30-07-2021

FriDAY, JulY 30, 2021
8
IPRS technology creates new hope
for fish farmers in Rajshahi region
Piloting of digital mobile apps named "BKB APPs" of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) is inaugurated at the
bank's Head Office on Wednesday. This apps has been developed for making financial transactions easy
and rapid for all the customers under financial inclusion & quality access to credit program. The
Chairman of the Board of Directors Md. Nasiruzzaman formally inaugurated the ceremony. The
Managing Director of the bank Md. Ali Hossain Prodhania, Deputy Managing Director Shirin Akhter and
all the General Managers along with concerned officials were present on the occasion. Photo : Courtesy
Double tax and bandits on the
Pakistan-Afghan trade route
CHAMAN, Pakistan : The Taliban's
capture of a key Afghan-Pakistan border post
has sent trucking costs soaring, with
insurgents and government officials
separately taxing traders, and bandits
demanding bribes to allow safe passage of
goods.
Thousands of vehicles cross daily from
Chaman in southwestern Pakistan to Spin
Boldak on the other side, carrying goods
destined for Kandahar, Afghanistan's
second-biggest city.
On the way back they usually ferry
agricultural produce bound for Pakistan's
markets or ports.
The bilateral trade-worth hundreds of
millions of dollars a year if not more-ground
to a halt earlier this month after the Taliban
seized the dusty border town, but resumed
this week with the insurgents seemingly
firmly in charge.
They have captured a vast swath of the
country since early May after launching a
series of offensives to capitalise on the final
stages of the withdrawal of foreign troops.
While they have not yet taken any
provincial capitals, they have captured a
string of key border posts-with Iran,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistanwhich
provide vital revenue from customs
duties on goods arriving in the landlocked
country. "We loaded grapes in Kandahar and
on the way we have been extorted at least
three times," trucker Hidayatullah Khan told
AFP at Chaman.
JibanBima premium payment
now in Nagad
Nagad, the mobile financial
service of Bangladesh Post
Office, has tied hand with the
JibanBima Corporation, staterun
life insurance provider of
Bangladesh, to facilitate the
insurance premium payment
for the customers, a press
release said.
From now on, Nagad users
can pay the insurance premium
of Jiban Bima Corporation
from their account sitting
anywhere, anytime, which will
eliminate the need to visit any
physical location and can save
time, money and effort.
The partnership is essentially
more valid since cashless
transection is beneficial during
the ongoing pandemic.
Nagad and Jiban Bima
Corporation has signed a deal
in this regard Tuesday at Jiban
Bima Head Office in the capital
where the insurance company
Chairman Md. Maksudul
Hasan Khan was the chief guest
and Managing Director of the
insurance company Md
Zahurul Haque also present.
Nagad Chief Executive
Officer Rahel Ahmed and
JibanBima Corporation
General Manager (Finance and
Accounts) Sheikh Kamal
Hossain signed the agreement
for their respective
organizations.
Nagad CEORahel Ahmed
said, "Nagad was started two
years ago as the part of the
"Sometimes they charge 3,000 rupees
($20), somewhere else 2,000 rupees, and in
some other place 1,000 rupees," he said.
That was on top of the taxes he had to pay
Taliban officials in Spin Boldak and Afghan
government customs officials who have
opened shop in Kandahar.
Nissan sees return to
annual profit after
strong Q1 results
TOKYO : Crisis-hit Japanese carmaker
Nissan upgraded its annual outlook
Wednesday, projecting a return to the black,
after a strong first quarter performance
fuelled by a recovery from the coronavirus
pandemic, reports BSS.
Nissan now forecasts a 60 billion yen
($546 million) net profit for the year to
March 2022, compared with its earlier
estimate of a 60 billion yen net loss.
For the three months to June, the firm
logged a 114.5 billion yen net profit,
compared with a 285.6 billion yen net loss in
the same period last year.
It also tipped stronger annual sales after its
quarterly sales surged 71 percent to 2.0
trillion yen.
In the year to March 2021, Nissan had
trimmed its annual loss after weathering the
impact of virus lockdowns but stopped short
of turning a profit.
Digital Bangladesh revolution
of the Honorable Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasian. We
are very happy today with this
collaboration with one of the
pioneer insurance company of
the country and now our users
can pay their premium anytime
effortlessly."
He said, "Although the
mobile financial service of the
country started about a decade
back, but with innovative
solution Nagad has acquired
more than 5 crore customers
within such a short time along
with daily transection of Tk 700
crore. With the revolutionary
solution like digital KYC we
have reduced the registration
hassle which helped the
Fast-growing,
controversial
Robinhood set
for market debut
NEW YORK : Robinhood
has said its mission is to
"democratize finance for all,"
and that stretches to its plan
for the company's debut on
public markets Thursday.
