Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to Delhi for the second time on a bilateral visit this June. If all goes well, she is scheduled to visit the neighboring country on June 21. Earlier, she visited Delhi on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of the Indian cabinet on June 8.

According to diplomatic sources, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit may be for three days. Preparations are underway for the summit meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on June 22. Sheikh Hasina's first bilateral visit to Delhi after assuming office as Prime Minister for the fourth term was finalized in the political circles of the two countries. However, since the second half of last year, China has been eager to get Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Beijing.

After the swearing-in of the Indian cabinet on June 8, the two leaders held a brief meeting and both leaders invited each other to visit. As a result, there were speculations about whether she would go to Delhi on a bilateral visit again in a short period of time. Finally putting an end to all the speculations, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to Delhi on a bilateral visit as per the earlier plan.

Since the Awami League came to power in 2008, relations between Bangladesh and India have undergone major changes in the last 15 years. Although there has been great progress in various areas including connectivity, power cooperation, trade, there are some unresolved issues. India's priority is security and Bangladesh has ensured that. On the other hand, Bangladesh's priority is water and in this case, the complications regarding the distribution of water from other rivers including Teesta are not resolved yet. Apart from this, there are complications with the killing of Bangladeshis by the Indian border forces and non-tariff barriers in some areas of trade.

But bilateral sub-regional cooperation on accession is greater now than ever before. Bangladesh is also importing electricity from Nepal through India, starting from the possibility of cooperation between Bangladesh, India and Japan centered on Matarbari.

After the release of a video reel of a Bengali advertisement by the multinational company Coca-Cola, there was a lot of criticism against the drink in Bangladesh. After this, it is reported that the sales of Coca-Cola in Bangladesh decreased by 23 percent.

On Thursday (June 13), the UK-based influential media 'The Independent' published news about it.

It is said in the news that various Western companies have colluded with Israel in the war between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Coca-Cola is one of them though Coca-Cola previously denied the truth of this information.

Coca-Cola Bangladesh uploads a video reel on YouTube to prove that Coca-Cola is not funding Israel in the Gaza war.

It shows a shopkeeper asking a customer if he wants to buy Coca-Cola. In response, the customer said that he has stopped drinking Coca-Cola because, it comes from 'that country' (although he does not mention Israel by name). In response to the customer's words, the shopkeeper told him that 'it is not from that place' (Israel). At the time, he said on social media that it has been drunk for 138 years in 190 countries including Turkey and Spain.

But the video relay did not report that in November 2023, the Turkish parliament banned the sale of Coca-Cola and Nestlé in the country's restaurants.

The video reel was uploaded on the occasion of India vs. Pakistan match in T20 World Cup on Sunday (June 9). The purpose of promoting the reel on YouTube was, in Coca-Cola's words, to 'prevent misinformation'.

But due to concealment of information, criticism started in Bangladesh. As a result, the sale of Coca-Cola in Bangladesh decreased by 23 percent, according to the news of "The Independent".

The actor and director involved in the ad relay have already apologized for 'hurting public sentiments'.

The ad producer and actor Sharaf Ahmed Jiban said in a statement, "This ad does not support Israel and I am never in favor of Israel"!

On the night of June 10, Sharaf Ahmed Jiban said in a post on his Facebook wall, "I am known to everyone as a producer and actor. I have been involved in production and acting for the past two decades.

Recently Coca-Cola Bangladesh hired me to produce and act in one of their commercials. I have presented only the information and data provided by them in the work. Since the ad aired, I have noticed a lot of mixed reactions from you and with all due respect I would like to reiterate that work is only a part of my professional life.

In personal life I have always stood against any aggression against human rights and respected your feelings and opinions. I am nowhere in favor of Israel here and I have never been in favor of Israel. My heart is, always will be, on the side of justice and humanity.

On the other hand, Shimul Sharma said in a post on Facebook that he participated in the ad 'unknowingly' and 'I understand, it has hurt my fans, my family and the people of the country! I guarantee, in the future I will work with respect for the country's values, human rights and people's feelings!

