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Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), is a statutory body operating under the Ministry of Industries (MoI). It was created in 1957 in order to support small and cottage industries in the country. BSCIC, then called East Pakistan Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (EPSCIC), was established by an Act of the Parliament in 1957.BSCIC was established with a view to accelerating industrial growth through promoting the development of small and cottage industries in the country (BSCIC Act, 1957). One of the core areas of BSCIC activities is the establishment and maintenance of Industrial estates, which were established in different times at different locations in the country. The entrepreneurs in BSCIC estates get various benefits including plot allocations with subsidized rates, initial tax exemption, infrastructure facilities and various other related supports. The government undertakes policy to establish BSCIC industrial estates in all administrative districts and accordingly 74 estates have been established so far in 58 districts except six (Bandarban, Barguna, Chuadanga, Jhalokati, Magura and Narail)1. Some new estates are now underway. The estates so far created have been contributing to employment generation and consequently poverty alleviation at rural areas. To provide services to the entrepreneurs of small and cottages industries, BSCIC has one head office in Dhaka, 4 Regional offices, 64 District offices (Industries Service Centre), 742 industrial estate offices and 15 Skill Development Centers at different places of the country.

This paper investigates the coping processes of Bangladeshi peasants after the disaster of Cyclone Aila in 2009. The focus is on the experience of peasants and how they respond to the losses caused by the cyclone. Using 72 in-depth interviews with peasants, shrimp farmers, local leaders, labour contractors, engineers and NGO staff, and surveys of 850 households, this paper analyses the aftermath of Cyclone Aila in two villages in the Satkhira district located in the Sundarbans delta of Bangladesh. One of the villages, Gorkumarpur, was economically backward and poorer than Mollapara village because of its vulnerable geographical location and damaged embankments. By illustrating resilience as the function of coping with vulnerabilities, this paper finds that the peasants can cope with this natural calamity by taking up a range of casual jobs, such as earthwork and brick kiln, to improve their lives and livelihoods. Such casual employment is essential after the initial relief initiatives ended, which shows the ability of the local peasants to protect their family's survival and secure livelihoods.

Basic human needs are the elements required for survival and normal mental and physical health, such as food, water, shelter, protection from environmental threats, and love. According to Social Progress Index-2016, Bangladesh performs best on nutrition and basic medical care and has most opportunity to improve on the shelter component. In the foundations of wellbeing dimension, Bangladesh scores highest on access to basic knowledge but lags behind on the environmental quality component. Overall, Bangladesh is an under-performer in components of personal rights, tolerance and inclusion. The fulfillment of these basic human needs is seen as an "essential precondition for full participation in social life". Grihayan Tahobil (Housing Fund) Program was the brainchild of the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and is being administered by the Prime Minister's Office. This Project is essentially based on the basic human needs approach. In FY 1997-98, the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh (GoB) formed Grihayan Tahobil (Housing Fund) with the initial seed money of Tk. 500 million through budget allocation for the purpose of providing low-cost housing to the poor, distressed and homeless people of the society. Besides house building, this fund also looks at the poverty alleviation of the poor and the helpless housing loan receivers.

The aim of this article is to measure the economic impact of Rural Social Services (RSS) microcredit programme on its participants. Multistage random sampling method was applied to select total 1,008 beneficiary respondents (households) and 504 control respondents (households) from Bangladesh. The propensity score matching (PSM) technique was applied to analyse the outcome of RSS micro-credit interventions. The results show that there were statistically significant differences in income, food expenditure, and non-food expenditure between the programme and non-programme participants. The result of this survey also reveal that after taking RSS loan, 4.34 per cent graduated from category A to B, and 8.41 per cent graduated from category A to C. On the other hand, 30.43 per cent loan takers graduated from category B to C. This result proves that RSS loan helps a certain number of families uplift their income position. The study suggests to further focus on knowledge and skills development of the poor people.

Bangladesh was once considered a "test-case" by development practitioners implying that if development is possible in this country, it would be possible in any other country of the world. Bangladesh has successfully ridded herself of such undignified status. It is now a model of development to many other countries. Despite the severe scarcity of resources, the country has accomplished remarkable successes in many areas to have global dignitary like AK Sen as a spokesperson for it. Growth has picked up by about 1 percentage points in every decade since 1980s. The annual rate of poverty alleviation has also accelerated over time. The country is very much on track to accomplish the MDG goals. The economic management has been changed. With the budding entrepreneurship in the country, the government started denationalization in 1980s giving scope to the private sector to develop. The controlled regime of economic management of 1970s was replaced by outward orientation by mid 1990s, and which has been consistently pursued since then. While the outward orientation contributed to the acceleration of economic growth and development of the country, it has also exposed the country to external shocks. Recent experience suggests that the key to withstand any kind of economic shocks is to strengthen the resilience of the rural economy.