Cyclonic Storm Mahasen - Interactive Mahasen

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Shahbagh protest to continue until demand met

The protesters on Friday at a grand rally at Projonmo Chattar, Shahbagh, once again vowed to carry on their movement until their demand of death penalty for all war criminals is met.
In a written speech Imran H Sarker, convener of the Bloggers and Online Activists Network, announced the decision in the afternoon where he has urged the countrymen to expand the protests to all corners including villages and towns of the country.
Imran said, "The slogans will not cease until we meet the final victory".
In order to turn this movement into more matured, expanded, deep and disciplined one they have taken several decisions including formation of human forts to thwart Jamaat-Shibir conspiracy for foiling war crimes trials.
"We all must remain alert and reinforce vigilance in all times everywhere" he said.
The convener said a massive awareness campaign has to be conducted among the people to boycott the war criminals.
"Projonmo Chattar has to be expanded all over the country. The movemens will have to continue in towns, villages and bazaars and every places," Imran went on.
In synchronisation with the Projonmo Chattar, a programme of singing of the national anthem followed by hoisting of the national flag will be observed in all educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities at 10:00pm on Sunday, he said.
Besides, protest programmes of Projonmo Chattar will continue as before from 3:00pm to 10:00pm.
"It is our duty to continue and turn it a worthy fight until we are victorious."
The network activist also said, "We are not dependent to any political parties. We have no fear of any national or international vested quarters, because the people are with us."
"We are the people; we are the source of all power," Imran said.
Later, Imran administered a solemn oath among hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Shahbagh intersection.
"At any cost we will protect our unity and root out last remaining base of war criminals. We have no other alternative but victory. Victory of the people is inevitable. Joy Bangla."
Earlier, thousands of demonstrators started the rally around 3:30pm at Projonmo Chattar demanding capital punishment to all war criminals, including Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah.
Leaders of various student organisations addressed the rally.
The student leaders, once again, affirmed their demand of death penalty for all war criminals.
Lucky Akhter, the Bionic Woman, has been untiringly shouting fiery slogans during the intervals of the speeches.
Organisers following Thursday's candlelight vigil urged all to join today's rally, saying that a declaration of the next course of action will come from the programme.
The candlelight vigil at Shahbagh was joined by people from all walks of life. The number of students -- boys and girls alike -- was overwhelming, many of whom took position at the protest venue soon after 10:00am, chanting fiery slogans.
The countrywide candlelight vigil was part of the nonstop movement demanding capital punishment to all war criminals, including Mollah.
The movement began on February 5, hours after a war crimes tribunal sentenced Quader Mollah to life term in prison for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war.

There’ll be no corruption in Padma Project: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has categorically said there will be no corruption in building the Padma Bridge, the largest-ever infrastructure project of Bangladesh that got stalled apparently following fund cancellation by the World Bank and other co-financers.
“I’m 100 percent certain there has been no corruption so far and there won’t be any (corruption)…of course I’m making it sure to the people of Bangladesh,” he told journalists at IFAD headquarters here on Thursday.
Earlier, he had a brief discussion with 23 journalists from developing and developed countries, including Bangladesh, who are in Rome to attend a training workshop arranged by the Reuters, IFAD and IPS jointly.
Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Ujjwal Bikash Dutta and Deputy Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance Sultana Afroz, trainers from Reuters and IPS, including the IFAD officials, were also present.
Responding to a question, Muhith said there are many alternative proposals. “But I’m against them…those proposals are tied to procurement…it’ll be done from the budget. The budget in the last four years has doubled.”
The Finance Minister, however, said it would cause hardship if the bridge is built with own funding. “…no doubt about that.”
Replying to a question, Muhith said Bangladesh can surely afford the bridge without the World Bank funding but the cost will be more. “If I get into crore figure, Padma Bridge is a project of Tk 25,000 crore. Providing Tk 5,000 crore each year for the bridge is not a serious problem. I’m concerned a little bit about foreign exchange.”
The Finance Minister said the government is launching the first sovereign bond in April, not for the Padma Bridge but for the general economy.
Responding to another query, Muhith said Padma Bridge is the most difficult and complex bridge in the world not for by length but for the soil of Bangladesh and its mighty river. “….that is where the World Bank would have been very helpful for me.”
On the global lender’s dissatisfaction, he said World Bank’s methods of procedures are wrong. “We investigated 61 parties…there was no evidence of corruption…we’ll carry out the investigation…we’re not dishonest.”

