This April 2018 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on ‘Bangladesh’s development trajectory’. The first article on ‘Is LDC graduation a panacea?’ highlights the benefits and risk factors for Bangladesh associated with its graduation from the LDC status. The article argues that though the business-as-usual process of economic and social development might lead Bangladesh to graduate from the LDC status by 2024, such business-as-usual process will certainly not lead to achieving the much larger and important development goals, such as attaining the stiff targets of SDGs by 2030 and avoiding the ‘middle-income trap’. All these suggest that Bangladesh has to make some extraordinary efforts in its economic and social development process in the days to come. The second article titled ‘Navigating the labyrinths of the deals world: State-business relationship in Bangladesh’ analyzes the evolution of the deals environment in Bangladesh since independence. The article emphasizes that the current trend in growth rate in Bangladesh has been possible despite weak market-enhancing institutions, characterized by de facto rent sharing across political divides, political elites’ ability to separate economic and political rents, and a largely ordered deals environment (irrespective of being open, closed or semi-closed in various sectors of the economy). In this issue, Dr. Syed Akhtar Mahmood writes a short review of Professor Nurul Islam’s latest book ‘An Odyssey: The Journey of My Life’. Professor Nurul Islam was the Deputy Chairman of the first Planning Commission of Bangladesh. The book is a narrative of Professor Islam’s life. The final page draws attention to the events that took place in the month of March.
SANEM and the editor’s desk express their deepest condolences for the untimely death of Ms. Simeen Mahmud, who passed away on March 19, 2018. Ms. Mahmud was the Head of Gender Studies Cluster and Coordinator of the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation (CGST) at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. She also served as the Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). The country lost an eminent researcher.