The online investment
platform, which is expected
to begin trading under the
ticker symbol "HOOD" on
the Nasdaq, has set aside up
to 35 percent of the shares
under its initial public
offering for sale to its users.
Individual investors are
normally excluded from
IPOs, making Robinhood's
move the latest rupture with
tradition in its speedy rise
that has only accelerated
during coronavirus
pandemic. On Wednesday
night, the company said it
raised $1.9 billion in an
initial public offering priced
at $38 per share, at the low
end of the range in its
prospectus.
The firm, whose
commission-free stock
trading model has been
copied by some rivals, had
$81 billion in assets under its
custody at the end of March,
up from $14.2 billion at the
end of 2019.
financial inclusion in the
country."
Jiban Bima Corporation
Managing Director, Md
Zahurul Haque, has marked
this collaboration with a staterun
mobile financial service as
a milestone and said, "We hope
majority of our premium
collection of Tk 700 crore
comes through Nagad. As we
both are state-run
organization, it will ultimately
help the government and the
people."
Stressing on more digital
innovation like Nagad, Jiban
Bima Corporation Chairman
Md. Maksudul Hasan
Khansaid, "Such innovation
proves that we have already
passing the Digital Bangladesh
era which was a government
vision. Now more innovation
should come and such
collaboration should get more
publicity."
Nagad's Chief Marketing
Officer Sheikh Aminur
Rahman, Chief Sales Officer
MdShihab Uddin Chowdhury,
JibanBima Corporation
General
Manager
(Development and ICT) were
present in the occasion among
others.
Earlier,Nagad has joined
hands with MetLife insurance
for premium payment channel
and currently so far the state
owned mobile financial service
also has partnership with27
insurance companies for
collecting their premiums
through Nagad.
RAJSHAHI : In-pond raceway system
(IPRS), a highly sophisticated
innovative aquaculture technology, has
created a high hope among the fish
farmers in the region, including its vast
Barind tract.
The hope has been generated with
the breakthrough of launching an IPRS
fish farming venture at Noyagola
Bolunpur, located in the outskirts of
Chapainawabganj district town,
around two years back.
Salient features of an IPRS are air-lift,
bottom aeration, cells and waste
collection arrangements that make this
system unique ensuring optimal water
chemistry that allows super high
density stocking.
Akbar Hossain, the owner of "Nawab
Matsya Khamar Prakalpa [Nawab Fish
Farm Project]" is using IPRS in his
ponds producing different carps,
Tilapia and Pangas commercially.
He installed the system in 20 acres of
his land creating scopes of producing
around 32 tons of fish from every 250
cubic metres using the IPRS promising
a dramatic rise in fish production.
In the modern system, about 10,000
fishes can be reared at a time in a bigha
of water body against hardly 300 to
400 fishes in the same area in
conventional method, Akbar, a national
award winning fisheries entrepreneur,
said.
He said this is an environmentally
friendly aquaculture technology that
can help to ensure quality and safe
seafood for human consumption.
Various types of fish species of different
sizes can be cultivated at the same time
in the same pond.
"We have stocked Rui, Catla,
Common Carp, Grass Carp, Pangas,
Tilapia, and Pabda species of fish," said
Akbar Hossain, adding depending on
market demand fish will be stocked in
future on the basis of trial specific
species.
He is expected to harvest 2,000
tonnes of fishes valued at around Taka
10 crore from the 20-acre pond a year
meaning that he will make a profit of
Taka five crore.
District Fisheries Officer Dr Amimul
Ehsan, who is extending technical
support to the venture since its very
beginning, said all the conditions of
Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP) are
being followed in Akbar's farm. Talking
to BSS, he said establishing
raceways/channels in a big pond and
maintaining continuous water flow in
those raceways is the main principle of
IPRS. Outer area of the raceways is also
facilitated by continuous circular water
flow. Simultaneously, a mechanized
feeding system and removal of all waste
materials are also ensured.
Sufficient dissolved oxygen supply,
continuous water exchange in the
raceway and regular removal of
pollutants make the system similar to a
natural water stream. Amid these
special arrangements, fishes feel
convenient, swim freely as they are in
their natural home and they can be
cultivated at super high density.
"Export-quality fishes are being
produced," Dr Ehsan said, adding IPRS
SAN FRANCISCO :
Facebook on Wednesday
reported its profit doubled in
the recently ended quarter
as digital advertising surged,
but warned of cooler growth
in the months ahead in an
update which sent its shares
sinking.
