The base stone of a new bridge linking Bangladesh and India was laid by Union minister of state for road transport and highways Mahadev Singh Khandela here along the international border in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills district.

The two-lane bridge will help shorten the distance between Bangladesh and India. Heavy vehicles would be able to ply as against the light vehicles which are now allowed to go on the suspension bridge.

It will also facilitate trade, particularly movement of trucks carrying coal, officials said.

“Heavy vehicles plying to and from Bangladesh will not require to take the longer route via Jowai,” the minister said.

The 165m bridge on the Umngot river would replace the single-lane British-era suspension bridge that was built in 1932 as the overland link between the then province of East Bengal and Assam.

“Centre is giving priority to provide all-weather roads to accelerate the pace of development in North-East,” Khandelasaid.

The new bridge, estimated at Rs23.12 crore, is expected to be completed in three years, officials said.

The minister also informed that during the year 2009-10, his ministry has proposed to sanction an amount of Rs261 crore for development of roads in Meghalaya. Khandela said a special road construction programme has been initiated by the ministry which envisages upgradation and construction of about 10,000km roads in the North eastern states. “Meghalaya is the biggest beneficiary of this programme,” he said.

Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for NE envisages improvement of all national highways of Meghalaya to at least 2-lane standards and to also provide 2-lane connectivity to all district headquarters, he said.

The minister also claimed that under the “regular scheme” for improvement of the roads, the expenditure has risen consistently from merely Rs10 to Rs15 crore per year about five years back to touch about Rs50 crore last year.

Meghalaya PWD minister (roads) MM Danggo explored the need for opening of at least two more integrated check gates in the Indo-Bangladesh border for smooth transaction of border trade between the two countries.

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A week after Bangladesh Bank jump-started e-commerce and online payment system in the country; local IT giants and their banking counterparts remain sceptical about its immediate feasibility and long-term security implications.

Industry insiders are all but convinced that at least two thirds of the country’s banking institutions are not ready to comply with Bangladesh Bank’s latest directive towards e-payment and money transferring scheme and are not set to be prepared for the rapid shift within the next two years.

The central bank in a circular issued on November 2 asked all the commercial banks to introduce online payment systems facilitating fund transfers and payment of utility bills on the internet while permitting the credit card transaction in local currency.

It has also been reported that the banks have been given a timeframe of six to eight months to comply with these new set of directives as they are expected to be operational by the start of the next fiscal year.

The move has been perceived by some quarters to be a great leap forward towards the introduction of e-commerce in the country, which has been thought to revolutionise the country’s banking as well as IT sector.

However, local IT giants with extensive experience in banking automation are not so enthusiastic, warning that the actual path towards full scale e-commerce might prove difficult than thought before and in the long run may result in ‘digital divide’ within the country’s banking scenario.

They said that apart from a handful of top multinational and local financiers, the new directives are likely to be a burden for majority of the country’s banks and financial institutions due to lack of adequate infrastructure and regulatory framework.

“What our experience shows is that it takes at least 24 months to make an average bank ready for true Internet banking”, said M Manjur Mahmud, Chief Executive Officer of Data Soft, a leading IT company with extensive experience in banking automation.

“Available data and statistics also suggest that that around eighty per cent of the country’s banks are not equipped enough at the moment for this rapid change, ” added Manjur, whose company has previously been involved in the automation of Dhaka and Chittagong customs houses, Chittagong port and RAJUK.

Leaders in the IT sector also reckoned that at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility of building the adequate technological backbone would lie on the central bank itself to facilitate the necessary infrastructure

“It will require at least US$ 50 million of investment on the part of the Bangladesh Bank to build up the necessary backbone while the banks at individual level would require investment ranging between US$ 0.3-0.4 million,” said an industry insider.

“However, the range of cost for the individual banks may vary depending on the vendor they choose,” said S M Waesh, Executive Vice President of Flora Systems, the country’s leading IT solution provider, which provides IT backbone to an array of leading commercial banks.

“If a bank chooses a local IT farm, the cost of such automation may not cross $ 1.0 million. But, if they instead employ a foreign firm, the cost may go up to $ 3.0 million”.

