ABSTRACT. Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper constructs an index of women empowerment and explores both the determinants of empowerment of married women and the impacts that empowerment has on various aspects of a woman's life. The findings reveal that female education, her involvement in income generating activities (both formal and informal) and the structure of the household (unit or extended) are important determinants. As regards the impacts of empowerment on the female's life, the paper finds that empowerment affects her food intake and expenditure patterns in quantitative and qualitative terms -it positively impacts women's nutritional status and health care and confers positive impacts on taking family planning measures. Also empowered women's behavior is less discriminating when it comes to serving food among family members.

Fast development of the electronics industry and an eminent value of obsolescence of the electronic productions conduce to the uninterrupted production of great amounts of electronic waste or e-wasteworldwide. Due to the frequent commingling of a wide range of reusable, or recyclable, and non-recyclable surplus electronics, the term "e-waste" infer all sorts of these leftovers. Even though the economic benefits are potentially enormous, only a small proportion of the electronic waste is being recycled all around. There is a transaction cost associated with therecycling process due to the environmental protection regulations, hence economically less attractiveat the industry level in developed nations. However, to the least developed nations where owing to low living standard the demand for the better quality environment is low, even nonexistent, recycling e-waste has become a livelihood earning opportunity. The study intends to interpret the socio-economic consequences of e-wastes by focusing the detrimental effects that it have created in China and Ghana, and attempts to outline what developing nations like Bangladesh can do to prevent or reduce the harmful consequences of it.

Bangladesh was not familiar with the uses of plastics as containers a few decades ago. However, in recent years, particularly its large cities like Dhaka have experienced a widespread and growing use of plastic products that posits the threat to pollute the environment as well as creates health hazards and hinders sustainable development. Furthermore, the unscrupulous traders who refill thousands of empty plastic bottles with unclean tap water make the situation worse.  The country needs some adequate steps to restore and sustain the ecological balance and before taking any initiative it is imperative to explore the measures that the developed countries have employed to manage their plastic bottle disposals effectively. The Container-deposit legislation (CDL) is a widely used initiative that entails a series of financial refund on smooth-drink, juice, milk, water, alcohol-beverage, and other reusable packaging at the point of sale. When the bottle or container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or to the unique vendor in a few jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer, presumed to be the unique purchaser. The study explores different schemes that the North American countries, European and the Scandinavian Nations have adopted, identifies the problems they faced, analyzes the present condition of Dhaka city and attempts to explain how and why the legislation need to be implemented in Bangladesh.

Fast development of the electronics industry and an eminent value of obsolescence of the electronic productions conduce to the uninterrupted production of great amounts of electronic waste or e-wasteworldwide. Due to the frequent commingling of a wide range of reusable, or recyclable, and non-recyclable surplus electronics, the term "e-waste" infer all sorts of these leftovers. Even though the economic benefits are potentially enormous, only a small proportion of the electronic waste is being recycled all around. There is a transaction cost associated with the recycling process due to the environmental protection regulations, hence economically less attractiveat the industry level in developed nations. However, to the least developed nations where owing to low living standard the demand for the better quality environment is low, even nonexistent, recycling e-waste has become a livelihood earning opportunity. The study intends to interpret the socio-economic consequences of e-wastes by focusing the detrimental effects that it have created in China and Ghana, and attempts to outline what developing nations like Bangladesh can do to prevent or reduce the harmful consequences of it.

A look into the country-level data on the number of COVID-19 positive cases reveals considerable cross-country variations in the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 positive cases. Consequently, there exists a research gap in the relevant field of research. This paper attempts to explain the variations in the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across countries around the world and thus fills in the research gap. The study develops a unique dataset of 70 of the most COVID-19 affected countries and employs multiple regression techniques. The findings indicate that regional characteristics play an essential role. Percent of people living in the urban area, number of tests, air passenger transport (an indicator of population mobility) also come out as determinants with substantial influence. Besides, the impacts of trade relationships with China (a proxy for the degree of interaction with the country) and per capita health expenditure appears to be noteworthy. Differences in temperature are found to have no appreciable impact. Also, factors such as the relative importance of health in national policy, the quality of life, and the quality of governance fail to register any vital influence. The study does not find any evidence of endogeneity of the total number of tests conducted.