Bangladesh has achieved significant advancements in political empowerment, ranking seventh globally with a commendable gender parity rate of 55.2%. Over the past 50 years, the country has witnessed a woman serving as head of state for an impressive duration of 29.3 years, which stands as the longest period in the world. Gender parity in school enrollment has seen significant improvement. Bangladesh has also put in place regulations to protect women's rights and privileges. As access to education for women increases, the momentum to boost women's participation in the labor force continues to grow. Bangladesh has experienced a substantial transformation, marked by the gradual expansion of opportunities for women over the past few decades. Multiple factors have converged to bring about transformative advancements in women's empowerment within the nation. (Full article...)
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Satellite image of the cyclone near landfall on May 2
The 1994 Bangladesh cyclone was a powerful tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. The cyclone closely followed the path, strength, and time of year of a deadly cyclone in 1991 that killed more than 138,000 people. The 1994 cyclone formed on April 29 as a depression, which organized and intensified significantly over the subsequent few days. On May 2, the cyclone attained winds of 215 km/h (135 mph), according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). That day, the storm made landfall in southeastern Bangladesh, and rapidly weakened over land, before dissipating on May 3.
Ahead of the storm's landfall, about 450,000 people evacuated to storm shelters built since the 1991 storm. Upon moving ashore, the cyclone dropped 190 mm (7.5 in) of precipitation and produced winds of 278 km/h (173 mph) in Teknaf Upazila. Total storm damage was estimated at $125 million (1994 USD). The cyclone damaged or destroyed more than 78,000 houses, leaving about 500,000 people homeless. Along its path, the storm killed at least 350 people, including at least 126 fishermen from Thailand who were lost and presumed killed. In southeastern Bangladesh, the cyclone wrecked Rohingya refugee camps, killing 85 people. The Bangladeshi government managed the country's response to the disaster, providing food, clothing, and medical care. (Full article...)
The Bangladesh Bank robbery, also known colloquially as the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, was a theft that took place in February 2016. Thirty-five fraudulent instructions were issued by security hackers via the SWIFT network to illegally transfer close to US$1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account belonging to Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. Five of the thirty-five fraudulent instructions were successful in transferring US$101 million, with US$81 million traced to the Philippines and US$20 million to Sri Lanka. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to US$850 million, due to suspicions raised by a misspelled instruction. As of 2018, only around US$18 million of the US$81 million transferred to the Philippines has been recovered, and all the money transferred to Sri Lanka has since been recovered. Most of the money transferred to the Philippines went to four personal accounts, held by single individuals, and not to companies or corporations. (Full article...)
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An aerial view of damage to villages and infrastructure following Cyclone Sidr, which swept into southern Bangladesh in 2007. Climate change is a critical issue in Bangladesh as the country is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In the 2020 edition of Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index, it ranked seventh in the list of countries most affected by climate calamities during the period 1999–2018. Bangladesh's vulnerability to the effects of climate change is due to a combination of geographical factors, such as its flat, low-lying, and delta-exposed topography, and socio-economic factors, including its high population density, levels of poverty, and dependence on agriculture. The impacts and potential threats include sea level rise, temperature rise, food crises, droughts, floods, and cyclones.
Factors such as frequent natural disasters, lack of infrastructure, high population density (174 million people living in an area of 147,570 km2 ), an extractivist economy and social disparities are increasing the vulnerability of the country in facing the current changing climatic conditions. Almost every year large regions of Bangladesh suffer from more intense events like cyclones, floods and erosion. The mentioned adverse events are slowing the development of the country by bringing socio-economical and environmental systems to almost collapse. (Full article...)
Bangladesh is one of the top 10 cricketing nations of the world and has regularly qualified for the Cricket World Cup since 1999, the Country achieved arguably its greatest heights in Cricket when it defeated three of the top-rated teams in 2015 Cricket World Cup to qualify for the quarterfinals. In 2015, they white-washed Pakistan and clinched the series by 3-0 and in another major achievement they won a series against India by 2-1 in the same year they beat South Africa 2–1 in an ODI series and cemented their spot in Champions Trophy 2017. (Full article...)
