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Tag: Bangladesh

  • Thousands urged to evacuate, seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha bears down on Bangladesh, Myanmar

    Thousands urged to evacuate, seek shelter as powerful Cyclone Mocha bears down on Bangladesh, Myanmar

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    Volunteers in Bangladesh’s coastal districts were using loudspeakers to urge people to seek shelter on Saturday as the delta nation braced for an extremely severe cyclone, which is expected to slam ashore in Bangladesh and Myanmar in the next 24 hours.

    U.N. agencies and aid workers prepositioned tons of dry food and dozens of ambulances with mobile medical teams in sprawling refugee camps with more than 1 million Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar.

    The camps at Cox’s Bazar are in the path of Cyclone Mocha, which was closing in on the coast of southeastern Bangladesh and Myanmar with wind speeds of up to 135 miles per hour and gusts of up to 150 mph, the Indian Meteorological Department said. It’s projected to make landfall on Sunday between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar.

    Cyclone Mocha
    Bangladeshi volunteers warn people to leave their homes and take shelter due to ahead of Cyclone Mocha’s landfall in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on May 13, 2023. 

    Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury/NurPhoto via Getty Images


    Bangladesh, with more than 160 million people, has prepared more than 1,500 cyclone shelters. The navy said it’s keeping ready 21 ships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters for rescue and relief operations.

    In Myanmar, rains and winds were picking up since Friday and prompted more than 10,000 people in villages around Sittwe in Rakhine state to seek shelter in sturdy buildings including monasteries, temples and schools, said Lin Lin, the chairman of the Myittar Yaung Chi charity foundation.

    “Currently, about 20 places have been arranged for people to stay in Sittwe. But because there were more people than we expected, there was not enough food for the next day. We are still trying to get it,” he said.

    Speaking from Cox’s Bazar across the border in Bangladesh, the International Organization of Migration’s deputy chief of mission, Nihan Erdogan, said Bangladesh put in place a massive preparedness plan.

    He said his agency had trained 100 volunteers in each of the 17 refugee camps on how to alert rescuers using flag warning signals when heavy rains, floods and strong winds lash the region. “Emergency shelter materials and hygiene kits are readily available, and personal protective gear has been provided to all volunteers.”

    The World Health Organization put 40 ambulances and 33 mobile medical teams on standby at Cox’s Bazar, the agency’s spokesperson Margaret Harris said.

    Authorities in Bangladesh said heavy rains from the cyclone could trigger landslides in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar and three other hilly districts — Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari.

    Bangladesh, which is prone to natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, issued the highest danger signal for Cox’s Bazar. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned the cyclone could cause severe damage to the lives and properties in eight coastal districts.

    Mizanur Rahman, director general of the Department of the Disaster Management, said they asked the local authorities in 20 districts and sub-districts to make swift preparations. He said they were particularly concerned about a small coral island called Saint Martins in the Bay of Bengal, where efforts were underway to protect thousands of inhabitants.

    Myanmar said in its weather bulletin that the cyclone was moving toward the coast of Rakhine state near Sittwe, which was put under the highest weather alert.

    The World Food Program said it prepositioned enough food to cover the needs of more than 400,000 people in Rakhine and neighboring areas for one month.

    “We are preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best. Cyclone Mocha is heading to areas burdened by conflict, poverty, and weak community resilience,” said WFP’s Myanmar deputy director, Sheela Matthew. “Many of the people most likely to be affected are already reliant on regular humanitarian assistance from WFP. They simply cannot afford another disaster.”

    In February and March, at least 190 people were killed when Cyclone Freddy made landfall twice in southern Africa, according to numbers from the United Nations.  

    In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar with a storm surge that devastated populated areas around the Irrawaddy River Delta. At least 138,000 people died and tens of thousands of homes and other buildings were washed away.

    Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune city, said cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are becoming more intense more quickly, in part because of climate change.

    The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Friday that thousands of people living along the western coast of Rakhine state were evacuated.

    Both Indian and Bangladesh authorities said they were expecting heavy to very heavy rainfall in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea, parts of India’s remote northeast, and across Bangladesh from Saturday night.

    Climate scientists say cyclones can now retain their energy for many days, such as Cyclone Amphan in eastern India in 2020, which continued to travel over land as a strong cyclone and caused extensive devastation. “As long as oceans are warm and winds are favorable, cyclones will retain their intensity for a longer period,” Koll said.

    Cyclones are among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, especially if they affect densely populated coastal regions in South Asia.

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  • Cyclone Mocha is strengthening in the Bay of Bengal and heading toward the world’s largest refugee camp | CNN

    Cyclone Mocha is strengthening in the Bay of Bengal and heading toward the world’s largest refugee camp | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A tropical cyclone is strengthening in the Bay of Bengal and is on course to hit western Myanmar and Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, where around 1 million people live in flimsy shelters in what many consider to be the world’s largest refugee camp.

    Cyclone Mocha is the first to form in the Bay this year and is expected to strengthen further before making landfall on Sunday, likely in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh.

    According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Mocha strengthened Friday into the equivalent of a category 1 Atlantic hurricane and is moving north at 11 kilometers per hour (7 miles per hour).

    The storm’s winds could peak at 220 kph (137 mph) – equivalent to a category 4 Atlantic hurricane – just before making landfall on Sunday morning, the agency said.

    India’s Meteorological Department said Friday Mocha had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm and warned fishermen and trawlers against sailing far into the Bay over the coming days.

    The agency forecast a storm surge of up to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) was likely to inundate low-lying coastal areas in the path of the cyclone at the time of landfall.

    In Bangladesh, that includes Cox’s Bazar, home to members of the stateless Rohingya community who fled persecution in nearby Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017. Many live in bamboo and tarpaulin shelters perched on hilly slopes that are vulnerable to strong winds, rain, and landslides.

    There are also concerns for hundreds of Rohingya refugees housed on an isolated and flood-prone island facility in the Bay of Bengal, called Bhasan Char.

    Ahead of Mocha’s expected landfall, aid agencies are ramping up their emergency preparedness and response with local and refugee communities.

    Cyclone Mocha is expected to make landfall on Sunday.

    The UN refugee agency in Bangladesh said in a tweet that “emergency preparations in the camps and on Bhasan Char are underway” in coordination with the government and local aid agencies.

    “In preparation of cyclones, hundreds of Rohingya refugee volunteers have been trained on identifying risks, informing their communities, evacuating people when needed and responding after disaster strikes,” the UNHCR said in a tweet.

    In neighboring Myanmar, residents in coastal areas of Rakhine state and Ayeyarwady region have started to evacuate their homes and seek shelter ahead of the cyclone’s expected landfall, according to local independent media Myanmar Now.

    The ruling Myanmar junta has issued cyclone warnings and claimed to be taking precautionary measures such as readying disaster management committees to respond to a potential disaster, according to state media Global New Light of Myanmar.

    The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said widespread flooding, landslides and high wind gusts are expected around the area of landfall and across Myanmar’s interior.

    The last named tropical cyclone to make landfall in Myanmar was Maarutha in April, 2017. Though Maarutha was the equivalent of a tropical storm at landfall, with maximum winds of 92 kph (58 mph), it brought heavy rains and damaged nearly 100 homes.

    In October 2010, Tropical Cyclone Giri was the last storm to make landfall with hurricane-force winds. It made landfall as a high-end Category 4 equivalent storm with maximum winds of 250 kph (155 mph).

    Giri caused over 150 fatalities and roughly 70% of the city of Kyaukphyu, in Rakhine state, was destroyed. According to the United Nations, roughly 15,000 homes were destroyed in the state during the storm.