When signs say more than words

Being a child of hearing-impaired parents, she learnt the sign language in a natural way and later underwent a course to make it ‘proper’ for the hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh who cannot hear.

But there is no institution to teach those people their first language. “The number (hearing-impaired people) is 3 million. But they don’t know proper sign language. They learn naturally to communicate with each other,” said Santanu Dey, who coordinates an NGO working with the hearing-impaired people and their language.

Giving proper training of their language, Dey told bdnews24.com that they could be good at schools and certain jobs as ‘they can concentrate as because sounds do not disturb them.’

The Society of the Deaf and Sign Language Users celebrated Bangla Sign Language Day on Thursday for the second time after an inter-ministerial meeting of the Ministry of Social Welfare on Jan 26, 2012 decided to commemorate Feb 7 the day every year. The decision still awaiting cabinet nod.

“We will get the day (cabinet endorsed) soon in recognisation of the hearing-impaired people’s rights, and dignity. But they badly need an institute so that they can learn their first language,” the coordinator, Dey said.

He said the institute would conduct research and training on the Bangla sign language. “India has started building an institute in 2011,” he said and that every language has its own sign language.

Activists say hearing-impaired people cannot express themselves after being subjected to torture or violence as general people usually do not understand them. Even during natural calamities, they do not know what is going on.

“There should be (sign language) learning facility at every government training centres so that government staff can understand the language,” said Farah Kabir, Country Director of Actionaid Bangladesh at a discussion on Thursday.

Terming them ‘good workers’ in certain jobs, the director general of the social welfare Nasima Begum suggested them to find out what jobs suitable for them. “We will help you to get that (job).”

The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on different occasions also called upon all television channels to use sign language alongside usual during news bulletins.

State-run television BTV and private channel Desh TV responded to the premier’s call giving a spotlight on an overlooked career.

The presenter Kabir believes opportunities will grow by the time. “But there are not enough of us to go around. If we had an institute, then we could train up people regularly,” she said.

According to Kabir, signing is interesting, but “it’s not easy, lot of enthusiasm needs to learn (sign language).”

“For me, it was easy as I had to communicate at home. But it’s like other language English, French that you learn but if don’t practice you will forget,” she said as she explained about signing.

She said expressions were very important for the signing. “Sometimes you may need to give emphatic gestures and sometimes sympathetic facial expressions. And of course hands are primary tools.”

After home, she learnt the language from the Society of the Deaf that she said only organisation teaches the language in Bangladesh in limited scale. She is also a mentor of that organisation.

After learning sign language, one can work at schools, government agencies or translate for hearing-impaired people during doctors’ appointments and many other purposes, campaigners say.

Pioneering videogame firm Atari gets lifeline

Atari, the pioneering video game company mired in bankruptcy proceedings in both France and the US, said on Tuesday it had found a last minute buyer after the latest leading shareholder gave up on turning the company around.
Atari SA "supports the proposed acquisition of the BlueBay Funds' interests in the Atari group by a longtime videogame professional and a fund advised by Alden Global Capital," the videogamer said in a statement.
Atari was born 40 years ago in California and jumped to fame by bringing the arcade game experience to living rooms worldwide with games such as Pong and Centipede.
The key buyer of the embattled company is Frenchman Frederic Chesnais, a former Atari executive, who is picking up 25 percent of the Atari SA's capital through his own fund Ker Ventures for 400 euros with hedge fund Alden providing financing.

Internet users seeking more 'invisibility'

Consumer efforts to protect personal data and remain "invisible" online is leading to a "data blackhole" that could adversely impact digital advertisers, technology research firm Ovum said Wednesday.
The move to seek "new tools that allow them to remain 'invisible' -- untraceable and impossible to target by data means" will impact advertisers who rely on that information to target their audiences, Ovum said.
Surveying consumers in 11 countries around the world, the research firm said 68 percent of respondents said they would select a "do not track" feature if this was easily available.
"This hardening of consumer attitudes, coupled with tightening regulation, could diminish personal data supply lines and have considerable impact on targeted advertising, customer relationship management, big data analytics and other digital industries," the London-based firm said in a statement.
Mark Little, a principal analyst at Ovum, said Internet users were increasingly getting more access to new tools to "monitor, control and secure their personal data as never before".
The recent scandal involving privacy breaches by mobile messaging service WhatsApp and lingering concerns over data use policies on Facebook and Google are prompting Internet users to be more guarded, Ovum added.
A joint Canadian-Dutch probe concluded last month that WhatsApp breached privacy laws in at least two countries "mainly in relation to the retention, safeguard, and disclosure of personal data".
The joint probe found that most mobile smartphone users did not have a choice to use WhatsApp's messaging app without granting access to their entire address book, in violation of Canadian and Dutch privacy laws.