Industrialisation in Bangladesh received a strong impetus after the partition of India due to labour reforms and new industries. Between 1947 and 1971, East Bengal generated between 70% and 50% of Pakistan's exports. Modern Bangladesh embarked on economic reforms in the late 1970s which promoted free markets and foreign direct investment. By the 1990s, the country had a booming ready-made garments industry. As of 16 March 2024, Bangladesh has the highest number of green garment factories in the world with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), where 80 are platinum-rated, 119 are gold-rated, 10 are silver, and four are without any rating. As of 06 March 2024, Bangladesh is home to 54 of the top 100 LEED Green Garment Factories globally, including 9 out of the top 10, and 18 out of the top 20. As of 27 April 2024, Bangladesh has a growing pharmaceutical industry with 12 percent average annual growth rate. Bangladesh is the only nation among the 48 least-developed countries that is almost self-sufficient when it comes to medicine production as local companies meet 98 percent of the domestic demand for pharmaceuticals. Remittances from the large Bangladeshi diaspora became a vital source of foreign exchange reserves. Agriculture in Bangladesh is supported by government subsidies and ensures self-sufficiency in food production. Bangladesh has pursued export-oriented industrialisation. (Full article...)
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The Bangladesh men's national cricket team (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় ক্রিকেট দল), popularly known as The Tigers, is administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). The BCB is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. The BCB became an associate member of the ICC in 1977, and competed in six ICC Trophies but performed inconsistently until 1997, which marked the year of their first major victory, winning the 1997 ICC Trophy held in Malaysia. This set Bangladesh on its way of becoming a Test-playing nation, a journey which ended with success in the year 2000. The team played its first Test match in November 2000 against India with a 9 wicket loss in Dhaka, becoming the tenth Test-playing nation.
Bangladesh's first official foray into international cricket came in the 1979 ICC Trophy in England. On 31 March 1986, Bangladesh played its first ODI match, against Pakistan in the Asia Cup. For a long time, football was the most popular sport in Bangladesh, but cricket gradually became very popular – particularly in urban areas – and by the late 1990s, it had surpassed football. (Full article...)
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The ITOS 1 weather satellite image of the cyclone shortly after peak intensity making landfall in East Pakistan on November 12
The cyclone formed over the central Bay of Bengal on November 8 and traveled northward, intensifying as it did so. It reached its peak with winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on November 10, and made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan on the following afternoon. The storm surge devastated many of the offshore islands, wiping out villages and destroying crops throughout the region. In the most severely affected upazila, Tazumuddin, over 45% of the population of 167,000 were killed by the storm. (Full article...)
In the late 7th century, Arab Muslims established commercial as well as religious connection within the region before the conquest, mainly through the coastal regions as traders and primarily via the ports of Chittagong. In the early 13th century, Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji conquered Western and part of Northern Bengal, and established the first Muslim kingdom in Bengal. Islamic missionaries in India achieved their greatest success, in terms of number of converts, in Bengal. Sufi's like Shah Jalal are thought to have spread Islam in the north-eastern Bengal and Assam during the beginning of the 12th century. The Islamic Bengal Sultanate, was founded by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah after its independence from the Tughlaq dynasty. Bengal reached in her golden age during Bengal Sultanate's ruling period. Subsequently, Bengal was conquered by Babur, the founder of one of the gunpowder empires, but was also briefly occupied by the Suri Empire. (Full article...)
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Bangladesh Railway (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ রেলওয়ে) is the state-owned rail transport agency of Bangladesh. It operates and maintains all railways in the country, and is overseen by the Directorate General of Bangladesh Railway. The Bangladesh Railway is governed by the Ministry of Railways and the Bangladesh Railway Authority. Its reporting mark is "BR".
The Bangladesh Railway system has a total length of 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi). In 2009, it had 34,168 employees. In the year 2014, Bangladesh Railway recorded a ridership of 65 million passengers on a total of 8,135 million passenger-kilometres, and transported 2.52 million tonnes of freight racking up 677 million tonne-kilometres. (Full article...)