    The worst natural disaster to hit Myanmar was Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, killing 140,000 people, severely affecting 2.4 million and leaving 800,000 displaced, aid agencies said.

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  • Bangladesh’s water crisis and the problem of a ‘green’ solution

    Bangladesh’s water crisis and the problem of a ‘green’ solution

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    As the world scrambles to address climate change and build resilience to prepare communities for its destructive impacts, nature-based solutions are being presented as a panacea. These projects, which leverage nature and natural processes to help alleviate the effects of climate change and harmful human activity, are increasing in number and scale.

    In the Philippines and India, mangrove forests are being expanded in conjunction with existing breakwaters on coastlines to protect against storms and flooding. Similarly, in South Africa, wetlands are being restored to recharge groundwater and protect from drought water-insecure cities, like Cape Town.

    Communities globally are encouraged to scale up nature-based solutions and integrate them into modern infrastructure. A 2021 report published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) concluded that such an approach could save the world $248bn annually in construction costs for expanding infrastructure.

    Governments around the world are investing in research and development of nature-based solutions, while global financial institutions such as the World Bank are actively involved in funding projects utilising such approaches.

    As urban planning scholars studying water, urbanisation, and climate justice in small and medium-sized South Asian cities, we agree that nature-based solutions hold promise. But we also suggest caution. Our work in Khulna, a region in southern Bangladesh facing multiple ecological crises, provides one example of how integrating nature-based solutions can lead to complicated outcomes that help some communities while harming others.

    Khulna’s ‘nature-based solution’

    In 2011, Khulna, Bangladesh’s third-largest city, was facing severe water scarcity. Along with declining groundwater and pollution, there was rising saltwater intrusion into its freshwater sources. The local government had several options to address the crisis.

    It could build a desalination plant to treat water from nearby rivers. But such installations are known to be ecologically harmful. For example, a paper from the Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment, and Health notes that desalination plants discharge 142 million cubic metres of hypersaline brine every day globally. That is enough to cover the US state of Florida under 30cm (12 inches) of brine, which can be toxic and incredibly harmful to marine life.

    Another option the local government had was implementing tougher water controls on residents and businesses. This would mean asking residents to conserve water and industries to drop water-intensive practices and invest in rainwater harvesting systems. Such water conservation policies can be hard to implement and politically unpopular.

    To avoid the negative effects of a desalination plant and potentially unpopular water conservation policies, the local government opted to construct a “climate-proof” water supply system for which it managed to obtain foreign funding from the Asian Development Bank and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

    This water supply system was planned to extract water from the Madhumati River in the village of Mollahat, 40km (25 miles) northeast of Khulna, and bring it to the city. During the rainy season, water would be processed directly by a water treatment plant and then provided to consumers. During the dry season, when the salinity of the Madhumati is high, the water would be mixed with low-salt water collected in a reservoir during the rainy season to decrease its salt concentration before being sent to the plant.

    Policymakers hoped this “nature-based solution” of mixing water would address future problems as rising seas will continue to increase salinity levels in Khulna’s water. The framing of the new water infrastructure as climate- and nature-friendly enabled the local government to justify the construction of the expensive project.

    The new water infrastructure, which was finished in 2019, indeed benefitted Khulna residents. It increased access to piped water from 23 percent of households to 65 percent and provided water access to some informal settlements that did not have any previously.

    The problem the ‘solution’ created

    The popularity of the new water system in Khulna was apparent in the interviews we conducted with the city’s residents. They reported that women could now get water from taps at assigned times instead of queueing up for hours to collect water from tube wells.

    However, the reports from Mollahat were completely different. During our fieldwork in 2018, one of us spoke to a local resident, Mohammad Liton, who said he barely slept through that year. Liton was overcome by worry about the rising salinity and low water levels in the Madhumati River, which had begun to impact his livelihood. Liton argued that the Khulna water project had reduced the availability of water for fishing and rice cultivation in the Mollahat area.

    In January 2017, Liton and other residents of Mollahat staged a protest against the project, which was impacting the lives of thousands of farmers and fisherfolk living in the village, but the authorities did not address their concerns.

    The project’s environmental impacts statement, which was required by the government of Bangladesh and the foreign donors and which was completed in 2011, focused narrowly on the water site and accounted for construction as the only impact on Mollahat.

    According to representatives of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) we interviewed, the scale of the assessment inaccurately accounted for the Madhumati River watershed as existing only in Bangladesh. The river is a tributary in the complex Ganges River system, with flows coming from the Ganges in neighbouring India.

    The Madhumati River has been heavily affected by the upstream construction of the controversial Farakka Dam in India’s state of West Bengal, which diverts its waters. The dam has made the river watershed much more sensitive temporally and ecologically and thus, the additional burden of drawing water for the Khulna project has significantly strained the river resources and affected Mollahat and other communities along its basin.

    Approaching nature-based solutions with caution

    Khulna’s water project should be a cautionary tale – one that can teach policymakers lessons about what they should and should not do when implementing nature-based solutions.

    In this case, while industries and households of Khulna reaped the benefits of the projects, residents of Mollahat bore the costs. This could have been avoided if the local authorities had consulted with village dwellers at the construction site and downstream while evaluating the impact of the project. Their feedback could have been used to adjust implementation.

    The local authorities should have also aimed to distribute benefits equally among the population of the city and the nearby rural communities. For example, they could have asked industries to conserve water, which would have decreased the strain on the Madhumati River and significantly lessened the impact on the Mollahat community.

    When green approaches are combined with infrastructure, local authorities must ensure that no harm is done to adjacent communities. Fixing the water problem of a city should not come at the cost of the devastation of rural communities.

    As nature-based solutions are scaled up, we urge policymakers, donors, and communities to be more cautious. Infrastructure projects, like the one in Khulna, must minimise harmful impacts and help tackle inequalities at the local level and across regions.

    The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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  • NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

    NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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    A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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    No, Fauci didn’t say face masks were a ‘failure’

    CLAIM: Dr. Anthony Fauci “admitted” in a recent interview that face masks were a “failure.”

    THE FACTS: Social media posts are misrepresenting what Fauci said about masks and COVID-19 and omitting part of his response. The nation’s former top infectious disease expert said mask initiatives may have a small impact at the community level, but in the following sentence he said he believes a properly worn, high-quality mask can be effective protection for an individual. The remarks were made in an interview published by The New York Times Magazine this week, months after Fauci stepped down from his post as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. One tweet claims: “Now Fauci admits masks don’t work after forcing them on kids.” “So yesterday Fauci publicly admitted masks were a failure,” reads a caption on an Instagram post that received more than 6,000 likes. The post included an image quoting Fauci as saying “masks work at the margins — maybe 10 percent.” But Fauci told the AP in an email that his comments “were taken out of context and distorted.” The interviewer, David Wallace-Wells, asked Fauci about the national debate over masks, asking whether the “culture-war fights over masking” were “worth it” and citing a randomized trial conducted in Bangladesh to suggest that increased mask use reduced COVID-19 by about 10 percent. “It’s a good point in general, but I disagree with your premise a bit,” Fauci is quoted as responding. “From a broad public-health standpoint, at the population level, masks work at the margins — maybe 10 percent. But for an individual who religiously wears a mask, a well-fitted KN95 or N95, it’s not at the margin. It really does work.” In other words, Fauci was distinguishing between whether mask-wearing initiatives are effective at reducing COVID-19 in a community and whether properly worn, high-quality masks provide individuals with protection. The Bangladesh study involved providing free masks, of different varieties, as well as encouraging mask-wearing in select villages. The researchers found that mask-wearing increased to about 42% in such villages, whereas about 13% of people wore masks in villages without the interventions. Even without full mask-wearing adherence, the villages with the mask interventions observed a nearly 12% reduction in individuals with COVID-19-like symptoms. Fauci said in an email that “when you look at a study from a population standpoint you may not account for the fact even though masks are recommended and/or required, many people do not wear them some or all of the time or they do not fit properly.” “However, I made it eminently and explicitly clear that when masks are used consistently and properly, at the individual level they are highly effective,” Fauci added. Jason Abaluck, a Yale economics professor and co-author of the Bangladesh study, likewise said in an email that there are two separate questions at hand: Do high-quality masks prevent COVID-19? And do public efforts to increase masking reduce COVID-19? A key factor for the latter, Abaluck said, is whether the initiative works in getting people to actually wear the masks.

    — Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New York contributed this report.

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    Reports of Bud Light’s demise greatly exaggerated, experts say

    CLAIM: The maker of Bud Light is going bankrupt as it faces ongoing backlash over a marketing campaign featuring a transgender social media personality.

    THE FACTS: A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the company behind Bud Light, said there’s “no truth” to the claim the beer maker is on the verge of financial ruin. Industry experts note the company remains financially sound, with billions of dollars in assets and a rising stock market price. Sales of Bud Light have ebbed in recent weeks, but not to the drastic level claimed by online critics. Social media posts are suggesting Bud Light’s recent social media effort with transgender personality Dylan Mulvaney has resulted in plummeting sales. Mulvaney, who is known for documenting her gender transition on social media, promoted Bud Light in a post earlier this month, and the partnership was met with scorn and calls for boycotts by some prominent conservatives. “Bud Light Official SALES REPORT Just Released ′ 50% DROP In Sales ′ Total COLLAPSE ′ Bankruptcy?” wrote one Twitter user in a post. While it’s true the beer conglomerate’s stock price dipped briefly and sales of Bud Light are down year-on-year in recent weeks, there’s no sign the company has been fatally wounded, industry experts say. “Not only is it not going bankrupt, the lost sales of Bud Light are nearly negligible in relation to its global sales, at least so far,” Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily, an industry trade publication, wrote in an email. Trevor Stirling, an analyst at the financial research firm Bernstein who specializes in the beer industry, concurred. “Weakness on its biggest US brand will provide some short-term pain,” he wrote in an email. “But it has billions of dollars of cash reserves and no major debt repayments for several years.” Bud Light is among the top selling brands worldwide, but it’s just one of many long-popular ales owned by the company, which is often referred simply as AB InBev and also produces Corona, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Hoegaarden and other beer lines. Shares in the company dipped as low as $63 in recent days, but had risen to nearly $66 as of Thursday. That’s a roughly 45% increase since September, when shares were trading at about $45, analysts say. Meanwhile, sales of Bud Light in the U.S. fell 17% during the week ending April 15 compared to the same week last year, according to Robert Ottenstein, an analyst with Evercore ISI, an investment banking advisory firm in New York. But he cautioned against drawing snap conclusions from the weekly numbers, which were reported by Beer Business Daily and other trade outlets. “Short periods of time tend to be noisy and may not accurately reflect underlying trends,” Ottenstein wrote. Sales of Bud Light and other mass produced light beers have been on the decline for years in the face of growing competition from craft beer and other new alcoholic beverages, experts note. Experts argue the beer giant will likely weather the storm, citing other recent culture war controversies that were ultimately short-lived, including shaving giant Gillette’s “toxic masculinity” ad during the 2019 Super Bowl and Nike’s 2018 ads featuring NFL star and racial justice activist Colin Kaepernick. AB InBev, for its part, has also disputed the notion it was on the verge of folding. “I can confirm,” Kaitlin Craig, a spokesperson for the company, wrote in an email, “there is no truth to the bankruptcy claim.”

    — Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

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    Kansas law doesn’t authorize genital exams for student athletes

    CLAIM: A new law in Kansas authorizes genital inspections of children in order to play sports.

    THE FACTS: The law, which bars transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, doesn’t mention anything about genital inspections. A Kansas board decided Wednesday that high schools and middle schools must first see transgender athletes’ first birth certificates to decide what teams they can join. Social media posts are claiming the measure gives school officials the authority to look at children’s genitals in order for them to play sports. “Kansas Republicans want to inspect the genitals of your children,” says the narrator of a video shared widely on Instagram this week. “They want to do it so bad that they overrode a veto from the governor. Every single child in the state of Kansas would have to endure a genital exam to be allowed to play sports.” The clip references news stories about teachers accused of student sex abuse to suggest teachers can’t be trusted to conduct these kinds of exams. But the new law, which passed when the Legislature overrode the governor’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, doesn’t include any language about genital inspections. Republicans who supported the bill say this wasn’t its goal. “There’s absolutely no language or intent in the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act to require any type of genitalia inspection and that will not be the outcome of the bill,” tweeted House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican. “Absolutely not true,” said Rep. Barb Wasinger, a Republican from western Kansas, who requested that the bill be introduced in the Committee on Education. Wasinger said existing requirements that students submit a birth certificate and an annual sports physical would be sufficient to enforce the law. The legislation, HB 2238, stipulates that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.” It makes the Kansas State High School Activities Association and the governing boards of each college and university responsible for designing rules to enforce the ban. The state association only governs school sports for seventh grade and above, but Wasinger said students in lower grades were included in the language of the bill to comply with Title IX, the federal law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education. The state association issued a new policy Wednesday that anticipated that the birth certificate closest to a student’s birth will govern, and if that isn’t available, a student will be examined by a doctor. If neither method settles the issue, then a student would compete either on a boys’ team or coed team. The Kansas law comes after several other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, with supporters arguing they keep competition fair. Opponents say the trend is an attempt to erase transgender people from participation in American society – and one that’s not necessary given the scarcity of transgender female athletes. In Kansas, according to the state association, just three transgender girls competed in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors.

    — Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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    BlackRock doesn’t own stake in Dominion Voting Systems

    CLAIM: BlackRock has a substantial stake in both Dominion Voting Systems and Fox Corporation, so Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox was really BlackRock suing itself.

    THE FACTS: While BlackRock does own non-voting shares in Fox Corporation, it doesn’t have any in Dominion Voting Systems, both the investment firm and the voting machine company confirmed. Posts are misrepresenting shares that BlackRock owns in an unrelated energy company also named Dominion. “Blackrock possesses a substantial stake in both Dominion, with 59 million shares, and Fox Corp, holding 45.7 million shares,” read one widely shared tweet. “Consequently, a lawsuit involving Blackrock against itself ensues, ultimately leading to the unexpected departure of Tucker Carlson.” But BlackRock has no ownership stake in Dominion Voting Systems, which is privately held, both BlackRock and Dominion told the AP. BlackRock tweeted a statement that added, “we are not involved in the hiring and firing of employees at public companies in which our clients are invested.” The posts misrepresent BlackRock’s ownership of 59 million shares in Dominion Energy Inc., a Virginia-based power and energy company that is unrelated to the voting technology firm. BlackRock owns 15.1% of Fox Corp.’s Class A shares, which are the mass media company’s non-voting shares.

    — Ali Swenson

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  • How electric tuk-tuks could become a ‘virtual power plant’ for this country | CNN

    How electric tuk-tuks could become a ‘virtual power plant’ for this country | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The streets of Dhaka are filled with constant clamor. Among the chorus of honking horns and ringing bells, roaring cars and rattling rickshaws, you can hear the electric hum of the city’s three-wheeled open taxis, called tuk-tuks, as they weave through traffic.

