Hillary backs Grameen independence

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed Grameen Bank’s independence in a telephone call to Prof Muhammad Yunus, her spokesman said.
“Secretary Clinton spoke yesterday with Dr Muhammad Yunus and expressed support for the independence of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh,” Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley said on

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Yunus removal upheld

HC rejects Nobel hero’s petition against his ouster by govt from Grameen Bank; Yunus may appeal with SC today
The High Court yesterday upheld Bangladesh Bank’s “removal” of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from the post of Grameen Bank’s managing director.
He will appeal against the verdict with the Supreme Court, his lawyers said.
An HC bench summarily rejected two writ petitions filed challenging the legality of the central

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No happy feelings

Civil society feels the issue treated unduly, worries about Grameen Bank; US still hopeful
The High Court treated the issue of Prof Muhammad Yunus’ removal from Grameen Bank with a narrow mindset, economists and civil society members yesterday said.
They said the court did not consider his contribution to development, poverty alleviation and improving the image of the country

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Removal letter illegal

Say Yunus’ counsels, argue at HC as no show cause notice served; hearing resumes today
Counsels for Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus yesterday argued that there is no legal bar for him to continue as the managing director of Grameen Bank since the Bangladesh Bank’s directive to remove him was illegal.
The removal of Yunus without any show-cause notice was a violation of law, they told the High Court while placing arguments on a writ petition filed by Yunus, who challenged the legality of

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All eyes on HC

Order on Yunus ‘removal’ today; BNP asks govt to scrap decision
The High Court gives its order today on a writ petition of Prof Muhammad Yunus, who challenged his removal from Grameen Bank, amid calls at home and abroad for treating the Nobel laureate gracefully.
Bangladesh Bank sought to remove Yunus from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank for “holding on to the position without prior permission from the regulator.” Yunus’ removal from

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Abed points at trust of borrowers

A sudden exit of the Grameen Bank founder from its Board of Directors and a legal battle between its board and the government may dent borrowers’ confidence, putting the organisation’s future in doubt, said Sir Fazle Hasan Abed yesterday.
The chairperson of Brac, the world’s largest non-government organisation, in a statement

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Grameen bins Muhith claims

Grameen Bank yesterday said it took prior permission from Bangladesh Bank for appointing Dr Muhammad Yunus as its managing director, rejecting Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s claims that it had not.
The microlender also described Muhith’s comments on Yunus as incorrect and said it did not disobey the law in appointment of the Nobel laureate

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Govt stake comes down to 3.5pc

Sajjadur Rahman
A debate over the ownership of the Grameen Bank is brewing, as the finance and foreign ministers have repeatedly claimed Grameen is a government institution.
A question about the government’s stake in the bank came to the fore after the “removal” of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus from the post of its

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Senator Kerry worried at ‘removal’ of Prof Yunus

Senator John Kerry, chairman of the United States senate committee on foreign relations, has expressed concern over ‘removal’ of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank, saying the international community would keep a close eye on the situation.
“I am deeply concerned by efforts to remove Muhammad Yunus as managing director of the

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‘Removal’ rolls into HC

Order on Yunus’ petition Sunday; Nobel hero wants a ‘graceful solution’ to his departure from Grameen
Professor Muhammad Yunus yesterday went to court challenging the central bank order that removed him from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank, while the wider international community showed its displeasure at the way the Nobel prize winner for Bangladesh was treated.
The court fixed March 6 (Sunday) for delivering an order on a writ petition filed by

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US deeply troubled

Moriarty says Hillary-Yunus meet Mar 28; diplomats, donors worried, frustrated
Foreign diplomats in Bangladesh have sharply reacted to the government’s move to remove Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank and none of them took it positively.
They said they never thought that the government could make such an extreme move against an internationally reputed personality like

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Arguments at court

Appearing for Prof Muhammad Yunus, eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain prayed for a ruling on the government to explain why the Bangladesh Bank’s “letter of removal” should not be declared illegal. He also prayed for a stay order on the effectiveness of the central bank’s letter.
Nobel laureate Yunus at the High Court yesterday challenged the legality of a March 2

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Image dented

Admits Muhith, but says ‘we had no other alternative’
Bangladesh’s image has been dented due to the government’s “removal” of Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank, Finance Minister AMA Muhith admitted yesterday.
“It has not lifted the country’s image at all, but we had no other alternative,” he told journalists after a meeting with top foreign diplomats and representatives of Bangladesh’s development

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Yunus ‘removed’

Central Bank issues letter to Grameen Bank; Grameen terms it a legal issue, insists the Nobel hero still holds office
Dr Muhammad Yunus, the man who brought a Nobel Prize for Bangladesh, and the most celebrated living Bangladeshi around the globe, was unceremoniously relieved of his duties at Grameen Bank yesterday through a Bangladesh Bank letter.
The central bank said Yunus failed to seek its approval when he was reappointed as the managing director in 2000, violating one of the statutes of the partly state-owned (25 percent) Grameen Bank. Now 11 years later the central bank suddenly woke up to the issue and hurried to

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Micro-credit borrowers baffled

Prof Muhammad Yunus’ removal from the post of Grameen Bank’s managing director surprised many of its borrowers, who dubbed him the pathfinder in elevating them from poverty.
Ayesha Khatun of Noorpur in Pabna took a Tk 130,000 loan from Grameen Bank on November 10, 2009 to help her son run a computer

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Unfair, ominous

Say economists, Yunus admirers; US embassy ‘deeply troubled’ by move
Economists with huge policy-making experience denounced the way the government decided to remove Prof Muhammad Yunus from the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, and Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the move will send a negative signal to the country’s microcredit

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Yunus removal seen as harassment move

Economists, rights activists and jurists saw the removal of Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank as a move to harass an individual instead of bringing remedy to people’s sufferings caused by the much-hyped micro credit.
Jahangirnagar University’s economics teacher Anu Muhammad said that the government’s

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Banker to the Poor captivates world

Professor Muhammad Yunus began his Grameen Bank Project in Jobra, a village near Chittagong University, his then workstation, in the port city in 1976 in an effort to reverse conventional banking practice and take financial services to the deprived.
His first project was lending his own money to the destitute basket-weavers. The idea

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Govt in a fix over how to sack Yunus

Govt in a fix over how to sack Yunus
David Bergman and Abdullah Juberee
The Bangladesh Bank, the finance ministry and the law ministry are in disagreement with each other about how to sack Muhammad Yunus from his position as managing director of the Grameen Bank.
The finance ministry, following advice it received from the law ministry, asked the Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday to use the powers set out in the Banking Companies Act 1991 to force the

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Yunus issue a legal matter, says Muhith

The scheduled meeting between the Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith and Noble laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus reportedly over his continuity as Managing Director of Grameen Bank has been deferred by a couple of days due to the visit of Princess Anne to Bangladesh. The Finance Minister told The Independent Tuesday that he will talk with Yunus over the issue arising from a Bangladesh Bank

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