Making e-commerce easy

Once a month, Mrs. Hossain has to go to her children's school and pay their monthly tuition fees, about Tk 10,000. Just the other day, she heard from a friend how she got mugged on her way back from the bank. Understandably, she feels nervous carrying that much cash around, but she doesn't really have a choice.
Mr Islam is a bachelor. To save time, he avails of one of the services that deliver groceries right to his doorstep. Only sometimes, he does not have the ready cash to pay for everything he needs. He wishes he could use his credit card, but unfortunately the service does not accept one.
This is where Walleto comes in. Walleto is an online payment gateway system, launched in October last year by MCC Ltd. The company introduced Walleto to help entrepreneurs, organisations and individuals enter the e-commerce sector and avail of its services.
Walleto can be integrated with any existing website of any organisation, and just like that, that organisation becomes capable of accepting payments online. Walleto makes it possible for money to change hands without the parties involved getting up from their chairs.
With Walleto, Mrs Hossain's school can receive payments from parents and automatically transfer them to a designated back account, without Mrs Hossain having to worry about carrying cash around. Mr Islam can pay for his groceries at the same time he's ordering them and he only has to wait for the delivery.
Walleto opens up options for consumers and suppliers alike.
Bangladesh is no longer a stranger to online commercial activity. There are around 170 Bangladeshi e-commerce sites out there, peddling everything from electronics to books to groceries. Some allow you to order online and pay on delivery; only a handful, however, allows online transactions �" paying online, via a credit or debit card.
The primary obstacle to more businesses adopting the online payment option is that it is a time-consuming and complex process. The organisation would need to make detailed contracts with the bank of their choice and hire a software company to develop a payment gateway system to fit their needs.
The strength of Walleto is that it has already done all of that. If any organisation wants the advantages of accepting payments online, they simply need subscribe to Walleto. Walleto has already made contracts with the banks and has already developed a universal payment gateway system. Walleto has greatly simplified the process of becoming a true e-commerce vendor simply by existing.
Currently, Walleto accepts payments using Visa, Mastercard, the BRAC Bank Debit card and the Dutch-Bangla Nexus card. This already accounts for more than 20 lakh subscribers from Visa and Mastercard alone. This is only the beginning. Walleto will soon expand to include payment options from credit and debit cards from all the big banks to online payment options like Paypal to mobile payment options. Walleto aims to be a universal payment gateway system, accepting and processing payments via all possible electronic avenues.
This versatility means that Walleto is a one-size-fits-all solution for all sorts of businesses looking to enter the e-commerce sector. From airline bookings to buying books online, to booking a table at a high-end restaurant to sending money to your family back home, to gaming online and shopping for clothes from online catalogues, every transaction will be possible through Walleto. Like Amazon or e-Bay, Walleto aims to become a portal through which anyone will be able to buy anything and more than those sites, where people can do more �" donate to worthy charities and add to the remittance flow.
So far, Walleto has as its clients as diverse as Guide Tours, the Jaago Foundation, Aponjon, Creative Connection (jute diversified product market), Fair Price and many other. Walleto aims to expand its client base and hit the 1,000 mark by 2013.
Walleto represents a new benchmark for e-commerce in Bangladesh. The success of Walleto can only be a boon to the e-commerce sector and a gain for the Bangladesh economy as a whole.