    Among the chaos, one Bangladeshi startup has spotted an opportunity. SOLshare plans to tap into the country’s estimated 2.5 million electric tuk-tuks, and turn them into a “virtual power plant.”

    “When (the tuk-tuks) return to the garage at the end of the night, they come back with 30% juice in their batteries,” says Salma Islam, head of projects, fundraising and communication at SOLshare. “If they can feed that back into the grid when the demand is really high, that would be amazing.”

    SOLshare knows exactly how much electricity is left in these tuk-tuks because it has been working with local garages to upgrade their conventional lead-acid batteries to smart, lithium-ion batteries. These are equipped with SOLshare’s digital chip, which collects data on the battery’s performance, location, and charge level.

    The startup claims that the leftover electricity in these batteries could provide up to 20% of the nation’s energy when demand is at its highest. The vehicles would recharge overnight when demand on the grid is lowest.

    SOLshare hopes that this mobile power supply could help to stabilize Bangladesh’s energy grid — and power the country’s economic development.

    “The demand is constantly growing, because the population is also growing, and as people’s livelihoods get better, their energy requirements also increase,” says Islam.

    SOLshare launched its EV pilot program, called SOLmobility, in 2021. It partnered with 15 tuk-tuk garages to upgrade the batteries of around 40 vehicles and began gathering data on the mileage and activities of the three-wheelers.

    The smart batteries use 40% less energy than lead-acid batteries, says Islam. Additionally, the lithium-ion batteries charge in just six hours, around half the time of lead-acid batteries, and are lighter and more efficient. Although they’re more expensive, costing more than double compared to lead acid batteries, they last up to five times longer, says Islam.

    Muhammad Delwar Hossain, who has been driving a tuk-tuk in the Dhaka suburb of Tongi for over a decade, started using a SOLshare smart battery last year. He says it’s boosted his monthly earnings by 50% because he can make more trips on a single charge, and he feels his health has improved because he’s no longer breathing in the toxic fumes emitted by the lead-acid battery.

    SOLshare’s ambitions go far beyond tuk-tuks – it wants to transform Bangladesh’s entire energy sector through multiple strands.

    In 2015, the company began building peer-to-peer solar-powered microgrids that allow households without solar panels to buy excess energy from others in the community using a pay-as-you-go mobile top-up system. To date, it has installed 118 microgrids across the country. The startup has raised $6 million so far.

    The company also installs solar panel systems for homes and commercial buildings, and has 27 megawatts of installation in the pipeline, says Islam.

    Increasing solar power can help the country reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, says Islam – and these microgrids could even feed excess energy back into the national grid.

    SOLshare’s innovations come at a pivotal time for the nation’s energy sector.

    “We had massive power grid failures last summer … that was an eye opener for everyone,” says Islam.

    Across the country, households experienced frequent load-shedding, a practice of enforced power outages that reduces strain on the grid to prevent a total blackout. Then, in October 2022, Bangladesh suffered its biggest blackout in eight years when the national grid failed and plunged 96 million people into darkness.

    Bangladesh has the world's largest off-grid solar power program, according to the World Bank. Home solar systems, seen here on the rooftops of Dhaka, supply individual households.

    Despite being home to the world’s largest off-grid solar power program, Bangladesh’s rapid growth and increasing demand for electricity means renewables account for just 3.5% of its energy.

    The low-lying nation is also one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries in the world and is highly susceptible to floods, droughts and storms – so finding a sustainable way to support its growing energy demand is vital.

    “I think they were a little bit early, ahead of their time,” says Sonia Bashir Kabir, founder of Bangladesh venture capital firm SBK Tech Ventures and an early investor in SOLshare. She believes the next five years hold a lot of opportunity for the company.

    “The government has taken a very serious mandate to look at climate, which helps because that means the policies are going to be favorable,” she says.

    Bangladesh isn’t the only country struggling to meet energy demand: disruptions in the oil and gas supply throughout 2022 have caused a global energy crisis. This has fueled a renewable revolution, with solar and wind energy growing 30% faster than expected last year – and many are hoping it will accelerate the expansion of the green energy sector.

    SOLshare installed its first peer-to-peer solar microgrid in 2015, and now has 118 across the country.

    SOLshare is continuing to upgrade more tuk-tuks, as well as working with battery manufacturers to install its digital chip directly into the battery.

    Through its different projects, Islam hopes the company will become “Asia’s largest virtual utility provider” – a model that could play “a massive role” in other countries with large fleets of electric three-wheel vehicles, such as Thailand and India, she says.

    “We are tapping into as many decentralized renewable sources as possible, and not relying on just a central power grid,” says Islam. “The way we see it, if we can do this right here in Bangladesh, you can actually do it anywhere.”

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  • Lahore most polluted city, Pakistan third among countries: Survey

    Lahore most polluted city, Pakistan third among countries: Survey

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    Lahore in Pakistan has jumped more than 10 places to become the city with the worst air in the world in 2022, according to an annual global survey by a Swiss maker of air purifiers.

    The report published on Tuesday by IQAir also said Pakistan stood third among the countries with the most polluted air, while Bangladesh was the fifth and India eighth.

    IQAir measures air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM2.5. Its annual survey is widely cited by researchers and government organisations.

    Lahore’s air quality worsened to 97.4 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre from 86.5 in 2021, making it the most polluted city globally.

    Hotan, the only Chinese city in the top 20, followed Lahore with PM2.5 levels of 94.3, an improvement from 101.5 in 2021.

    The next two cities in the rankings were in India: Bhiwadi, on New Delhi’s outskirts had pollution levels at 92.7, and the national capital followed close behind at 92.6.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a maximum PM2.5 concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.

    While Chad had an average level of 89.7, Iraq, which had the second most polluted air for a country, averaged 80.1.

    Pakistan, which had two of the five cities with the worst air in 2022, stood third in the country-wide ranking at 70.9, followed by Bahrain at 66.6.

    Bangladesh’s air quality improved from 2021, when it was tagged as the country with the worst air. It is ranked fifth in the latest report, with PM2.5 levels coming down to 65.8 from 76.9.

    India’s air seven times worse than WHO levels

    India has has some of the most polluted cities in the world, but ranked eighth in the latest report, with PM2.5 levels at 53.3.

    The report said India and Pakistan experienced the worst air quality in the Central and South Asian regions, where nearly 60 percent of the population lives in areas where the concentration of PM2.5 particles is at least seven times higher than WHO’s recommended levels.

    It said one in 10 people globally were living in an area where air pollution poses a threat to health. According to WHO, some 7 million people worldwide die prematurely each year due to ambient air pollution.

    The US Pacific territory Guam had cleaner air than any country, with a PM2.5 concentration of 1.3, while Canberra had the cleanest air for a capital city, with 2.8.

    The IQAir index was prepared using data from more than 30,000 air quality monitors in more than 7,300 locations in 131 countries, territories and regions.

    Meanwhile, another research published by the Lancet Planetary Health journal said almost the entire global population breathes polluted air, with only 0.001 percent living in places where the PM2.5 levels are not exceeding annual air quality limits.

    On average across the globe, the daily limit of exposure to ambient PM2.5 particles recommend by the WHO was exceeded on more than 70 percent of days in 2019, according to the findings.

    For their study, the research group led by Yuming Guo from Melbourne’s Monash University determined particulate matter pollution on the basis of measured values and computer models for the years from 2000 to 2019.

    According to their findings, the global PM2.5 annual average was 32.8 micrograms per cubic metre of air, with the highest value measured in East Asia, at 50, followed by South Asia with 37.2 and North Africa with 30.1.

    PM2.5 levels were lowest in Australia and New Zealand (8.5), the rest of Oceania (12.6) and South America (15.6).

