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Institutions
Bank Watch: scheduled banks tracked on stability metrics.
Parliament Watch: members and their activity.
University Watch: the higher-education system, tracked.
NGO Watch: civil society and development NGOs, tracked.
Development Partner Watch: the donors, tracked.
Industry Association Watch: the apex chambers, tracked.
Early warning
The Crisis Orb: a live, level-anchored hazard board.
The LDC 2029 graduation monitor.
The national early-warning board across hazards.
Early warning for the haor flood basin.
The multi-hazard exposure atlas, by district.
Where hazards compound across the same places.
A priority index ranking places by combined risk.
Cropland exposed to flood, heat, and salinity.
The bank distress watch: stress signals across banks.
The disaster ledger: events and losses over time.
Government Watch
autonomous
The biggest issue facing BSCIC is the underutilization of its existing industrial estates due to a lack of essential utility infrastructure and high plot costs.
Industries Minister announced a new BSCIC industrial estate in Pabna and infrastructure improvements for existing estates.
FY 2026-27 budget proposed modernizing the BSCIC Design Centre and creating Creative Hubs on vacant plots.
BSCIC held a consultation meeting in Rajshahi regarding regional connectivity and investment.
BSCIC Training Institute and Jashore University concluded a five-day entrepreneurship development program.
Government announced plans to expand two BSCIC industrial estates in Sylhet to 200 acres.
Industries Minister directed BSCIC to increase the CMSME sector's contribution to the national economy to over 60%.
BSCIC was established under EP Act XVII of 1957 (enacted 14 March 1957) following initiatives by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as then-Minister for Labour, Commerce and Industry; renamed to Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation post-independence; governing statute confirmed at bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd Act No. 274. Banglapedia cites total approved posts of 2029 -- used as staff_count; Wikipedia broadly corroborates the organisation structure (4 regional offices, 64 industries service centres, 74 industrial estates as of that article's last update). The April 2026 parliamentary statement cited 83 industrial estates with 6,223 active units -- used as the current figure in recent_activity, sourced from BSS News official government wire. Current Chairman Ashraf Uddin Ahmed Khan, 13th BCS Administration Cadre (joined service 25 April 1994, Mathematics MSc Dhaka University), confirmed joining as chairman 1 October 2024 by The Financial Express and BSCIC Chittagong Regional Office officer list; previously Rural Development and Cooperatives Division Additional Secretary. annual_budget_bdt is null: no disaggregated BSCIC budget line is publicly available in the Ministry of Finance FY2025-26 budget documents; BSCIC's budget is embedded in the Ministry of Industries envelope. The SME Foundation is a separate statutory body under the Ministry of Industries (not BSCIC directly), but its April 2026 Tk 440 crore credit wholesaling round explicitly targets BSCIC-ecosystem CMSMEs and was announced at the same event where the Industries Minister spoke on BSCIC competitiveness ahead of LDC graduation; included in recent_activity as directly relevant to BSCIC's SME financing mandate. The 'Tk 400 crore' figure in the task brief corresponds to the Tk 295 crore revolving-fund tranche of the 9 April 2026 SME Foundation credit wholesaling signing; the verified total announced was Tk 440 crore (Tk 295 crore + Tk 145 crore JICA-BIFFL). The sub-district drive events (Rajshahi, Narsingdi Raipura, Bagerhat) are individually confirmed by BSS News district bureau reports; they reflect a standing programme not a single named circular. [2026-06-08 audit correction] Chairman may be stale: Dec 2025 sources name Md Saiful Islam, Wikipedia names Md. Mahbubor Rahman; unresolved, value left unchanged.