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The four state banks' default loans spiralled in December 2012, due to the various scams unearthed last year.
The cumulative default loans on December 31, 2012, as per the banks' preliminary data, stood at Tk 21,519 crore, up 126 percent year-on-year.
A central bank inspection drive last year exposed a host of irregularities at state banks -- Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali -- and the loans have now been classified as defaults.
The biggest irregularity was detected at Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch, where Tk 3,547 crore was embezzled by five firms, including Hall-Mark Group, in the name of bill purchase.
The loans were given to the accused parties by giving “acceptance” to bills of different banks and branches of Sonali Bank.
Of the Tk 3,546 crore of default loans the Ruposhi Bangla branch raked up, Tk 2,600 crore has been classified.
Sonali is yet to repay the remaining amount to the banks concerned, but when it is done the amount will also be recorded as defaults.
Sonali's default loans on December 31 stood at Tk 12,050 crore, up 111 percent year-on-year.
“We have taken drastic measures to recover the default loans. Next year, you will see its outcome,” Pradip Kumar Dutta, Sonali Bank's managing director, told The Daily Star.
He cited the recovery made in January alone -- of Tk 632 crore -- which is 74 percent of the total recovery made in the whole of 2012.
“Apart from the irregularities, the new loan classification policy of the central bank also contributed to the increase in default loan figures,” Dutta said.
Similarly in Janata Bank, the default loan sum shot up 168 percent in December, with its share of the outstanding loans increasing 1.5 times.
Agrani's default loans increased year-on-year by 143 percent to Tk 4,663 crore, and Rupali Bank's 113 percent.
“At the end of last year, the boards of the public banks did not function, which might have led to the rise in default loans,” a top official of Janata Bank said, asking not to be named.
Loan sanctioning upon political persuasion, dishonesty of bank officials caused the spike in default loans, said Khondker Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.
Khaled, however, disagrees that the change in central bank's loan classification policy had much impact on the final default loan figures.
“It made a very small difference,” he said, adding that the government should issue strict directive to the lawmakers to not pursue loans from public banks, for the sake of bringing down the default loan volumes.
If any irregularity is detected, the finance ministry will have to take stern actions, including on-the-spot dismissal, he said.
Besides, if BB makes any recommendation to the finance ministry regarding the public banks, the ministry would have to take instant action. “The central bank supervision will have to be strengthened further.”

All's Not Lost Extinction rates not so bad

Concerns that many animals are becoming extinct, before scientists even have time to identify them, are greatly overstated, according Griffith University researcher, Professor Nigel Stork. Professor Stork has taken part in an international study, the findings of which have been detailed in "Can we name Earth's species before they go extinct?" published in the journal Science.
Deputy Head of the Griffith School of Environment, Professor Stork said a number of misconceptions have fueled these fears, and there is no evidence that extinction rates are as high as some have feared.
"Surprisingly, few species have gone extinct, to our knowledge. Of course, there will have been some species which have disappeared without being recorded, but not many we think," Professor Stork said.
Professor Stork said part of the problem is that there is an inflated sense of just how many animals exist and therefore how big the task to record them.
"Modern estimates of the number of eukaryotic species have ranged up to 100 million, but we have estimated that there are around 5 million species on the planet (plus or minus 3 million)."
And there are more scientists than ever working on the task. This contrary to a common belief that we are losing taxonomists, the scientists who identify species.
"While this is the case in the developed world where governments are reducing funding, in developing nations the number of taxonomists is actually on the rise.
"World-wide there are now two to three times as many taxonomist describing species as there were 20 years ago."
Even so, Professor Stork says the scale of the global taxonomic challenge is not to be underestimated.

Source: Science Daily

Farm - To - Market Supply technology is key

Less rice is wasted with technological advances

The moder-nisation of farm-to-market supply chains is important for increasing farmers' income, alleviating poverty, cutting food waste and improving the affordability of food staples, according to the authors of a book.
The Quiet Revolution in Staple Food Value Chains: Enter the Dragon, the Elephant, and the Tiger is a joint project by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that was launched last month.
The book examines the movement of rice and potatoes from the farm to the consumer known as the 'value chain' in three Asian countries: Bangladesh, China and India. Rice and potato are food staples in Asia.
Thomas Reardon, a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, United States, and one of the book's authors, says that the study also has lessons for South-East Asian and Pacific island states.
He says that all three countries have found ways to modernise the value chains of these staple crops. He adds that the changes had been introduced at the grassroots and brought about mainly by mobile phones, the use of improved crop varieties and technological changes related to rice milling and potato storage.
Reardon says the rapid rise of modern cold storage facilities for potatoes, which enable them to be supplied out of season, had led to more stable prices and higher incomes for farmers.
These facilities have also helped cut the amount of food wastage along the supply chain. According to a World Bank study which the authors cited between 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the food costs is due to the food wastage in the supply chain.