GUWAHATI: Days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign amid violent student protests, the violence-hit Bangladesh is set to welcome a new interim government under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus on Thursday.
The Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate is likely to be sworn in as chief adviser along with a team of advisers today.
He was chosen to lead the interim government during a meeting of Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, military leaders, and the heads of the Students Against Discrimination group.
He will be arriving in Dhaka from Paris, where he has been receiving medical treatment.
The 84-year-old, who has mostly stayed away from politics, is known as the ‘banker to the poor’ and was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that pioneered fighting poverty with small loans to needy borrowers.
Muhammad Yunus, born on June 28, 1940, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, is a distinguished social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader.
He rose to prominence in 2006 when he and the Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work in microcredit and microfinance.
He initiated long-term loans to help individuals start their own small businesses, which led to the establishment of the Grameen Bank and the broader movement of microfinance. This innovative approach has helped countless people escape poverty and improve their quality of life.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Yunus has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. He co-founded Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives (YSB) in 2011, which focuses on promoting social businesses worldwide.
Yunus served as the Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland from 2012 to 2018 and was previously a professor of economics at Chittagong University.
Professor Yunus has an extensive educational background, having studied at Dhaka University in Bangladesh before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1969.
He began his academic career as an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University and later returned to Bangladesh to head the economics department at Chittagong University.
He has also played a significant role in Grameen America and the Grameen Foundation, which continue his efforts in microcredit. From 1998 to 2021, he was a board member of the United Nations Foundation, contributing to a range of UN initiatives.
He faced corruption accusations in Bangladesh and was put on trial during Sheikh Hasina’s rule, but maintained the charges against him were politically motivated.
Yunus was sentenced to six months in jail by a court for violating the labour laws in this year’s January but later in March he was granted bail.
He was also jailed in a USD 2.3 million embezzlement case.
Hasina, who governed Bangladesh for four terms and was re-elected for a fifth, fled amid a wave of protests initially sparked by job quota issues but intensified by economic challenges and political repression. The protests, characterised by clashes with security forces and attacks on Sheikh Hasina’s supporters, have led to over 250 deaths and widespread unrest.