“While, the shift may be easier for the private banks, government banks will find it more difficult to cope with the change due to their relatively backwardness in IT infrastructure, huge network and bureaucratic nature”, said Shamsur Rahman Chowdhury, Head of IT in Exim Bank Limited.

With the central bank nod towards Internet banking, also has come the question of security in transaction, and whether the country’s existing anti-money laundering law, supposed to govern the system is adequate to address the issue.

Although, industry insiders in general are optimistic that the rapid ride towards Internet banking and digitisation would create more jobs while helping flourish e-commerce activities in the country, there is also scepticism from some quarters that on the flip side, the latest move may also result in job shedding as some portion of the workforce may not be able to shift their skill according to the new demand

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Bangladesh is a contry of six season. nature is very close to our national lifestyle.
Inhabitants of Bangladesh’s chars or river islands, some of the most climate vulnerable communities in the world, urged the government Saturday to push hard, as a key player in Copenhagen, for binding emission pledges by developed nations.

Others, addressing a poverty and climate hearing staged on floating boats, called on the government to secure at least $200 billion per year for poor countries in mitigation and adaptation funds.

“The frequency and duration of floods and river erosion have increased drastically in the last few years causing severe harm to our lives and livelihoods,” char dweller Hamida Begum told a panel of judges in the hearing.

More than 6,000 men and women from chars across the country, mostly comprising small farming and fishing communities, urged the government to place their testimony at the 15th UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) next month.

The climate poverty hearing in Gaibandha, a northern district of Bangladesh, meanwhile, was staged on fifteen floating boats in the Ghaghot river on Saturday.

The hearing was organised by Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), a group of 150 international, national and grassroots organisations, with support from Oxfam International.

From Kurigram, Abu Sayeed, 35, gave testimony of his loss of farmland due to river erosion. He said he was forced to become a day labourer, where once he had a small but secure livelihood.

Abul Hossain told a similar tale, as he and others suffered failure of jute crops because of erratic rainfall during the most recent monsoon.

Representatives of academia, media and social groups, supporting these personal testimonies, demanded justice for those in Bangladesh already facing the adverse impacts of climate change.

They called on the government to secure at least $200 billion per year for poor countries in mitigation and adaptation funds.

The judges also concluded by supporting the call for government pressure on developed countries to ratify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for an effective outcome with binding commitments at COP15.

Mahbub Ara Gini, MP from Gaibandha-2, assured them that the government would play an active role in safeguarding people’s interest in Copenhagen in December.

COP15 aims to reach agreement among developed and developing nations on binding commitments to cut emissions, to replace the previous Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

Bangladesh, as a vocal leader of the most vulnerable countries, is seen as one the key players among developing nations.

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The central bank of Bangladesh, for the first time, has prepared a five-year strategic plan for the banking sector to improve the quality of services and efficiencies

The plan has been prepared at a meeting over the weekend held at Jamuna Resort, a tourist attraction on the bank of the mighty Jamuna river, at Bhuapur under Tangail district with Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair.

The two-day meeting, which began in the river resort on Friday, reviewed the recommendations of all stakeholders in the banking sector to finalize the plan which will come into effect from January next year.

The BB governor will announce the plan at a press conference at the central bank headquarters in the capital, Dhaka on Sunday, they added.

“We’ve developed the plan aiming to face future challenges and make the central bank more efficient in supporting and developing banking sector,” a BB senior official told .

The five-year plan focuses on some major areas, including monetary policy, automation, skilled development, capacity building and credit policy, the BB official said, adding that the plan would be reviewed each year to update it with new measures.

The central bank of Bangladesh earlier discussed the plan with all the banks and financial institutions, World Bank and International Monetary Fund and with leading chambers and trade bodies.

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Trasportation and connectivity is the key factor of regional development.
Dhaka: South Asia is set for greater connectivity with India on Saturday agreeing to allow Bangladesh rail transit to landlocked Nepal.

The announcement came after day-long foreign secretary-level talks when details of three agreements to be signed during a three-day India visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Dec 19 were discussed.

India has “responded positively” to giving Bangladesh railway transit to carry its products to Nepal, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammed Mijarul Quayes told media.

He said: “The India side has responded positively to giving us railway transit through three bordering points (Birol-Radhikapur, Rahanpur-Singhabad and Chilahati-Haldibari).”