    The daily maximum value of 15 micrograms per cubic metre of air recommended by the WHO was exceeded on more than 70 percent of all days worldwide, and on more than 90 percent of all days in East and South Asia.

    Fine particulate matter levels only decreased in Europe and some regions of North America and Africa, the researchers found.

    While daily ambient air pollution limits were still exceeded in Europe on 60 percent of days in 2000, that was only the case on 25 percent of days in 2019.

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  • Sheikh Hasina: Bangladesh’s defender or attacker of democracy?

    Sheikh Hasina: Bangladesh’s defender or attacker of democracy?

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    From: Talk to Al Jazeera

    The Bangladeshi prime minister on claims of repression of political opponents and the continuing Rohingya refugee crisis.

    Bangladesh is governed by none other than its founding father’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who has been in office for more than 14 years.

    After a large fire burned through the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on March 5, we ask how she is facing the challenges that have been brought on by the refugee crisis since 2017.

    And as Bangladesh prepares for a general election later this year, we ask Hasina about allegations of persecution of opposition members.

    Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina talks to Al Jazeera.

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  • Fire rips through Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh leaving thousands homeless | CNN

    Fire rips through Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh leaving thousands homeless | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A massive fire has ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar on Sunday, leaving around 12,000 people homeless, local Superintendent of Police Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam told CNN.

    Sweeping through the Kutupalong refugee camp in the afternoon, the blaze gutted around 2,000 huts before it was brought under control, Islam said.

    No casualties have been reported so far, he said, adding that the cause of the fire is not yet determined but an investigation is under way.

    Authorities are working with international and local humanitarian organizations to provide food and temporary shelters to those who have lost homes, he added.

    “We will ensure no one sleeps under the open sky. Everyone will get a temporary shelter,” Islam said, with community centers and mosques providing housing to those affected by the fire.

    Ninety facilities including hospitals and learning centers were burnt down, the Bangladesh branch of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR tweeted on Sunday.

    “Rohingya refugee volunteers trained on firefighting & local fire services have controlled the fire,” it added in another tweet.

    Rohingya refugees try to salvage their belongings after the major fire ripped through the camp.

    The UN’s International Organization of Migration (IOM) in Bangladesh said on social media that “they are assessing the needs of people to provide support.”

    Sunday’s fire marks one of the largest of several fires that have plagued the camp in recent years.

    An estimated 1 million members of the stateless Muslim minority Rohingya live in what many consider to be among the world’s largest refugee camps after fleeing a brutal campaign of killing and arson by the Myanmar military.

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  • Fire blazes through crowded Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

    Fire blazes through crowded Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

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    The fire hit Balukhali camp, one of the 32 camps in Cox’s Bazar district where more than 1.2 million people live.

    A massive fire raced through a crammed refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims in southern Bangladesh, leaving thousands homeless, a fire official and the United Nations said.

    The blaze hit Camp 11 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district where more than a million Rohingya refugees live, with most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

    “We currently don’t have an estimate for damages but there are no reports of casualties,” Rafiqul Islam, additional police superintendent at Cox’s Bazar, told Reuters news agency.

    Islam added that the blaze was under control and senior officials from the fire, police and refugee relief departments were present at the site.

    The UNHCR in Bangladesh said in a tweet that Rohingya refugee volunteers were responding to the fire with the agency and its partners providing support. It said multiple shelters and facilities had been destroyed as a result of fires.

    Reporting from Dhaka, Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury said Balukhali Camp is one of the 32 camps in Cox’s Bazar, where more than 1.2 million people are living.

    “The fire is still on and seems to have been caused by a cooking cylinder. Most of the homes are made of bamboo so the fire spreads quickly,” said Chowdhury.

    He explained that the region where the fire broke out is quite hilly, making it difficult for rescue to teams to reach it and for families to escape.

    “The health facilities [in the area] are very rudimentary to have a fast response. There are a lot of field hospitals but not enough to respond to 1.2 million people,” he added.

    More than one million Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar over several decades, including about 740,000 who crossed the border starting in August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown.

    Conditions in Myanmar have worsened since a military takeover in 2021, and attempts to send them back have failed.

    Last year, the United States said the oppression of Rohingya in Myanmar amounts to genocide after US authorities confirmed accounts of mass atrocities against civilians by the military in a systematic campaign against the ethnic minority.

    Mostly Muslim Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most are denied citizenship and many other rights.

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  • Bangladesh urges G-20 to force companies making profit from Ukraine war to compensate poor nations

    Bangladesh urges G-20 to force companies making profit from Ukraine war to compensate poor nations

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    Bangladesh’s foreign minister said companies making “runaway profit” from the war in Ukraine should compensate affected, less developed nations.

    “In this war, some companies are making runaway profit… energy companies and the defense companies,” AK Abdul Momen told CNBC’s Tanvir Gill on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers summit in New Delhi.

    “Therefore, we will argue that those companies that are making runaway profit, they should dedicate at least 20% of the profit to those countries that are most affected like us,” he added, without naming specific companies.

    His comments come a little over a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The World Bank estimated Ukraine’s economy shrank by as much as 35% in the past year.

    The war has also had major global economic ramifications, especially for countries like Bangladesh which imports most of its energy. The foreign minister said about 95% of the country’s energy is imported.

    “Naturally, we buy energy from abroad. The cost of energy has shot up, resulting in high inflation. We are trying to control the inflation by providing subsidies and it is costing the government,” said Momen.

    “Therefore, we want the end of the war. We believe in peaceful negotiations.”

    The Ukraine war has led to a rethinking of energy, says Eurasia Group

    The foreign minister further noted the G-20 countries should make this compensation “mandatory.”

    “This is the G-20 leaders — they’re the leaders of the world … If I ask, they will not give a damn to it,” said Momen. “But G-20 leaders, they can make it mandatory for all those companies to pay a proportion of their runaway profit to the most affected countries.”

    War fallout

    Last year, a United Nations report highlighted the fallout from Ukraine’s war could dramatically worsen the economic outlook for developing countries already grappling with debt financing related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “Rising commodity prices and trade disruptions are exacerbating inflationary pressures and dampened growth expectations are weighing on the recovery from Covid-19, with severe implications for some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries,” said the report.

    “For many developing countries already at high risk of debt distress, the spillover effects of the war may further worsen debt vulnerabilities due to the increasing balance-of-payments and fiscal pressures,” the UN said.

    In late January, Bangladesh secured $4.7 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund to help cushion the blow of a looming financial crisis.

    Asia's developing countries may have to look for more expensive wheat sources, says consultancy

    It will get $3.3 billion under the IMF’s extended credit facility and related arrangements, with an immediate disbursement of about $476 million. The IMF executive board also approved $1.4 billion under its newly created resilience and sustainability facility for climate investments for Bangladesh, making it the first Asian country to access it. 

    “Bangladesh’s robust economic recovery from the pandemic has been interrupted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, leading to a sharp widening of Bangladesh’s current account deficit, depreciation of the Taka and a decline in foreign exchange reserves,” the IMF said in a statement.

    Food security

    Bangladesh’s foreign minister also said food security is another problem the country is struggling with that the G-20 leaders need to tackle. He was also critical of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, saying the measures are hurting the developing countries the most.

    “We are really upset also because this war …. has broken the supply chain as well as financial transition mechanism. And these are hurting us, it’s hurting the poor developing countries a lot,” said Momen.

    “Next time, when they come up with the sanctions and counter sanctions they should at least consult with people like us — the developing countries — to get some idea as how much it will hurt them. And should create a mechanism so that the countries that would be hurt- that they should be compensated with.”