In April this year, Bangladeshis spent Tk. 507 crore by buying various services and products on credit cards abroad which is Tk. 3 crore 40 lakh more in April compared to March. It spent Tk. 503 crores and 50 lakhs in March.

This information is known from the updated report of Bangladesh Bank on Thursday (June 13).

However, in the month of April, foreigners made transactions worth Tk. 200 crore on credit cards in Bangladesh.

According to the data of the Central Bank, Bangladeshis spend the most money on credit cards abroad in India, the United States, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. 50 percent of credit card spending by Bangladeshis abroad is done in these four countries.

A large number of Bangladeshis visit India every month for travel and medical treatment. In recent times, the travel of Bangladeshis to the country has increased significantly. Due to this reason, credit card of Bangladeshis are used the most in India. In April this year, Bangladeshis spent Tk. 97.9 lakh using credit cards in the neighboring country, which is 19.31 percent of the total expenditure. In India, this amount of expenditure was Tk. 106 crore in March.

Bangladeshis spent Tk. 66 crore 50 lakh in the United States, which is 13.12 percent of the total expenditure; Tk. 46 crores 60 lakhs went to Thailand and Tk. 40 crores 40 lakhs were spent in UAE. Apart from this, Bangladeshis have spent Tk. 37 crore in Saudi Arabia, Tk. 35 crore 70 lakh in Singapore, Tk. 31 crore 80 lakh in UK and Tk. 25 core in Canada.

In this regard, an official of Bangladesh Bank said that a Bangladeshi citizen can spend foreign currency equivalent to 12 thousand dollars every year by going abroad. You can spend this money through cards, and you can also take cash dollars with you when you go abroad. However, if you want to make a dollar payment through the card, you have the opportunity to spend up to 300 dollars at a time.

The Election Commission (EC) has moved to extend the duration of the criticized Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) project discussed in the polling field.

In the 12th Jatiyo Sangsad elections, the constitutional institution could not vote in EVMs due to the financial crisis. Then due to project duration and financial crisis, the organization is in uncertainty about taking the vote in EVM because the ongoing EVM project is going to expire in June of the current financial year. Even if the government does not allocate new funds for this project for the new financial year, the EC has prepared a new plan to continue its activities with the remaining Tk. 116 crore of the project and the operational EVMs in the collection.

The KM Nurul Huda-led commission purchased one and a half lakh electronic voting machines (EVMs) before the 2018 parliamentary elections. At that time, the government allocated Tk. 3 thousand 840 crores for this project. Those EVMs purchased for 10 years become useless after three years due to mismanagement and carelessness. Most of the EVMs (1 lakh 5 thousand) kept by the EC are now useless and unusable. The state has suffered a loss of Tk. 2500 crore. The remaining 45,000 EVMs were used in the 6th Upazila Parishad elections. And the activities of the five-year project are about to close.

EVM Project Director Colonel Syed Rakibul Hasan told Barta24.com that EC currently has one and a half lakh pieces of EVM. 45,000 of them are 100% good. 1 lakh 5 thousand are lying in damaged state. The project is scheduled to expire in June of the current financial year. It will not be possible to continue the activities of this project if the Government does not get permission from the Election Commission's proposal to extend the period.

Regarding the extension of the project period, the Project Director said that the initiative taken by the EC to extend the period would have been better if it had been taken at least two months earlier. Only 16 days left for this scheme. And it will not be difficult to continue the project if we get the permission to extend the duration of the project as well as the necessary financial resources. With the 45,000 EVMs in operation, the rest of the local government elections can be continued like the upazila elections. Mentioning that 1 lakh 5 thousand EVMs are also repairable, he said, if possible, steps can be taken to repair them.

Additional Secretary of EC Ashok Kumar Debnath in this regard told Barta24.Com, the commission has decided to extend the period of EVM project by one more year. This target will be given a letter to the ministry to carry out the project activities with the remaining money without increasing the expenditure on the proposed new project. He also said that if the duration of the project is extended, efforts will be taken to repair the EVMs which are in useless condition. But new EVMs will not be purchased.