The rail transit facility is part of a give-and-take in which India hopes to get access to Bangladeshi territory to reach out to its isolated north-eastern region.

Details of this access did not figure in the announcement by Quayes who held talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao here.

India needs the transit through Bangladeshi territory to open up its isolated northeast where seven states are bottled up. Lack of development and isolation have fanned militancy in some of them.

The three agreements are agreement for mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, agreement of transfer of sentenced persons, and the agreement on combating international terrorism, organised crimes and illegal drug trafficking, Star Online said.

Bangladesh and India have numerous bilateral problems and outstanding issues of which border problems, in particular shooting of Bangladeshi nationals engaged in illegal, night-time movements by the Indian border guard, Border Security Force (BSF) figured.

Quayes said he and the Indian foreign secretary agreed to resolve the outstanding border problems “as soon as possible”.

Issues that impinge on the internal security of the two neighbours also figured during the talks. India has for long accused Bangladesh of sheltering militants from its north-eastern region.

The situation has partially changed with Hasina government cooperating. Quayes said India “praised Bangladesh for its role in security related issues”.

A number of other bilateral issues between Bangladesh and India are on the table for the Hasina visit – beginning Dec 19 – that is considered crucial because of the friendly vibes between the Awami League and the Congress that rule in the two countries.

Quayes said that long-pending issues could be resolved at the summit level when Hasina meets Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next month.

This would be the first visit to India by Hasina who returned to power in January after sweeping the poll Dec 29 last year.

Quayes said Bangladesh, as announced in a recent joint statement, would allow India to carry machinery to Tripura, its northeastern state to set up a power plant.

He said India would sell 250 megawatts of electricity produced at that power plant, to be located at Palatana.

Replying to a question on whether Bangladesh would give India multi-modal transit facilities via Ashuganj, Quayes cautiously replied: “There was no mention of declaring Ashuganj as a port of call in the joint statement”.

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UREKA!! HURRAY!!!It was a long way to findings for water at Moon.
Substantial water reserves have been found beneath the Moon?s surface, Nasa announced yesterday, paving the way for a permanent lunar base.

The discovery came from Nasa?s ?moon bombing? mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) probe, which was deliberately crashed into the lunar South Pole last month. An analysis of the dust thrown up from the impact revealed the presence of about 80 litres of water, or enough for a shallow bath. The results suggest that much larger, more accessible reserves are available at the poles.

?We can announce that we?ve found water ? not just a little bit, a significant amount,? said Tony Colaprete, principal investigator for the mission at Nasa?s Ames Research Centre in California.

The exact form of the water is not yet clear, but it is likely to be spread out in small ice crystals. The rocket hit the Moon at an area where the surface temperature is around -230C. This region has not been in direct sunlight for at least two billion years
The discovery comes at a good time for Nasa scientists, who are waiting for a White House decision on the future funding for lunar exploration, expected to be announced in January.

The Bush administration had set the ultimate goal of a permanent lunar base, but this could require an additional $3 billion a year on top of their $18 billion budget. Proposals for lunar settlements have all tended to rely heavily on the assumption that water supplies would be discovered.

?These results may just be the key to Nasa?s plans to put man back on the Moon ? the LCROSS team conducted a beautifully simple experiment and it seems to have paid off,? said Chris Lintott, an astrophysicist from the University of Oxford.

The results will also come as a relief to astrophysicists who watched the impact live on October 9. The $79 million mission comprised two separate capsules, which were deliberately slammed into the Cabeus crater, around four minutes apart. The trailing capsule was designed to make spectroscopic measurements of the contents of a 6km plume of dust thrown up by the leading one. However, the impact was barely discernible and for several hours Nasa was unable to confirm that a plume had been detected at all, after having initially said that it would be visible through handheld telescopes from Earth.

Vincent Eke, from the University of Durham who helped the American space agency pick the location, said that the much smaller plume may have been a result of the large quantities of water. A high proportion of the capsule?s energy on impact would have gone into vaporising the ice, meaning there was less energy left to kick the dust up to high altitudes.

Scientists are now hoping to establish the origin of the water. One possibility is that it was deposited by comets, over as long as billions of years, meaning it could hold important clues to the history of the solar system.

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