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  • Bangladesh to get $4.7bn IMF package

    Bangladesh to get $4.7bn IMF package

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    The funding comes under a new programme which aims to help vulnerable middle-income countries and island states.

    The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board has approved a support programme for Bangladesh worth $4.7bn at current exchange rates, making the South Asian country the first to access its new Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

    The funding announced on Monday includes $3.3bn under the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility programmes and $1.4bn under the new RSF, which aims to help vulnerable middle-income countries and island states.

    The board approval of a staff agreement reached last November allows the immediate disbursement of about $476m to Bangladesh, the IMF said.

    The IMF said the 42-month borrowing package “will help preserve macroeconomic stability, protect the vulnerable and foster inclusive and green growth”.

    The fund said it includes reforms focused on creating fiscal space to enable greater social and developmental spending, strengthening Bangladesh’s financial sector, boosting fiscal and governance reforms, and building climate resilience.

    The IMF announced the new RSF facility in October last year to provide policy support and affordable longer-term financing for low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries in addition to the existing lending toolkits that these countries had access to. RSF facilities come with a 20-year maturity and a 10-1/2-year grace period during which no principal is repaid.

    The funding from the RSF will help support the country’s climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, the IMF said.

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  • UN agency probes origin of Rohingya refugees in Indonesia

    UN agency probes origin of Rohingya refugees in Indonesia

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    PIDIE, Indonesia — A United Nations agency is seeking information about the voyage of over 100 Rohingya Muslim refugees who landed on an Indonesian beach this week, and warned Tuesday that there will likely be more.

    A distressing video circulated widely in social media showed the dehydrated and exhausted Rohingya, crumpled weakly and emaciated, many crying for help.

    At least 185 men, women and children disembarked from a rickety wooden boat Monday at dusk on Ujong Pie beach at Muara Tiga, a coastal village in Aceh’s Pidie district, said local police chief Fauzi, who goes by a single name.

    “They are very weak because of dehydration and exhaustion after weeks at sea,” Fauzi said.

    Muhammad Rafki Syukri, the Protection Associate at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the agency would provide Rohingya language translators and counseling to determine if they were from the group of 190 Rohingya who were reported by United Nations to be drifting in a small boat in the Andaman Sea for a month.

    “With prolonged-conflict and insecure situations in their country of origin, it is possible that the movement of refugees to find safe places will continue to grow,” he said.

    Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, which works in support of Myanmar’s Rohingya, confirmed Tuesday that the boat that landed Monday on Ujong Pie beach was from the group of 190 Rohingya.

    But Syukri said the UNHCR could not verify that information and was still coordinating with governments in the region.

    “But we will continue to search for further information to ensure the actual data,” Syukri told reporters Tuesday while visiting the Rohingya refugees at a school that was closed for the holiday season in Muara Tiga village.

    Lewa told AP by email that the arrivals were among five groups of Rohingya refugees that had left Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh in late November by smaller boats to avoid detection by local coast guards before they were transferred onto five larger boats for their respective journeys.

    The fourth and fifth boats “finally landed in northern part of Aceh, Indonesia, early Sunday and late afternoon on Monday,” Lewa said, after weeks of her organization pleading with south and southeast Asian countries to help.

    One of the refugees who spoke some Malay and identified himself as Rosyid, told The Associated Press that they left a camp in Bangladesh at the end of November and drifted on the open sea. He said at least “20 of us died aboard due to high waves and sick, and their bodies were thrown into the sea.”

    Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and burning of thousands of homes belonging to Rohingya, sending them fleeing to Bangladesh and onward.

    Malaysia has been a common destination for many of the refugees arriving by boat, but they also have been detained in the country.

    Although neighboring Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, the UNHCR said that a 2016 presidential regulation provides a legal framework governing the treatment of refugees on boats in distress near Indonesia and helps them disembark.

    ————

    Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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  • Tens of thousands protest in Bangladesh to demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina | CNN

    Tens of thousands protest in Bangladesh to demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina | CNN

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    New Delhi
    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka on Saturday calling for the dissolution of parliament to make way for new elections, and demand the resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

    The mass protest in the capital was organized by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which accuses Hasina of failing to address rising fuel prices and the cost of living.

    Saturday’s protest comes amid a flurry of demonstrations in Bangladesh calling on Hasina to step down and demanding new elections.

    Hasina has responded by calling the opposition leaders “arson terrorists” and warned people against allowing the BNP – the largest opposition party – back into power.

    Several arrests were made in the lead up to Saturday’s protest.

    Police arrested two top BNP leaders, including party secretary general Mirza Alamgir on Friday. Authorities said Alamgir was facing charges, without giving more information.

    At least one man died during clashes between protesters and police on Wednesday when security forces fired tear gas to disperse people gathered in front of the BNP’s office in the capital.

    Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh’s Information and Broadcasting Minister, said authorities believe the man died after being injured by [Molotov] cocktails made by the activists and blamed the BNP for “creating chaos,” according to a report in state media outlet BSS.

    The Bangladesh Election Commission has not announced a date for the next general election, which is due by the end of 2023.

    The Bangladesh Awami League, led by 75-year-old Hasina, has been in power since 2009.

    Hasina won a third consecutive term as Prime Minister in 2018 in a national election that was marred by deadly violence and allegations of rigged ballots.

    Supporters of Bangladesh's opposition party protest against the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on December 10, 2022.

    Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, criticized the government’s response to the protests.

    “Concerned governments should publicly call on the prime minister to allow Bangladeshis to freely engage in peaceful political activities,” she said.

    “Sheikh Hasina should accept the challenge of democratic rule, not authoritarian abuse.”

    US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter D. Haas said in a statement Thursday that the embassy is concerned about reports of intimidation and political violence and urged authorities to investigate and protect freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.

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  • This Pakistani actor will marry a Zimbabwean guy, if Zimbabwe beats India in the upcoming T20 World Cup match

    This Pakistani actor will marry a Zimbabwean guy, if Zimbabwe beats India in the upcoming T20 World Cup match

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    Pakistani actor Sehar Shinwari has said that if Zimbabwe beats India in the upcoming T20 match, she will marry a Zimbabwean guy. The actor took to Twitter and talked about the two teams which will come face-to-face on Sunday, November 6.

    Shinwari was constantly wishing that India loses the match against Bangladesh. Twitter users have been trolling her for the latest post where she claims to marry a Zimbabwean guy.

    Her tweet stating, “I’ll marry a Zimbabwean guy, if their team miraculously beats India in next match,” has more than 3,320 likes and has been retweeted 202 times.

    In last week’s Pakistan-Zimbabwe match, the Pakistan team had lost by one run. The defeat has put Pakistan team in danger of getting out from the Twenty20 World Cup.

    India hasn’t yet qualified for the semi-finals and hence all eyes are now on its match against Zimbabwe at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. India is currently at top of the table with 6 points from its four matches.

    For Pakistan to maintain its spot in the tournament, it has to win Thursday’s match against South Africa followed by a win against Bangladesh on November 6.  For things to go in Pakistan’s favour, South Africa must also lose their match against the Netherlands. Without this, Pakistan won’t be able to qualify for the T20 World Cup semis.

    Also read: Viacom18 partners with South Africa’s Twenty20 league ‘SA20’ for exclusive media rights

    Also read: Is Pakistan out of T20 World Cup or does Babar Azam’s team still have a chance to enter semis?

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  • Northeast important to government’s plans of making air connectivity nation’s lifeline: Scindia

    Northeast important to government’s plans of making air connectivity nation’s lifeline: Scindia

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    Union minister of civil aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that the northeast was an important part of the central government’s strategy of making air connectivity the country’s lifeline even as he launched several new flights within the region.

