The book contains articles from a variety of disciplines held together by a common thread: socio-economic development of Bangladesh.  The articles are grouped together by their disciples such as political science, social science, science and technology and economics.  The contributing authors engage in systematic discussions on country’s political and constitutional issues, causes of poverty and underdevelopment, corruptions and governance.  A number of articles deal with the status and prospects of fisheries, water resources, informal and higher education, and steel and engineering technology, while others focus on monetary and banking policies, privatization and effects and implications of globalization.

The book contains data, analysis and policy directions on current issues affecting Bangladesh�s politics, industry, education, economy and so on.  Whereas the book is not intended to provide a fully coordinated set of policy prescriptions on current issues, the articles in the book do point to a common set of problems facing Bangladesh such as the domination of rent-seeking class and associated corruption, political instability and violence, lack of well-coordinated economic policies for industrialization, parasitic education system, etc.  The solutions suggested in the articles are based on in-depth, objective and comparative analysis of the subject matter and should prove useful to the policy makers and development practitioners.

  It contains seventeen articles as listed below:

Table of Contents

Part I: Political Science

Chapter 1: Aspirations and Realities: Parliaments and the Democratic Culture in Bangladesh

By Zillur R. Khan

Chapter 2: Bangladesh Between Promise and Reality: Current Tendencies and Theoretical Explorations

By Ahrar Ahmad

Chapter 3:  Images, Belief System and Foreign Policy: Creating a �New Image� of Bangladesh

By Choudhury M. Shamim

Part II: Social Science

Chapter 4: On the Triangular Relationship Between Political Corruption, Gender Inequality, and Socio-Economic Development in Bangladesh

By Ansar Ahmed

Chapter 5: Mapping Rural Women’s Perspectives on Non-formal Education Experiences

By Zebun N. Ahmed

Chapter 6: Teachers and Teaching: Perspectives on Higher Education

By Syed Saad Andaleeb

Part III: Science and Technology

Chapter 7: Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Resources in Bangladesh

By Ruhul Kuddus

Chapter 8: Regional Cooperation and Integrated Basin Development to Mitigate the Adverse Effects of The Farakka Barrage

By Sufian A. Khondker

Part IV: Economics

Chapter 9: Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization: Policy Options for Bangladesh

By M. Badrul Haque

Chapter 10: An Examination of Some Issues in the Conduct of Monetary Policy in

Bangladesh

By Akhtar Hossain

Chapter 11: Bank Restructuring and Privatization Experience in Bangladesh

By M. Kabir Hassan

Chapter 12: The Political Economy of Higher Education in Bangladesh

By Munir Quddus

Chapter 13: Steel and Engineering and The Diffusion of Technological Capability in Bangladesh

By Farida Chowdhury Khan

Chapter 14: Public Enterprise Inefficiency and The Road to Privatization in Bangladesh

By Tanweer Akram

Chapter 15: An Empirical Study of Life Expectancy in Bangladesh

By Anisul M. Islam

Chapter 16: Migration and Bangladesh�s Economic Development

By Salim Rashid

Chapter 17: Per Capita Income as a Pivotal Index in Economic Development Models

By Ashraf Ali