to lingering background radiation. The finding comes from a study of 550 birds belonging to 48 different species living in the region, published in the journal PLoS One. Brain size was significantly smaller in yearlings compared ... Read more
Tiger numbers could triple if large-scale landscapes protected: study
Asia’s tiger reserves could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world’s leading conservation scientists finds. The study, co-authored by WWF scientists, is the first assessment of ... Read more
Water crisis to rice crisis in coming decades?
Dr. Aminul Islam Akanda Bangladesh is blessed with suitable soil and climate for growing rice in all three crop seasons in a year. Rice grown during summer is locally known as Aus, during monsoon as Aman and during winter as Boro. The Boro is really the improved rice variety that is cultivated in almost all ... Read more
Two new mammals found
Two new species of mammals have been discovered in Bangladesh, taking the total number of mammals of the country to 124. The Himalayan Striped Squirrel (Tamiops macclellandi) and Least Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros cineraceus) are only the second and third new mammals to be found in the country in last five years. The first new mammal, ... Read more
Women and workplace dilemma
Mamun Rashid I recently wrote a piece for The Daily Star business section on our lady colleagues. As usual, I received a few e-mails and phone calls. One of them was from a younger friend of mine, working for a regional conglomerate. He thought I did not do enough justice to the male colleagues, while ... Read more
Historic tiger summit closes with plans to secure more financial backing
St. Petersburg, Russia: The historic International Tiger Conservation Forum ended with crucial plans to discuss further financing options for the Global Tiger Recovery Programme approved at the meeting, kick-starting new efforts to double the number of wild tigers. On the final day of the summit, delegates met briefly to hammer out key dates in the ... Read more
A great leap in training
Mahmudur Rahman Technical and vocational education and training has come a long way. Once the mere acquiring of basic skills was considered enough to address the demand for technical expertise. Times and demands have changed. But in an age when emphasis is placed on technical competencies, especially in blue-collar jobs, Bangladesh faces a challenge. Parents, ... Read more