Volume 04, Number 02, 2007

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    Working capital management practiced in Pharmaceutical companies in Dhaka stock
    (BRAC University, 2007) Chowdhury, Anup; Amin, Md. Muntasir
    Among all the problems of financial management, the problems of working capital management have probably been recognized as the most crucial one. It is because of the fact that working capital always helps a business concern to gain vitality and life strength. The objective of this study is to critically evaluate working capital management as practiced in the selected firms of the Pharmaceutical industry. To achieve this goal the study also examines the policy and practices of cash management, evaluate the principles, procedures and techniques of inventory management, receivable management and payable management. But the study does not examine the political and economic impacts on the working capital management. From the analysis we can conclude that pharmaceutical firms operated in Bangladesh are efficiently deal with their liquidity preferences and investment criteria and this is due to the competitive nature of this industry.
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    The prometheus myth in the novels of william golding
    (BRAC University, 2007) Manzoor, Sohana
    Much influenced by the horrors of the two World Wars, William Golding (1911-93) began his literary career as a novelist during the second half of the 20th century. His novels depict the intricate human psychology and lack of human relationship in an age where men actually have little to live for. In explaining occurrences in the human world Golding went back to myths, just as writers and philosophers before him had used mythical stories to interpret various human situations. Hence, Golding has taken up a number of recurring mythical motifs, and detailed examination shows how these motifs are central to explaining his complex themes. One such motif is the figure of Prometheus, a champion of mankind from Greek mythology who revolted against the immortal gods to free mankind. Classical Greek writers, such as, Aeschylus portrayed him as a rebel who ultimately reconciled himself with the immortals. However, in the Renaissance and Romantic literature Prometheus became a symbol of suffering and aspiring humanity. In modern literature, once again the role of this great hero changed. Since that heroic world is lost in our non-heroic one Golding concentrates on the fallen or debased aspects of mankind interlinked with intense suffering. So, while examining Golding's Promethean figures, this paper will try to assess the author's philosophy of reshaping the myth of Prometheus.
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    The heritage of Shankharibazar: peoples participation in the conservation process to promote cultural tourism
    (BRAC University, 2007) Ahmed, Iftekhar
    Shankharibazar, the 300 years old urban settlement of Dhaka city was built during the Mughal period and the later part of the British rule. Most of the residents are specialist craftsmen who make 'Shankha' (a special kind of bangle for the Hindu married women made of seashells). The name of the area has evolved from the name of this craft. About 10,000 people live in about 4.6 acres of land. There are 157 houses on both side of the 600 feet long narrow alley. They share unique architectural styles. Over the years many unplanned modifications took place which is a serious threat for the houses with heritage value. With its linear built form, rich history and special craft, Shankharibazar has a unique aura and deserved special attention for conservation. There is a good scope of promoting cultural tourism here. Being a living heritage site, the existing population must participate in the conservation process. A "community-based" conservation process should be promoted to market the area as a tourist attraction. This paper suggests the process of integrated public involvement in the conservation management plan for Shankharibazar including steps, such as, understanding problems; generating and evaluating the options for response; and ultimately choosing a roadmap for conservation management for a successful spot for cultural tourism.
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    Solid waste management of Dhaka city: public private community partnership
    (BRAC University, 2007) Zahur, Moushumi
    Urban solid waste management is considered as one of the most immediate and serious environmental problems confronting municipal authorities in developing Asian Countries. Although municipal authorities acknowledge the importance of adequate solid waste collection and disposal as well as resource recovery and recycling, it is mostly beyond their resource to deal effectively with the growing amount of solid waste generated by the expanding cities. Consequently solid waste is indiscriminate by dumped on roads and into open drains thus leading to serious health risk and degradation of living environment for millions of urban people. In the last decade, however, importance of community involvement in solid waste management and use of adapted technologies were recognized for improving the solid waste management system.
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    Rate of returns to education for secondary school techers in Bangladesh with bootstrap sampling
    (BRAC University, 2007) Huq, Molla Md. Rashidul
    Rate of returns to education is very important for policy makers and investors. Numerous works have been done regarding this but very few are available in the context of Bangladesh, specially addressing the teachers in Bangladesh. This paper investigates the labour market returns to education for the secondary school teachers of Bangladesh with the help of a nationwide survey. Different returns to different aspects of the determinants of labour market including teacher quality and school quality were perceived. Also bootstrap sampling method was utilized to ensure the accuracy of the results. The results may assist, in different ways, to understand the wage-education mechanism for the teachers in Bangladesh.
