FUNCTIONAL TRANSFORMATION OF DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BANGLADESH: OVERVIEW OF THE SHIFT IN DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM

In Bangladesh, Office of the Deputy Commissioner is the key role player in the district with a big number of traditional functions right from the time of East India Company. Although the original pattern of district administration remains more or less unchanged but there appears to be gradual transformation of the conventional character of district administration. The purpose of the study is to explore the extent of transformation of functions of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner from traditional regulatory system to a new form of public administration with specific aim to identify the factors that induced and or influenced the transformation process. The present features indicate that Traditional Public Administration (TPA), New Public Administration (NPA) & New Public Management (NPM) co-exist in an uneasy manner in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner in Bangladesh. It has significantly moved from TPA towards a mixed approach of NPA & NPM.  Article visualizations

PROMOTING EXPORT OF ICT BASED SERVICES THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXPORT POLICY IN BANGLADESH

ICT has been identified as one of the major sub-sectors in the service sector in Bangladesh. Export policy of Bangladesh, designed for 2015-2018, has included 12 highest priority sectors considering their special export potentials, where software and ICT enabled service is one of them. The policy has some certain goals for promoting export of ICT based services. The broad objective of the study is to analyze export policy of Bangladesh related with ICT based service and the overall situation of policy implementation and under this broad objective specific objectives are (1) to evaluate the role of export policy of Bangladesh in promoting ICT based service export and (2) to find if there is gap between Bangladesh export policy for ICT based service and implementation of the policy. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to conduct this research. The study found that the policy lacks some very important issues needed to be addressed for capitalizing high potentials ICT based service export sector. But there is no policy statement for supporting ICT entrepreneurs to have better access to national and international arena. Among the variables that affect policy implementation, political will and support have been appreciated by the ICT entrepreneurs. The goals which are not being implemented are probably being hampered by lack of required amount of financial allocation, lack of technical skill and knowledge of the implementers, and lack of related policies complementing this policy. Increased participation of entrepreneurs in this sector will be helpful to harvest the benefit from policy implementation.  Article visualizations

SUSTAINABILITY OF UNION DIGITAL CENTRE IN BANGLADESH: HAS IT GOT INSTITUTIONAL ROOTS?

In Bangladesh, Union Digital Center (UDC), an ICT (Information & Communication Technology) based telecenter, began its operations in 2009 in only 30 Union Parishads through partnership between Local Government Division and the Access to Information (A2I) program under the Prime Minister’s Office, presently operating at all 4,547 Union Parishads of the country. It is a one-stop service outlet operating under the Public-Private-People’s Partnership modality, run by local entrepreneurs, hosted by Union Parishad and supported by Central Administration. But stakeholders and observers frequently question the sustainability of these UDCs especially those in rural areas where telecommunications and electricity are problematic. The purpose of the study is to examine the sustainability whether the UDCs got institutional roots or not. It also attempts to find out the factors having influence on the sustainability of UDCs and also the challenges and the possible remedies for ensuring sustainability. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. It has been found that having high potentiality UDC’s sustainability is affected by various factors like Entrepreneur’s Qualification such as professionalism and technical skill, Infrastructure such as electricity and internet, Location such as accessibility and availability of needed services and Government Intervention such as governmental support and political will.  Article visualizations

Structural patterns of fisheries communities with relation to ecological condition in subtropical coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

1720-1732Fisheries assemblages with notes on the ecological conditions in coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, were investigated based on beach seine fishing net data form a one-year cycle (2015-2016) data collected by beach seine net. A total of 75 species comprising of 61 finfishes, 7 shrimps, 2 cephalopods, 2 lobsters and 3 crab species were identified. Among them, 58 species were commonly distributed in all four seasons, while 16 species were found dominant to the total communities. The species number, richness, evenness, and species diversity peaked in the monsoon and fell in the winter. Multivariate analysis of CAP and dbRDA revealed that there were clear temporal and spatial variations in fisheries assemblages in the Kohelia channel. RELATE analysis showed a significant correlation between fisheries communities with environmental variables. Furthermore, best matching analysis (BEST/BIOENV) confirmed that these temporal and spatial variations were driven by changing salinity, transparency and nutrients either alone or combined with soil nutrients. Thus, these findings suggest that fisheries community structure is shaped by the ecological condition in this marine channel system

Seasonal pattern of zooplankton communities and their environmental response in subtropical maritime channels systems in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

