Health
Health management institute in Savar to open on 1 January
Long neglected, the Bangladesh Institute of Health Management will be repaired by 31 December and then train doctors in administration, the state minister for health said.
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Dhaka
Daily lifeDhaka sweet shops wait in vain for buyers on HSC results day
The usual rush for sweets on results day did not come this year, with a low pass rate and rain; some shops had not sold a single kilogram by midday.
OpinionUnplanned urbanisation is swallowing wetlands, green space and farmland, writes Tanzim Hossain
In Ajker Patrika, Tanzim Hossain writes that Dhaka's green and open space fell from 53.11 to 29.85 square kilometres between 2015 and 2023, and that only enforced master plans and tough laws against encroachment can turn things round. The views are the writer's own.
Health
Experts call for joined-up mental health support for cancer patients, survivors and carers
At a Centre for Cancer Care Foundation seminar at Dhaka University, specialists said cancer treatment cannot stop at the body: families, hospitals and organisations need a shared structure of psychosocial support.
FisheriesSucker fish spread through the Buriganga and Turag, cutting native stocks and fishers' income
The aquarium sucker fish is now recorded in at least 17 Bangladeshi rivers. In trial ponds it cut mrigal growth by 48.4 percent, and Dhaka's river fishers haul up nets full of a fish nobody buys.
EnvironmentLoans that pause in a heatwave: a cooling finance test for Dhaka's food vendors
IFPRI and the Shakti Foundation are building a loan that lets Dhaka food vendors buy fridges, cool boxes and cart batteries and defer repayments when a heat index is crossed.
VegetablesDhaka vegetable prices hold steady as potatoes drop to Tk 25 and eggs ease
Good supply kept vegetable prices steady at Dhaka's Shewrapara and Taltola markets on Thursday. Potatoes fell Tk 5 to Tk 25 a kg, eggs eased, and Sonali cock chicken rose Tk 20.
CookingJahaji kalia: the Dhaka beef dish that kept pilgrims fed for months
Cooked in olive oil and carried in china jars, Dhaka's jahaji kalia once sustained long journeys, Hajj above all. The old recipe and Hakim Habibur Rahman's account of a dish now almost forgotten.
EnvironmentA 25-foot cactus outgrows a two-storey building at Mirpur's botanical garden
A Cereus hexagonus at the National Botanical Garden in Mirpur, Dhaka, has passed 25 feet and is held up with six iron bands. The garden's cactus house keeps 72 species.
FruitsBadamtoli, Dhaka's oldest fruit market: dawn auctions off trucks and today's prices
Started on the Buriganga bank in 1935, Badamtoli now has about 250 wholesale houses. Auctions run off more than 30 trucks from dawn to 11 am; Katimon mangoes sell at Tk 150-180 a kg.
Rooftop farmingA rented Rampura rooftop, cuttings and Facebook: Rangguli sells Tk 2 lakh of plants a month
A pandemic rooftop hobby became a business: on a roof rented for Tk 5,000 a month, Yasmin Khan raises succulents and cacti from cuttings and sells about Tk 2 lakh worth online each month.
FlowersCoral vine in bloom on a Banani wall: the Mexican climber that keeps coming back
Antigonon leptopus, the coral vine or chain of love, is flowering over a wall in Dhaka's Banani DOHS. The Mexican climber reaches 15 metres and regrows from underground tubers.
Environment1,269 Dhaka buildings told to build septic tanks to stop lake pollution
Owners of 1,269 buildings in Rajuk's area must build septic tanks, soak wells and sewage treatment plants to stop waste reaching Dhaka's lakes, starting by 15 November or facing mobile courts.
VegetablesBeef climbs to Tk 850 a kilo in Dhaka as winter vegetables ease prices
Beef has risen to Tk 850 a kilo in Dhaka's markets and four eggs cost Tk 50, while the first winter vegetables have brought down the price of aubergine, cauliflower and pointed gourd. Edible oil is short.
Daily lifeDhaka pupils to clean their schools daily on Japan's 'osoji' model
Under the Dhaka district administration's Clean School Team pilot, pupils in 21 schools will spend 15-20 minutes a day cleaning, check for dengue risks weekly and sort their waste, with a weekly checklist for home too.
FisheriesFish sanctuaries from haors to the sea in a long-term plan to revive native fish
Minister Mohammad Aminur Rashid says sanctuaries are being set up in haors, baors, rivers and even the sea to protect native fish breeding grounds. At a BFRI workshop he urged scientists to bring back lost species.
Rooftop farmingOnly 5% of Dhaka's roofs have gardens; a lawyer calls for a rooftop garden policy
Writing in Samakal, lawyer Jesmin Jeba says Dhaka has about 300,000 roofs fit for gardens but gardens on only about 5 percent of its roofs. She wants an official definition, tax rebates and protection for tenants.
HealthAmbulance strike at Dhaka Medical over parking leaves families stranded with patients
A strike by private ambulance owners and drivers demanding permanent parking inside the hospital left families searching for hours on Tuesday for vehicles to move patients and bodies. The director says space is too short for permanent parking.