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The Cinema of Bangladesh is a diverse and vibrant entity, consisting of films produced across various regions, each contributing its unique linguistic and cultural perspective. Beyond the dominant Dhaka based Bengali-language film industry Dhallywood (Bengali: ঢালিউড), which is a portmanteau of "Dhaka" and "Hollywood", Bangladesh is home to cinema in several other languages and dialects. For instance, Chakma cinema from Bandarban, Garo cinema from Sherpur, Meitei and Sylheti cinema from Sylhet, Chatgaiya cinema from Chattogram. These regional cinemas play a crucial role in preserving and promoting the linguistic and cultural heritage of the country. The dominant style of Bangladeshi cinema is melodramatic cinema, which developed from 1947 to 1990 and characterizes most films to this day. Cinema was introduced in Bangladesh in 1898 by the Bradford Bioscope Company, credited to have arranged the first film release in Bangladesh. Between 1913 and 1914, the first production company, Picture House, was opened. A 1928 short silent film titled Sukumari (lit.'The Good Girl') was the first Bengali-produced film in the region. The first full-length film, The Last Kiss, was released in 1931.
Following the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, Dhaka became the center of the Bangladeshi film industry, and has generated the majority share of revenue, production and audiences for Dhallywood films. Mukh O Mukhosh, the first Bengali-language full-length feature film, was produced in 1956. During the 1970s, many Dhallywood films were inspired by Indian films, with some of the films being unofficial remakes of those films. The industry continued to grow, and many successful Bangladeshi films were produced throughout the 1970s, 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. ('Full article...)
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Tea garden in Sreemangal
Bangladesh is an important tea-producing country. It is the 12th largest tea producer in the world. Its tea industry dates back to British rule, when the East India Company initiated the tea trade in the hills of the Sylhet region. In addition to that, tea cultivation was introduced to Greater Chittagong in 1840. Today, the country has 166 commercial tea estates, including many of the world's largest working plantations. The industry accounts for 3% of global tea production, and employs more than 4 million people.
The tea is grown in the northern and eastern districts, the highlands, temperate climate, humidity and heavy rainfall within these districts provide a favourable ground for the production of high quality tea. (Full article...)
The Nawab of Dhaka (Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of one of the largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of nawab, similar to the British peerage, was conferred upon the head of the family by Queen Victoria as a recognition of the first Nawab's loyalty and contribution to the social welfare activities.
Although the Nawabs of Dhaka were not sovereigns, they played an essential role in the politics of South Asia—and the relations with external entities. The family was proprietary of the Dhaka Nawab estate, seated at Ahsan Manzil palace. "Nawab of Dhaka" was the title of the head of the family from 1843. Khwaja Alimullah was the first holder of the title, and Khwaja Abdul Ghani was the first Nawab of Dhaka when the title was made hereditary by Queen Victoria. (Full article...)
The area of Dhaka has been inhabited since the first millennium. An early modern city developed from the 17th century as a provincial capital and commercial centre of the Mughal Empire. Dhaka was the capital of a proto-industrialisedMughal Bengal for 75 years (1608–39 and 1660–1704). It was the hub of the muslin trade in Bengal and one of the most prosperous cities in the world. The Mughal city was named Jahangirnagar (The City of Jahangir) in honour of the erstwhile ruling emperor Jahangir. The city's wealthy Mughal elite included princes and the sons of Mughal emperors. The pre-colonial city's glory peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries when it was home to merchants from across Eurasia. The Port of Dhaka was a major trading post for both riverine and seaborne trade. The Mughals decorated the city with well-laid gardens, tombs, mosques, palaces, and forts. The city was once called the Venice of the East. (Full article...)
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The Bengal Subah, also referred to as Mughal Bengal, was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire encompassing much of the Bengal region, which includes modern-day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and some parts of the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, when the region was absorbed into the Mughal Empire. Bengal was the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent.
Bengal Subah has been variously described the "Paradise of Nations" and the "Golden Age of Bengal". It alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia. The eastern part of Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, and it was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world. The region was also the basis of the Anglo-Bengal War. (Full article...)
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