Zooplankton are a primary component of aquatic food chain and play an important role in the functioning of aquatic food webs. Seasonal variation in community structures of zooplankton and potential environmental drivers were studied, during a 1-year cycle (summer 2015 – spring 2016) in subtropical maritime channels systems in the Bay of Bengal, coastal waters in Bangladesh. A total of 32 species representing 25 families, 13 orders and 15 taxonomic groups were identified. Of these species, 23 distributed in all four season of which 8 were dominant species with high contributions of the total communities. Species number was peaked in autumn and fell in summer while maximum abundance was in the winter and minimum in summer. Multivariate analyses showed that there was a clear seasonal shift in zooplankton community structures in relation with environmental conditions. Species diversity and evenness peaked in summer while the high value of species richness was found in autumn. Multivariate correlation (RELATE) and BIO-ENV analysis demonstrated that seasonal variation in community patterns was significantly correlated with temporal shift of environmental conditions and that variation mainly driven by water transparency, salinity, DO, TSS and nutrients. Thus, this finding implies that the zooplankton community represented a clear seasonal shift shaped by environmental drivers in subtropical channels systems

Original Articles Predictors of Mortality in Ventilated Neonates in Intensive Care Unit

Background: A large number of neonates in intensive care unit require mechanical ventilation due to various conditions and have a high mortality. To reduce the high mortality in this group of neonates, identification of risk factors is important. Objective: This study was undertaken to find out the predictors of mortality in ventilated neonates in the Intensive Care Unit. Methods: This study was carried out in the Intensive Care Unit of Dhaka Shish

Annual pattern of zooplankton communities and their environmental response in a subtropical maritime channel system in the northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

Zooplankton plays an important role in aquatic food webs by fluxing of energy from primary producer to subsequent trophic levels in the food chain. The annual pattern of zooplankton communities and potential environmental drivers were studied in the Kohelia channel, Bangladesh from summer 2014 to spring 2015. Samples were collected using net at a depth of 1 m. A total of 32 species belonged to 18 orders, 27 families and 15 taxonomic groups were identified. Of these species, 22 distributed in all four seasons of which 8 were dominant and highly contributing to the total communities. Species number peaked in summer next to winter and fall in spring while maximum abundance was in summer and minimum in spring. Multivariate analyses showed that there was a clear annual pattern in the zooplankton communities. Species diversity and evenness peaked in spring but fall in autumn while the high value of species richness was found in winter. Biological-environmental best matching (BIO-ENV) analyses conformed that community pattern of zooplankton was mainly driven by transparency salinity, and temperature individually or combined with water nutrients. These results demonstrate that annual pattern of the zooplankton community shaped by channel environmental factors in subtropical channel ecosystems, thus might be used for community-based subtropical coastal water bioassessment

Seasonal shift in soft bottom-dwelling community structure in coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean

2021-2031Benthic invertebrate communities play an important role in functioning of benthic food webs and commonly used as potential biomarkers in environmental monitoring programs. The seasonal variation in community structures of macro benthos was studied in northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh from summer 2015 to spring 2016. A total of 45 species belonging to 35 families, 25 orders and 5 classes were identified. Of these species, 14 were commonly distributed and 10 were highest contributors. The species number, total abundance and species richness peaked in summer and sharply dropped in winter whereas evenness and diversity were highest in spring and both were lowest in winter. Multivariate analysis (CAP and RELATE) revealed a clear significant seasonal shift in community patterns of the benthic communities with relation to environmental variables. Further, BIOENV signified that water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and water nutrients were the main drivers to shape the community structure. These finding suggest that seasonal shift in benthic communities in response to environmental changes might be used as bio indicators for discriminating environmental quality status in coastal ecosystems

DataSheet1_Modelling the sustainable agriculture management adaptation practices: Using adaptive capacity as a mediator.CSV

The purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of farmers’ adaptive capacity between adaptation practices and economic, social, natural, technological, and institutional limitations. A survey questionnaire was employed to collect data, which was subsequently analysed using PLS-Structural Equation Modelling Structural equation modelling. The entire population was stratified into 27 Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan out of which 500 targeted respondents were randomly selected from seven strata for data collection. The findings revealed that only 67% of farmers are aware of adaptation practices, while 33% are uninformed. The study also revealed that economic, social, natural, technological, and institutional barriers affect farmers’ adaptive capacity levels and ultimately hamper their adaptation practices. This result further affirms the influence of farmers’ adaptive capacity level on their adaptation behaviour. Adaptation strategies are essential to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. However, the success of these strategies is contingent upon the farmers’ adaptive capacity level, which is strained by several barriers. The findings contribute to the development of a national adaptation plan in a bid to aid the implementation of the 2011–2020 National Agri-Food Policy (NAP) to increase the competitiveness and production capacity of the entire agri-food industry value chain and ensure food security in Malaysia. This study will help policymakers come up with a good policy framework to get rid of the problems that get in the way of adapting to climate change.</p