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Members' Input for Biotech
Development
The
MoSICT Need to be in Charge of a Full Cabinet Minister for
Accelerating the Development of S&T
Dhaka
25th Jan, '09. In the section,
"Counter Counterpoint,"
published on the 19th of January edition of the Daily Star,
Professor Ahmed
Azad welcomes the move of the the present Government to turn the
country into Digital Bangladesh by 2021 and stresses the dire need
of "excellent education at all levels and a well trained
workforce" concomitant with finding ways to promote
research and innovation for rendering our country internationally
competitive. Prof Azad regrets that the action taken by the present regime
does not match with their election promises as is evident from the fact
that the Minister in charge of Science, Information and Communication
Technology does not hold the rank of a Cabinet Minister. Prof Azad
thinks and rightly so that given proper conditions conducive to research
and security of employment in Bangladesh there will be
"brain-gain," instead of brain-drain. This strategy
will not only be a major factor in the fast development of the country but
this will replace foreign experts by non-resident Bangladeshis at a
fraction of the present cost. Read the article
....
____Prof.
Ahmed Azad publishes an Article, "The Biotechnology Solution in DS
Dhaka
8th February, ’09. Prof.
Ahmed Azad publishes an Article, "The Biotechnology Solution in the
8th February edition of the Daily Star. Professor makes a clarion call to
GNOBB members and other concerned scientists to follow up the article with
letters to editors. The word limit for Point Counterpoint is
strictly 800 words; so I could not cover the issue comprehensively. Points
that I have missed could be covered in the follow-up letters and articles.
We need to maintain the momentum as the government is in the process of forming
the parliamentary committees and it would be pity if the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Biotechnology was not re-constituted. Please
read the article in PDF format....
 Dhaka
11th February, ’09. Here is another
article urging the present regime to implement
the recommendations submitted by
the expert committee formed by the participants of an incredibly
successful International Conference held in
ICDDR,B, Dhaka in April 2007. Pl. Read
the article and make your own comments....
(1) GNOBB
and YoungBB can make it happen
Dhaka 11th Oct.,'08. As
the moderator who initiated the topic and brought the burning issue
to
the attention GNOBB members and young BB, I picked up one of the
letters
written in response to Dr. Abidur Rahman, Mustak and Monir. Said
writer
has suggested solutions how we can get out of this rut by
quoting
examples of the
USA where
both Republican and Democrat senators work together in times of
crisis
such as their current
joint
endeavor to tide over the economic crunch; and the relentless
struggle a
few scientists in Thailand have made to reap the benefit of
S&T.
As a first step I would
suggest
Young BBs led by Mustak, Monir and a few other volunteers meet
the
President of BAS and urge upon him to have more frequent dialogs
with
the Adviser and Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Information
and
Communication Technology on vital issues confronting science in
general
and biotechnology in particular. For instance, BAS can put pressure
on
GoB regarding
implementation of the set of recommendations
on Biotech Policy prepared by the distinguished NRB and
local
scientists through consensus at
the end of an International Biotech Conference held one year
and half
ago.
What
reaction will it
create in the outside world when it will be known
that none of the senior posts at the ONLY National Institute
of
Biotechnology (NIB) have been filled up; and a few junior scientists
who
are working there have not got their pay for the last few months. Pl
read the letter.
(2)
Suggestion
for Creating Awareness among PUBLIC and Govt. Functionaries
Dhaka 14th Oct., 08. We think of a lot
of
innovations such as ‘generation of electricity’ from tonnes and tones of garbage from the metropolitan
cities but
at the end of the day it is forgotten until someone else raises the
issue
again. Prof. Zeba Seraj has suggested that young BB think of such
projects
and create awareness among the public and wake up the policy
makers to the
exploitation of such technologies which are no longer under patent
protection. Take two examples one from Japan and the other from
Wisconsin,
Minnesota.
The Ministry of Environment, the Government
of Japan,
is planning to
raise the
megawatts of electricity to 2,500, by burning garbage.
which is
equivalent to an amount that can be produced by one nuclear power
plant. And
in the USA
the
garbage from Hennepin County's hundreds of
thousands of homes and businesses gets hauled to the Hennepin
Environmental Recovery Center. There, the garbage is turned into
usable
electricity, generating enough energy each year to
light
25,000 homes. Landfill gas-to-energy facilities will be built in
six
more states, namely,
in Texas, Virginia, New
York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Illinois and Wisconsin.
With the cooperation of the Government of Japan and the USA
it will
be possible to build such facilities in the six city corporations?.
Increasing importance of biotechnology in the face of frequent
natural
calamities:
Dhaka, the 27th Sept., ’08. What was once thought to be a junk of
DNA such
as ‘introns’ or untranslated region has turned out to be vitally
important
in the functioning of genes, some of which have proven to be
regulatory in
their nature. Significant progress in the field of biotechnology has been
possible due to powerful innovative molecular tools coupled with
highly
advanced sophisticated bioinformatics software. Some of these
developments
are in direct response to food security and reduction of global
warming.
Bangladesh and
many parts
of the world experience periodically natural disasters such as
cyclones,
drought and flood which bring in their wake near famine conditions
and
epidemics claiming countless lives. Ever mounting carbon dioxide
emissions
are contributing to global warming, threatening our existence from
the
planet. All these contingencies have increased the world demand for
flood-, drought tolerant and disease and pest resistant crops. The
application of multitude of techniques offered by biotechnology may
pave
the way toward its satisfactory solution.
Read the whole article and comments by
Dr.
Parvez Haris.
_______________________________________________________ Unversity and Politics in the Daily Star
Dhaka, 11th Sept.,08.A letter to the Editor under the title,
University and
Politics, by the Moderator has been published in the Daily Star in its
10th Sept. Edition. It highlights the principal causes that have led to the
fall of standard in both education and research in the highest seats of
Learning in the country, namely, universities. The article suggests ways
and means how to restore the lost glory of some some universities which
was once the pride of the Indian subcontinent.
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