Profit jumped to $10.4
billion on revenue of $29
billion, a 56 percent increase
from last year, mainly from a
jump in ad revenues,
Facebook said in its second
quarter report.
The number of people
using the social network
monthly climbed to 2.9
billion, a year-over-year gain
of seven percent. And some
3.5 billion people used at
least one of the company's
apps including Instagram,
WhatsApp and Messenger.
"We had a strong quarter
as we continue to help
businesses grow and people
stay connected," Facebook
chief executive Mark
Zuckerberg said in an
earnings release.
However, Facebook shares
slipped some four percent as
the tech giant warned that
growth was expected to slow
due to regulatory actions
and a tweak to the Apple
iPhone operating software
that could hurt its ad
targeting.
"We continue to expect
increased ad targeting
headwinds in 2021 from
regulatory and platform
changes, notably the recent
iOS updates," Facebook said
in the earnings release.
The move by Apple early
this year has sparked a rift
with Facebook and other
tech rivals and could have
major implications for data
privacy and the mobile
ecosystem.
Apple began requiring
apps to tell users of its
mobile devices what
tracking information they
want to collect and get
permission to do so.
Opting out of being
tracked makes it harder for
companies such as Facebook
to target the ads on which
they depend for revenue.
"This has been very
challenging for advertisers
is a visually attractive and most
scientifically advanced aquaculture
practice for farmable carps and
catfishes. In the modern system,
optimal water chemistry, particularly
sufficient dissolved oxygen, is ensured
by maintaining interrupted water flow
and waste disposal management. It
eventually allows a suitable
environment for super high density fish
stocking. Fishes are stocked in the
channels or raceways installed in the
pond, he added. He viewed that
adverse impact of climate change and
land and water resources scarcity have
become the crucial challenges in the
field of fish farming in the region at
present and IPRS can be the best ways
of facing both the challenges smartly.
Recent introduction of the advanced
technology can be considered as a
golden milestone in aquaculture
progress and mechanization in
Bangladesh and it can play a frontline
role in global freshwater aquaculture in
near future.
Divisional Deputy Director of the
Department of Fisheries Tofaz Uddin
told BSS that successful promotion of
IPRS can be the effective means of
limiting frequent digging of ponds on
cultivable lands. There is no alternative
to using technology in the farming
sector.
If the farm is built with IPRS
technology, more fish can be found in
less space. It will not be necessary to dig
thousands of ponds by destroying
croplands.
Jashore Zone of islami Bank Bangladesh limited organized Business Development Conference at
virtual platform recently. Mohammed Monirul Moula, Managing Director and CEO of the Bank
addressed the program as chief guest. Abu reza Md. Yeahia and Md. Mostafizur rahman Siddiquee,
Deputy Managing Directors, Mohammad Jamal uddin Mazumder, Salim Anwar, Mohammad Sayeed
ullah and G. M. Mohd. Gias uddin Quader, Senior Executive Vice Presidents of the bank addressed
the conference. Presided over by Md. Maksudur rahman, Head of Jashore Zone, Head of Branches
and officials under the Zone attended the conference.
Photo : Courtesy
China tries to ease
investor fears over
crackdown: report
BEIJING : Beijing
scrambled to calm investors
after a crackdown on some
of China's biggest firms
rattled markets with
regulators calling bankers in
for a last-minute call
Wednesday night,
Bloomberg reported.
The call hosted by the
China Securities Regulatory
Commission included
executives of international
investment banks,
Bloomberg added.
The business models of
private tutoring firms were
obliterated by a shock
announcement on Saturday
that they must become nonprofits,
sending stock prices
crashing.
A source with knowledge
of the call on Wednesday
told Bloomberg that bankers
were given the impression
that the sudden edicts for
education companies were
not going to ripple out to
other industries.
The crackdown on the
sector is the latest in a series
of new rules for industries
ranging from education to e-
commerce.
Facebook doubles profit,
but sees cooling growth
and we're working with
them to help navigate these
changes," Facebook chief
financial officer David
Wehner said on an earnings
call.
The results come with
Facebook and other large
tech firms facing heightened
scrutiny from antitrust
enforcers in the United
States and elsewhere for
their dominance.
Facebook won dismissal of
a case brought in US federal
court last year, but
authorities are seeking to
refile the case which could
potentially lead to a breakup
of the social media giant.
Facebook is on track to
bring in more than $100
billion in annual ad revenue
for the first time, according
to industry tracker
eMarketer.
Google is the top digital ad
publisher with nearly 29
percent of the market, with
Facebook having the second
largest share just shy of 24
percent, eMarketer
reported.