Volume 06, Issue 01: December, 2023

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Book Review: Tanwi Nandini Islam, Bright Lines: A Novel
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Sanjida Afrin
Rivalry of India and China in the Indian Ocean: Challenges for South Asian Littoral States
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Major General Kazi Iftekharul Alam, ndc, psc and Rahat Bari Tooheen
The geographical proximity of India and China to the Indian Ocean has set the stage for a unique geopolitical situation. The bordering states of the Indian Ocean, a region of contrast in terms of politics, population, and economy, has given rise to a complex geopolitical framework where interests of the local states and foreign nations intersect. In the 21st century, the Indian Ocean has risen to prominence in terms of global trade and geopolitical focus. The different political ideologies of India and China shape their strategic perceptions and orientation. The conflict between India and China will have an impact on the economic and political connectivity of neighboring states, and China’s increasing influence in the region of the Indian Ocean will change the geopolitical dynamics of the bordering nations. Mutual dialogue should be highlighted for building confidence and identifying the areas of cooperation between India, China and their neighboring states.
Symbolic Narratives in Motion: Rickshaw Painting as Art in Chattogram, Bangladesh
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Abu Suan and Shah Ahmed
This article explores the artistic value of the treasured world of rickshaw painting in the commercial capital of Bangladesh, Chattogram and aims at demonstrating its essential role in representing Bangladeshi art and culture as an intangible cultural heritage. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, the study discusses over twenty paintings gathered from Chattogram's (one of Bangladesh's major cities) streets. This academic initiative provides a window into the conscious and the unconscious of the rickshaw artists and rickshaw pullers, and a practical lens for understanding the cultural significance of rickshaw painting as art, reaffirming its timeless and widespread impact. The article reveals findings that accentuate the cultural and psychological depth within these paintings, highlighting their beauty and elegance as symbolic narratives that go bevond mere aesthetics. The research demonstrates that rickshaw paintings act as a cultural mirror, reflecting the rich heritage of Bangladesh. It surpasses a surface-level exploration, emphasizing that these artistic and symbolic representations are more than fleeting images; rather, they are enduring reflections of Bangladeshi identity that transcend temporal and spatial boundaries. This article contributes to scholarly discussions, especially in cultural studies by reaffirming the symbolic narratives and lasting artistic significance of rickshaw painting in Chattogram.
Developing a Management Point of View: Case of Education Sector Problems in a Developing country
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Moslehuddin Chowdhury Khaled
This is a case study in the domain of public sector management or management in government, with particular reference to education as a sector as a whole. Bangladesh has shown persistent upward trends in development indicators during the last four decades. In the education sector also, essential quantity indicators like literacy, the female proportion of literacy, number of educational institutions, increased and improved, at all levels - primary, secondary, tertiary, and technical. But qualitative improvement remained mysteriously low, despite government intention to increase quality of teaching, learning, and administration. This paper aimed to draw an overall picture of the prevalent scenario of the education sector. Analyzing secondary sources like public media, and primary sources like citizen interactions, this qualitative study consolidated the problems of the education sector in a coherent whole. Contrary to overstated budget problems, the paper argues that many problems of the education sector are not budget problems. Rather purely and simply 'management' problems, and so, can effectively be solved with basic but thorough understanding of the basic technicalities of management as a discipline.
Predicting apartment housing price from secondary data using XGBoost algorithm: Bangladesh Context
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Aseef lqbal and Shadman Saif Anonno
The real estate sector in Bangladesh is experiencing rapid growth, driven by increasing housing demand, expanding middle-class populations, and rising per-capita income. Accurate property valuation remains a critical challenge due to numerous influencing criteria. This study introduces an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) for predicting apartment prices using the XGBoost machine learning algorithm, addressing the current lack of valuation options in online real estate marketplaces. The research collected data from a prominent online real estate marketplace comprising9,136 apartment listings across Bangladesh, with 8,123 listings from Dhaka. The methodology involved data preprocessing, including one-hot encoding of categorical variables, resulting in 574 independent variables. Bayesian optimization was applied to tune hyper parameters. enhancing model performance. Key hyper parameters included max_depth, eta, gamma, and sampling ratios. The AVM achieved an R2 of 0.91 and a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 8.57% on an 80:20 train-test split. With 5-fold cross-validation, the R2 was 0.89, and MAPE was 9.09%, indicating robustness and reliability. Comparative analysis highlighted that the proposed model out performed several existing approaches in the literature. This research emphasizes the importance of feature selection, revealing that data quality directly impacts model accuracy. Future research recommendations include leveraging natural language processing for extracting data from text descriptions, integrating multiple online marketplaces, and incorporating image processing techniques to enhance apartment price prediction. The proposed AVM offers a scalable solution for accurate, automated apartment price prediction, benefiting buyers, sellers, and financial institutions in Bangladesh's burgeoning real estate market using machine learning.
Reconstructing the Image of Tipu Sultan in Girish Karnad's The Dreams of Tipu Sultan
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Ummey Haney Pinkey
This paper scrutinizes the alternative image of Tipu Sultan created by Girish Karnad in his 1997 play The Dreams of Tipu Sultan. Girish Karnad has treated a controversial historical figure, Tipu Sultan, in this play. He portrays a positive image of this ruler of Mysore. In doing so, he has greatly deviated from the conventional image of Tipu Sultan constructed and propagated by colonial hegemony. Tipu Sultan is branded as a notorious ruler by the Europeans to justify the colonial legacy. But, Karnad has endeavored to restore his image convincingly us ing historical documents, records and other sources and has created a counter-discourse as well. This paper aims to focus on how Karnad has challenged the colonial narratives by offering a counter-narrative from the perspective of the colonized. It shows that Karnad's purpose behind this is not only to create the history of the colonized but also to bring the marginalized "Other" from the periphery to the "center". In order to do so, a postcolonial approach of the politics of representation is applied in this paper to analyze this text.
From Outdated to Effective: Revamping Bangladesh's Bankruptcy Law to Support Economic Stability and Growth
(CIU Journal, 2023-12-01) Sayeed Hasan, Mohammad Nayeem Abdullah and Md. Iqbal Hossain
Bangladesh, known globally as a low-cost garment manufacturing hub, is transitioning from a Least Developed Country to a "Developing Country" status. To sustain and accelerate this growth, the country is aggressively seeking Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and pursuing various ambitious mega-projects. However, a critical area that requires attention is its bankruptcy law, which plays a crucial role in corporate governance and enterprise development. The existing Bankruptcy Act 1997 is outdated and ineffective, necessitating urgent reform. This study identifies the deficiencies in the current law and proposes updates to align it with international standards, particularly the UNCITRAL Model Law* which includes provisions for cross-border insolvency. A unified legal framework for addressing non-performing loans is also recommended.