Retail banking in Bangladesh is entering a moment of reckoning. With the Bangladesh Bank (BB) preparing to issue digital banking licences, and with more organised mobile financial services, AI and platform technology becoming mainstream, it is no longer enough for a bank to be a place where peop

To encourage youth-led entrepreneurship and turn innovative ideas into viable businesses, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) announced a Startup Funding Facility in July this year.

We have two kinds of brave people. One, the man who casually crosses a six-lane road while talking on the phone, blind to buses, rickshaws, and divine intervention.

Mr Arif, a lower-middle-class citizen, decided to visit his local market to purchase essential goods for his family. To his dismay, he discovered that the prices of almost all necessities had gone up by a staggering 30 to 50 percent. This sudden spike in prices left Mr Arif perplexed and worried about the increasing burden on his already strained budget.

In the throes of a digital renaissance, Bangladesh, steered by the government's Digital Bangladesh initiative, has achieved a remarkable technological evolution. The nation has seen an uptick in internet connectivity, digital financial services, e-education, and e-commerce, with an entrepreneur-driven surge.

In a world that is exceedingly inundated by messages, it is, perhaps, time for businesses to think about whether we are over-communicating with our customers.

Fintech is a buzz word or a disruption or an innovation in this transforming world. We have always seen such debate among different types of experts or colleagues from financial industries at home and abroad. But we can’t ignore its rapid disruption towards financial inclusion and growth.

However, rising interest rates and risks in the banking sector in the United States and Europe have increased uncertainties in South Asia’s outlook, given their significant impact on balance of payments, exchange rates, and financial markets.

March, and more precisely March 8th, is a time to raise awareness about the remaining path toward equal opportunities for women and men. This is especially challenging in the current days of infoxication where algorithms on the Internet nudge us to jump the discussion from one topic to another day after day. March 8th has passed, yet many gender challenges remain.

Most countries, as they emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, are seeking economic growth from weakened fiscal positions. As health and social spending surged to help workers, families, and businesses cope, the economic shock greatly reduced revenues.

South Asia is bracing for yet another hot year. Pre-monsoon temperature records were shattered again in 2023 by the hottest February recorded in India since 1901, along with the hottest day in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 58 years in April.

The recent bank turmoil in the US has awakened ghosts of past financial crises. While the likelihood of a fully-fledged crisis seems limited, it cannot be ruled out. Policymakers in the region must act now to shield their economies from possible negative spillovers.

In February 2022, news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated headlines around the world.

Asia’s industries, primarily manufacturing, fueled phenomenal economic growth and poverty reduction in recent decades. But today many countries are looking to the service sector as an alternative.

Large language model artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, Bard and others, has great potential in the world of international development. But – at least for now – it also has serious limitations.

Policies to boost biofuel production and use—crop subsidies, mandates, and other measures—came under intense scrutiny during the food price spikes of 2007/08, 2010/11, and 2012/13. As prices of maize, grains, oilseeds, and other feedstocks rose in those crises—more than doubling in some cases—critics pointed to their increasing use in biofuel production as a major factor behind high global food prices.

Public debt soared to a record during the pandemic, topping global gross domestic product. Now, with government debt still elevated, the rise in interest rates and the strong US dollar is adding to interest costs, in turn weighing on growth and fueling financial stability risks.

High inflation can impose serious and lasting costs on the economy and people. But the distributive effects of inflation—the way it transfers money from some individuals to others—are complex.

The pandemic, coupled with trade disruptions and Russia’s war on Ukraine, caused lasting harm to Asia-Pacific economies, damaging growth, productivity, and investment.

Can we truly reimagine a path to a low-carbon transition and change the climate narrative? This is hard to envision when we witness the unprecedented damage we are inflicting on the planet.