    Informing that while in 2013-14 India had only 70 airports, the minister said the country currently boasted 141 airports, water aerodromes and heliports. Over the next four years, this would be increased to over 200 airports.

    “The northeast is an important component of this expansion. In 2013, where we had only nine airports in the northeast,” he said, adding, “Today, under the prime minister’s directive, we have additional airports in Lilabari, Tezpur and Rupsi in Assam, Tezu, Pasighat and, very soon, the new airport in Hollongi, in Arunachal Pradesh, and Pakyong, in Sikkim. So, we have built close to about seven new airports in the last eight years.”

    Scindia was speaking at the virtual launch of six new departures on the Imphal-Aizwal, Aizwal-Imphal, Lilabari-Ziro, Ziro-Lilabari, Shillong-Lilabari and Lilabari-Shillong routes in the presence of the union minister of law and justice, Kiren Rijiju, minister of state of civil aviation, Gen. (Retd) Vijay Kumar Singh and chief ministers of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya, and the state tourism minister of Mizoram.

    The civil aviation minister noted that air connectivity was not merely about launching domestic and international flights, nor was it about launching flights between Tier-I cities, but it rather implied reaching every corner of India.

    Fund for developing air connectivity in northeast

    The minister said that a Rs 500 crore corpus had been set aside for enhancing both inter and intra-northeast connectivity. Of the 1,095 routes awarded under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik-Regional Connectivity Scheme (UDAN-RCS), 136 or 14 per cent of routes had been awarded in the northeast.

    “Under UDAN 4.2, out of 132 routes, 24 routes have been dedicated to the northeast. So, almost about 18 per cent of the total routes have been dedicated to the northeast,” the minister said.

    Reiterating the role of air connectivity in advancing the potential of the northeast not only within the country but also overseas, the minister also announced two international routes from the region as part of India’s Act East policy.

    “We would also like to announce that we will be starting two new international routes under international UDAN-RCS… Agartala-Chittagong-Agartala and Imphal-Mandalay-Imphal. We are expanding the scope from regional connectivity to national connectivity to international connectivity for the northeast,” he remarked.

    He further mentioned how the convergence scheme involving eight ministries for the transportation of horticultural produce, Krishi UDAN, was helping reach chillies, jackfruit, lemons and grapes from the region to markets in the UK, Germany and the UAE.

    The minister also praised Vineet Sood, the CEO of India’s largest regional carrier, Alliance Air, for taking the lead over other Indian carriers in enhancing regional connectivity.

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  • Bangladesh faces power blackout after national grid fails

    Bangladesh faces power blackout after national grid fails

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    Apart from parts of Bangladesh’s northwest, ‘the rest of the country is without power’, says an official.

    About 140 million people in Bangladesh are without power after a grid failure caused widespread blackouts, the government’s utility company said.

    The grid failed at 2pm (08:00 GMT) and, apart from parts of Bangladesh’s northwest, “the rest of the country is without power”, Power Development Board spokesman Shamim Ahsan said on Tuesday.

    Officials of the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board said power transmission failed somewhere in the eastern part of the country.

    All power plants tripped and electricity was cut in the capital Dhaka and other big cities, said Hasan.

    Engineers were trying to determine where and why the glitches happened and it could take hours to restore the system, he said.

    Bangladesh’s recent impressive economic growth has been threatened by power shortages since the government suspended operations of all diesel-run power plants to reduce the cost of imports as prices have soared.

    The diesel-run power plants produced about 6 percent of Bangladesh’s power generation, so their shutdowns cut output by up to 1500 megawatts.

    Earlier this month, Faruque Hassan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that the situation is so serious that garment factories are without power now for 4 to 10 hours a day.

    Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter after China, and it earns more than 80 percent of its total foreign currency from these exports each year.

    Last month, the Asian Development Bank said in a report that Bangladesh’s economic growth would slow to 6.6 percent from its previous forecast of 7.1percent in the current fiscal year.

    Weaker consumer spending due to sluggish export demand, domestic manufacturing constraints and other factors are behind the slowdown, it said.

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  • Inflation, unrest challenge Bangladesh’s ‘miracle economy’

    Inflation, unrest challenge Bangladesh’s ‘miracle economy’

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Standing in line to try to buy food, Rekha Begum is distraught. Like many others in Bangladesh, she is struggling to find affordable daily essentials like rice, lentils and onions.

    “I went to two other places, but they told me they don’t have supplies. Then I came here and stood at the end of the queue,” said Begum, 60, as she waited for nearly two hours to buy what she needed from a truck selling food at subsidized prices in the capital, Dhaka.

    Bangladesh’s economic miracle is under severe strain as fuel price hikes amplify public frustrations over rising costs for food and other necessities. Fierce opposition criticism and small street protests have erupted in recent weeks, adding to pressures on the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which has sought help from the International Monetary Fund to safeguard the country’s finances.

    Experts say Bangladesh’s predicament is nowhere nearly as severe as Sri Lanka’s, where months’ long unrest led its long-time president to flee the country and people are enduring outright shortages of food, fuel and medicines, spending days in queues for essentials. But it faces similar troubles: excessive spending on ambitious development projects, public anger over corruption and cronyism and a weakening trade balance.

    Such trends are undermining Bangladesh’s impressive progress, fueled largely by its success as a garment manufacturing hub, toward becoming a more affluent, middle-income country.

    The government raised fuel prices by more than 50% last month to counter soaring costs due to high oil prices, triggering protests over the rising cost of living. That led authorities to order the subsidized sales of rice and other staples by government-appointed dealers.

    The latest phase of the program, which began Sept. 1, should help about 50 million people, said Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.

    “The government has taken a number of measures to reduce pressures on low-income earners. That is impacting the market and keeping prices of daily commodities competitive,” he said.

    The policies are a stopgap for bigger global and domestic challenges.

    The war in Ukraine has pushed higher prices of many commodities at a time when they already were surging as demand recovered with a waning of the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Laos — among many — have seen their currencies weaken against the dollar, adding to the costs for dollar-denominated imports of oil and other goods.

    To ease the strain on public finances and foreign reserves, the authorities put a moratorium on big, new projects, cut office hours to save energy and imposed limits on imports of luxury goods and non-essential items, such as sedans and SUVs.

    “The Bangladesh economy is facing strong headwinds and turbulence,” said Ahmad Ahsan, an economist and director of the Dhaka-based Policy Research Institute, a thinktank. “Suddenly we are back to the era of rolling power cuts, with the taka and the forex reserves under pressure,” he said.

    Millions of low-income Bangladeshis, like Begum, whose family of five can barely afford to eat fish or meat even once a month, still struggle to put food on the table.

    Bangladesh has made huge strides in the past two decades in growing its economy and fighting poverty. Investments in garment manufacturing have provided jobs for tens of millions of workers, mostly women. Exports of apparel and related products account for more than 80% of its exports.

    But with fuel costs so high, authorities shut diesel-run power plants that produced at least 6% of total production, cutting daily power generation by 1,500 megawatts and disrupting manufacturing.

    Imports in the last fiscal year, ending in June, 2022, rose to $84 billion, while exports have fluctuated, leaving a record current account deficit of $17 billion.

    More challenges are ahead.

    Deadlines are fast approaching for repaying foreign loans related to at least 20 mega infrastructure projects, including the $3.6 billion River Padma bridge built by China and a nuclear power plant mostly funded by Russia. Experts say Bangladesh needs to prepare for when repayment schedules ramp up between 2024 and 2026.

