Bangladesh in current affairs

Why this matters for the exam

The BCS (International Affairs) preliminary and written papers reserve a substantial bloc of marks for current affairs, and the Viva Voce almost invariably opens with a question on a development from the preceding twelve months. Examiners test whether a candidate can locate a news event within a structural frame—treaty, institution, or doctrine—rather than merely recite a headline. The PYQ pattern is consistent: a one-line factual MCQ in Preliminary (e.g., the year of an event, the name of a summit host, the value of a remittance figure) paired in the Written paper with an analytical essay asking you to evaluate policy choices.

How current affairs is tested

Three recurring question stems dominate. First, dating and naming: who signed what, when, and under which instrument. Retain that Bangladesh achieved its first United Nations recommendation for graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status in 2018, was confirmed in 2021, and is scheduled to graduate in November 2026. Second, cause-and-consequence: the macroeconomic strain that followed the 2022 global commodity shock, the resulting IMF Extended Credit Facility / Extended Fund Facility arrangement of US$4.7 billion approved on 30 January 2023, and the foreign-reserve pressure that shaped 2023–24 policy. Third, continuity-and-change: the political transition of August 2024, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and departed on 5 August 2024, after which an interim government led by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on 8 August 2024 as Chief Adviser.

The high-yield retention set

A disciplined candidate memorises a small, dense fact-bank and deploys it across answers. Key anchors: the Padma Bridge, self-financed and inaugurated 25 June 2022; the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant built with Russian (Rosatom) financing; the Matarbari deep-sea port developed with Japanese (JICA) support under the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative; and Bangladesh's accession discussions around the Indo-Pacific Outlook released in April 2023, which framed Dhaka's position as 'free, open, peaceful, secure and inclusive.' On the multilateral track, note Bangladesh's leadership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and its consistent advocacy for loss-and-damage financing secured at COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) and operationalised at COP28 (Dubai, 2023).

The examiner rewards a candidate who can thread these into Bangladesh's declared foreign-policy creed—'Friendship to all, malice towards none,' the Bangabandhu-era principle enshrined in the spirit of Article 25 of the Constitution, which directs the State to base international relations on respect for sovereignty, peaceful settlement of disputes, and the principles of the UN Charter. Current affairs questions, in short, are constitutional and doctrinal questions wearing this week's clothes.

The Rohingya file

No current-affairs topic recurs more reliably than the Rohingya crisis. The mass exodus from Myanmar's Rakhine State began on 25 August 2017, driving roughly 750,000 refugees into Cox's Bazar, joining earlier arrivals to total over 1 million. Bangladesh signed a bilateral repatriation arrangement with Myanmar on 23 November 2017, but repatriation has effectively stalled; not a single verified return at scale has occurred. Candidates should know the relocation of refugees to Bhasan Char island (begun December 2020), Bangladesh's referral support for The Gambia's genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (filed November 2019, jurisdiction upheld 22 July 2022), and the burden-sharing principle Dhaka invokes under the Global Compact on Refugees (2018). The post-2021 Myanmar coup and the 2023–24 advance of the Arakan Army along the border have sharpened security spillover—a frequent essay theme.

Economy in transition

The ready-made garment (RMG) sector—roughly 84% of export earnings and the world's second-largest after China—anchors any economic answer. After LDC graduation in 2026, Bangladesh loses duty-free Everything But Arms (EBA) access to the EU (subject to a transition window to 2029) and faces erosion of WTO special-and-differential treatment, making FTAs and the EU GSP+ regime the strategic pivot. Remittances—exceeding US$21 billion in FY2023-24—and reserves management under the IMF programme are standard MCQ fodder.

Connectivity and balancing

Bangladesh's signature diplomatic skill is hedging among India, China, and the West. It joined China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2016 and hosts BRI-linked projects, yet deepened ties with India through the 2015 Land Boundary Agreement implementation and energy interconnection, while courting Japanese and US investment. The unresolved Teesta water-sharing dispute with India remains the salient bilateral irritant, and China's 2023 proposal for Teesta river management injected great-power competition directly into a water file. For BCS, frame each development as an instance of strategic autonomy under structural constraint: a small-but-pivotal Bay of Bengal state monetising its geography. The 2024 transition tested this equilibrium, prompting recalibration of relations with New Delhi and renewed Western engagement on governance and trade preferences.