Daily lifeGrid failure knocks out 5,370 MW of plants; Dhaka faces repeated load-shedding
The national grid was restored after a fault on the Meghnaghat-Haripur line, but not all power plants are back; load-shedding reached 3,488 MW at 3pm on Tuesday and parts of the capital keep losing power.
AgribusinessFish up Tk 50-100 a kg in two weeks in Dhaka markets, beef at Tk 800, eggs cheaper
At Nayabazar, Raysaheb Bazar and Dhupkhola Math Bazar, tilapia, rui-katla, shrimp, chicken and beef have all risen, while farm eggs fell Tk 5 a hali and duck eggs Tk 10 in a week.
FlowersWhite pentas in a Banani street pot: star-shaped flowers that feed butterflies and bees
White pentas blooms in roadside pots in Dhaka's Banani. The shrub, with dense clusters of small five-petalled flowers, grows easily in pots, balconies and garden beds and draws pollinating insects.
HealthMeasles and pneumonia send children from far districts to Dhaka's Shishu Hospital
About 3,500 children with measles have been treated at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and at least 97 to 98 have died; its director says about 90 per cent of those admitted are malnourished.
FisheriesFish workers need written contracts, fair wages and social protection, dialogue hears
At a national dialogue held by BILS and FES Bangladesh, speakers said that despite record fish output, most of the sector's workers have no contracts, no set wages and no official list of those missing at sea.
HealthThree Dhaka traders fined Tk 150,000 for unlabelled edible oil in dirty drums
The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection fined three shops in Shah Ali and Kalyanpur a total of Tk 150,000 for keeping loose soybean and palm oil in unhygienic, unlabelled drums.
AgribusinessRice prices rise in Dhaka before the new crop, some lentils up Tk 30 a kilo
Rice in Dhaka's retail markets has risen by Tk 2 to 5 a kilo in two weeks and some pulses by Tk 20 to 30, with flour dearer too; traders blame higher transport costs after the fuel price rise.
HealthPotatoes, papaya and lentils: inflation is pushing fish and meat off low-income plates
Many low-income families like Khaleda and Alfaz in Dhaka's Rampura are dropping protein as prices outpace wages; food inflation reached 7.22 percent in September, and Bangladesh ranks 84th of 122 countries on the 2026 Global Hunger Index.
Daily lifeDhaka metro stations to get luggage scanners and walk-through metal detectors
DMTCL invited tenders on 19 October for luggage scanners and archway metal detectors to bring airport-style security checks to Dhaka's metro rail stations; how many will be bought, where they go first and when checks begin is not yet fixed.
LivestockBroilers sell for Tk 190 a kg in Dhaka but farmers get Tk 134, and eggs show a Tk 53 gap
Broiler chicken costs Tk 190 a kg and brown eggs Tk 155 a dozen in Dhaka, but farm-gate prices are Tk 134 and Tk 102; with feed and medicine costs rising, small poultry farmers are losing money.
HealthDhaka University smart trap lures Aedes mosquitoes with sound and counts them with AI
MUST-CloudNet, an internet-connected trap built by University of Dhaka researchers, mimics the wingbeat of female mosquitoes to draw in male Aedes, photographs them and uses artificial intelligence to identify and count them.
AgribusinessDhaka's vegetable demand falls 40 percent in the holidays; bottle gourds go for Tk 5
With much of Dhaka away for the long Puja holiday, demand for vegetables in the capital's wholesale markets has fallen about 40 percent while supply is down only 20 to 25 percent, leaving about 2,860 tonnes unsold a day at Karwan Bazar.
FlowersA petal-less spider flower from Australia blooms in a Savar nursery
Grevillea plants brought from Thailand flower almost all year at Barishal Nursery in Savar; writer Mrityunjay Roy matches them to Grevillea acanthifolia, a shrub native to New South Wales.
EnvironmentDrones to watch Turag pollution under Tk 184 crore project
A World Bank-funded Department of Environment project going to ECNEC would use drones to watch waste dumping along the Turag, enforce treatment plants at 173 factories and monitor water quality in real time.
Health
Bangladesh Medical University aims for four liver transplants a month by end of next year
Bangladesh Medical University now performs two liver transplants a month and aims for four by the end of next year; its last six were free under government funding, with a 90 percent success rate.
AgribusinessDhaka staples hold steady over the Puja holiday as eggs fall Tk 10 a dozen
Rice, lentils and soybean oil sold at last week's prices in Dhaka's Shewrapara and Kazipara markets during the Durga Puja holiday, while farm eggs fell by Tk 10 a dozen to Tk 140.
EnvironmentScience secretary urges joint BCSIR-industry research to treat textile wastewater
Science and technology secretary Md Anwar Hossain has called for research on treating textile and garment wastewater with modern technology, replacing chemical dyes with local natural materials and cutting groundwater use in dyeing.
AgribusinessFood security network urges rethink as OMS rice cut 21% and flour 22%
This year's open market sale (OMS) targets are 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour and the subsidy falls from Tk 4,096 crore to Tk 3,411 crore; the Bangladesh Food Security Network says the urban poor will pay more for food.