    In July, in a move economists view as a precautionary measure, Bangladesh sought a $4.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, becoming the third country in South Asia to recently seek its help after Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

    Finance Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal said that the government asked the IMF to begin formal negotiations on loans “for balance of payments and budgetary assistance.” The IMF said it was working with Bangladesh to draw up a plan.

    Bangladesh’s foreign reserves have been falling, potentially undermining its ability to meet its loan obligations. By Wednesday they had dropped to $36.9 billion from $45.5 billion a year earlier, according to the central bank.

    Usable foreign reserves would be about $30 billion, said Zahid Hussain, a former chief economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

    “I would not say this is a crisis situation. This is still enough to meet three months of imports, three and half months of imports. But it also means that … you do not have a lot of room for maneuvering on the reserve front,” he said.

    Still, despite what some economists say is excessive spending on some costly projects, Bangladesh is better equipped to weather hard times than some other countries in the region.

    Its farm sector — tea, rice and jute are major exports — is an effective “shock absorber,” and its economy, four to five times larger than Sri Lanka’s, is less vulnerable to outside calamities like a downturn in tourism.

    The economy is forecast to grow at a 6.6% pace this fiscal year, according to the Asia Development Bank’s latest forecast, and the country’s total debt is still relatively small.

    “I think in the current context, the most important difference between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is the debt burden, particularly the external debt,” said Hussain.

    Bangladesh’s external debt is under 20% of its gross domestic product, while Sri Lanka’s was around 126% in the first quarter of 2022.

    “So, we have some space. I mean debt as a source of stress on the macroeconomy is not much of a much problem yet,” he said.

    Waiting in a line to buy subsidized food, 48-year-old Mohammed Jamal said he was not feeling such leeway for his own family.

    “It has become unbearable trying to maintain our standard of living,” Jamal said. “Prices are just out of reach for the common people,” he said. “It’s tough living this way.”

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  • Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017: An Open Dialogue on the Textile and Apparel Industry in Bangladesh

    Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017: An Open Dialogue on the Textile and Apparel Industry in Bangladesh

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    Together for a better tomorrow.


    Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 14, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
    ​​​​​​​An international apparel summit is all set to take place in Dhaka with the objective of opening dialogue on framing strategies to secure a more sustainable apparel supply chain from local and global perspectives. The event styled “Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017” will be held on 25 February 2017 at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Honorable Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the daylong event organized by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in collaboration with Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE).

    The Dhaka Apparel Summit is a prime event on textile and apparel industry in Bangladesh that brings together some of the world’s leading experts in their respective fields to share their experiences and visionary thoughts on issues pertaining to the apparel industry and ways in which the business can realize sustainable growth well into the 21st Century. The main focus will be on the apparel industry of Bangladesh, on its recent transformation and suggestions to chalk out sustainable development. As Bangladesh is a part of global apparel supply chain, the global important apparel issues will also be discussed in the summit.

    The event (summit) is aimed to be a platform, establishing greater interactions and collaborations amongst stakeholders from home (Bangladesh) and abroad, with a common goal of ensuring sustainable growth within the Bangladesh RMG (readymade garment) industry.

    Md. Siddiqur Rahman, President, BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association)

    The Summit will hold three panel discussion sessions, offering a more open and inter-active environment, and allowing full audience participation and the opportunity for a valid exchange of ideas. The seminars will be attended by representatives of the Government, international organizations, economists, brand representatives, development organizations, employers, workers’ representatives, civil society members, academics, and media from home and abroad.

    Apart from local experts, some international experts will also take part in the lively panel discussion on different topics in the seminars:

    ·        H. E. Pierre Mayaudon, Ambassador & the Head of Delegation, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh

    ·        H. E. Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh

    ·        Christopher Woodruff, Professor of Development Economics University of Oxford

    ·        Tim Worstall, Senior Fellow Adam Smith Institute

    ·        Martin Rama, Chief Economist, South Asia Region, World Bank

    ·        Helena Helmersson, Managing Director, H&M Group, Hong Kong

    ·        Thomas Klausen, CEO, Dansk Fashion & Textile

    ·        Dr. Jochen Frank Weikert, Head of Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES) GIZ, Bangladesh

    ·        Srinivasa B Reddy, Country Director, ILO, Bangladesh

    ·        Peter McAllister, Executive Director, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)

    ·        Jill Tucker, Head of Supply Chain Innovation & Transformation, C&A Foundation

    ·        Gilbert F. Houngbo, Deputy Director-General of the ILO

    Their discussion will shed light on different timely issues, including Bangladesh RMG industry which is at the dawn of a new era in its development, with strides being taken towards achieving sustainable targets. The summit will offer a forum to express and discuss views with a broad spectrum of proposals to further improve the industry’s sustainable credentials. It also aims to bring about various methods to achieve these goals.

    Session Agenda for Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017

    10.30 am – 1.00 pm
    Inaugural ceremony to be attended by the chief guest Honourable Prime Minister Government of people’s Republic of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina

    2.00 pm – 3.30 pm
    Session-1: Business Policy & Environment: Towards a Better Bangladesh
    In recent years, the economic growth in Bangladesh has exceeded expectations. In fiscal year 2015-16 the GDP growth reached 7.11%. The government is making efforts to pursue ambitious investment target to raise the GDP growth to 8% by 2021. Several projections and assessments by global financial institutes tell Bangladesh to become a manufacturing hub if the country can improve its trade competitiveness. This session will discuss about business climate in the country and policies required to support its growth potentials. The discussions will explore the priorities to move toward industry led economic growth, particularly in the area of conducive business environment and predictable policies as well as meeting growing infrastructure needs.

    3.45 pm – 5.15 pm
    Session-2: Collaborative and Responsible Sourcing For Sustainable Growth
    In the global supply chain, all need a mutually beneficial, predictable and responsible business practices and actions by all stakeholders to ensure sustainability. This requires closer cooperation. Agenda 2030 for global sustainable development speaks of inclusive development and resilient industrialization. These issues are also in focus in various global forums, e.g. UN, OECD and G7. The other side of the coin is that fierce competition among the buyers and suppliers not necessarily is healthy and sustainable for all stakeholders in the supply chain. This session will discuss the importance of stakeholders’ collaboration and economics of sustainability for meaningful persuasion of sustainability agenda within the apparel supply chain.

    5.30 pm – 7.00 pm
    Session-3: Bangladesh Apparel Industry: Transformation and the Road Ahead
    Bangladesh’s apparel industry has taken great strides against many internal and external challenges. In the recent years, the industry has been making tangible progress in occupational health and safety as well as structural integrity and harmonious industrial relations. There remains more to be done. The panelists in this session will share their perspectives on transformation, challenges faced and the road ahead. The session will also highlight the importance of modernization and resilience of the industry and moving up the ladder of responsible value chain for creating better opportunities for all.

    7.05 pm – 7.15 pm
    Closing remarks

    Brief info:
    Event: Dhaka Apparel Summit 2017
    Date: 25 February 2017; 10.00 am – 7.15 pm
    Venue: Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka / Bangladesh

    For more info please visit: www.dhakaapparelsummit.com

    Click here for downloading the press material from dropbox: http://bit.ly/DhakaApparelSummit_2017

    Contact:

    Gunhild Knierim
    Fon: +49 (0) 89/23 09 91-33
    E-Mail: g.knierim@greenside-story.de

    Heinrike Helm
    Fon: +49 (0) 89/23 09 91-15
    E-Mail: h.helm@greenside-story.de

    Greenside PR
    Braintown GmbH
    Sandstrasse 33
    D-80335 München
    Germany

    Fon: +49 (0) 89/23 09 91-10
    Fax: +49 (0) 89/23 09 91-99
    www.greenside-story.de

    Source: Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association

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