Sajjad Zohir

The paper was presented at a Bangladesh Economic Association annual conference – sometime during 1998 and 2000. Drawing upon initial nation-wide BIDS survey under a PKSF study, basic knowledge of microeconomics was applied to explain some observed stories. Non-quantitative in approach. Searched the piece out of a PKSF archive.

This brief has three parts, constrained by a limit of 10 minutes of presentation. The first part lists a number of ‘facts’ – since some degree of inferences are involved, one may consider some of them as testable propositions. The second part draws a number of lessons at the institutional level and deals with future program areas. The third part abstracts to dig underneath the surface, and presents a simple framework to highlight a number of issues that are normally not raised in the discourse. The exercise is incomplete. Yet, I present it to provoke ventures into new thoughts – no conclusion is therefore offered.