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    Perceptions of the customers towards insurance companies in Bangladesh- a study based on the survqual model
    (BRAC University, 2007) Chowdhury, Tamzid Ahmed; Rahman, Masud Ibn; Afza, Syeda Rownak
    This is the law of nature that people have to live and play with hazards and to some extent insurance policy can free people from those frustrations. Even if this is true, people of Bangladesh still don't prefer to insure themselves. One may think that the people of Bangladesh are risk lover; on the other hand other may contradict by saying that their low purchasing power doesn't permit them to avail insurance policy. This paper will highlight those issues relating to non popularity of insurance companies in Bangladesh. To find marketing side problems, Gap-model of service marketing will be fitted to the insurance industry of Bangladesh.
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    Participatory action research (PAR): revisiting the history, concept and ethics
    (BRAC University, 2007) Reza, Md. Hasan
    Participatory Action Research (PAR), a dominant mode of praxis, is increasingly gaining its status in the mainstream academia. The uniqueness of PAR, where social investigation, education and social actions converge, aimed at transforming the institutional arrangements of a society into more of an equitable form. This paper explores the historical, epistemological and ideological standpoints of PAR and explains its propositional encompassments. The debate around the philosophy of social science, especially qualitative vs. quantitative research, provides the necessary context to comprehend where PAR stands. The historical overview explicates the genesis of PAR and its contemporary status. The ethical issues in PAR indicate its inherent tensions.
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    Gender inequality in the distribution of household expenditure in Bangladesh: a theil decompositon analysis
    (BRAC University, 2007) Chowdhury, Navil
    This paper attempts to study the gender inequality situation in Bangladesh during 1995-96 through examining the effect the gender of a household head and their marital status has on the per capita household expenditure. The study was conducted using the Theil inequality decomposition technique with household expenditure data from the 1995-96 Household Expenditure Survey (HES). The study reveals that gender in Bangladesh does not seem to play a large role in explaining total inequality as the between component accounted for less than 5 percent of total inequality. However, this conclusion seems premature when the marital statuses of household heads are examined for their effect on inequality. The results show the need to distinguish amongst the various types of female headed households themselves. In this regard, De jure female headed households form an especially vulnerable group. Hence policy makers must keep this in mind when designing policy to reduce inequality.
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    Employee perception regarding turnover decision-in context of Bangladesh banking sector
    (BRAC University, 2007) Newaz, M. K.; Ali, T.; Akhter, I.
    The employment culture is changing in Bangladesh. It is now relatively common to change jobs frequently, rather than to grow with one company throughout the employment life. This kind of voluntary turnover directly affects the performance of the organization. So now all organizations are highly concerned to keep their valuable employees. Each day completed by an employee is an investment to an organization; to leave before the full term is to get no return on the investment. As banking is one of the vital service industry for any country and performing a number of roles in the economy, so it has been chosen by the researchers for this study. Like all other industries, banking sector in our country is also facing the same employee turnover problem. It is needless to say, healthy banking system and healthy economies seem to go together. In order to ensure that, banking sectors should focus on the factors, which are primarily responsible for employees leaving the organization. This paper mainly tries to focus on different perceived reasons of employees of financial sector for leaving decision from their existing organizations
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    Comfort with courtyards in Dhaka apartments
    (BRAC University, 2007) Ali, Zainab Faruqi
    The building activities in the residential arena of Dhaka are primarily involved in mid to high rise apartments of various sizes and styles in almost every available space. The majority of these, mostly six storied, are compact type buildings with no courtyards inside. Hence there is a lack of natural ventilation and daylight in the interior spaces, which affect the level of indoor comfort. The age-old methods of designing in the context have proven that providing natural ventilation is an important strategy for having comfort. The traditional residences, rural or urban, with interior courtyards created a living condition that was and still is, environmentally, functionally, and socially sustainable. The author, through studying a number of residential buildings both with and without courtyards, stresses that introduction of this important environmental element, or the courtyard in the contemporary apartment buildings can provide much better indoor comfort in terms of light, air and coolness. The study is a synthesis of recorded temperatures, questionnaire survey and observations made on various aspects of the plan, section, form, materials and impact of the presence or absence of courtyards. The author also suggests that considering 'value-for-money' factor, new building regulations of floor area ratio, and above all indoor comfort the scope of applying courtyards in residential apartments for good thermal and luminous environment is still possible.