1.
Upazilas of Bangladesh
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Upazila, formerly called thana, is a geographical region in Bangladesh used for administrative or other purposes. They function as sub-units of districts and their functionality can be seen to be analogous to that of a county or a borough of Western countries. Bangladesh, at present, has 490 upazilas, the upazilas are the second lowest tier of regional administration in Bangladesh. The administrative structure consists in fact in Divisions, Districts, Upazila/Thana and this system of devolution was introduced by the former military ruler and President of Bangladesh, Lieutenant General Hossain Mohammad Ershad, in an attempt to strengthen local government. Below UPs, villages and para exist, but these have no administrative power, the Local Government Ordinance of 1982 was amended a year later, redesignating and upgrading the existing thanas as upazilas. Upazilas were formerly known as thana which literally means police station, despite the meaning, thanas functioned much as an administrative and geographic region, much as todays upazilas. In 1982 thanas were re-termed to as upazilas with provisions for local governance. This system was reverted to the system in 1992. Later in 1999 geographic regions under administrations of thanas were converted into upazilas, all administrative terms in this level were renamed from thana to upazila. For instance, Thana Nirbahi Officer was renamed to upazila Nirbahi Officer, the word thana is now used to solely refer to police stations. Generally, there is one station for each upazila. Upazila Nirbahi Officer is a non-elected Administrator in Upazila, uNOs are Senior Assistant Secretary of Bangladesh Civil Service. They act as executive officer of the upazila under the elected posts, each Upazila Parishad has a chairman, a vice-chairman and a woman vice-chairman. All three are elected through popular election. Union Parishad chairmen within the upazila are considered as the members of the porishod, the post of a woman vice-chairman was created to ensure at least one-third woman representation in the all elected posts of the local government. On 22 January 2010 the first election in 18 years of Upazila Porishod was held, Divisions of Bangladesh Districts of Bangladesh Villages of Bangladesh Statoids Maps of Divisions, Districts & Upazilas of Bangladesh
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Country
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A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography. Sometimes the word countries is used to both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it refers only to states. The word country comes from Old French contrée, itself derived from Vulgar Latin contrata and it most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century. Areas much smaller than a state may be called by names such as the West Country in England, the Black Country, Constable Country. In many European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the territory, as in the German Bundesländer. The modern Italian contrada is a word with its meaning varying locally, the term country is frequently used to refer to sovereign states. There is no agreement on the number of countries in the world. There are 206 sovereign states, of which 193 states are members of the United Nations, all are defined as states by declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan in 2011, the Kingdom of Denmark, a sovereign state, comprises Metropolitan Denmark and two nominally separate countries—the Faroe Islands, and Greenland—which are almost fully internally self-governing. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, a state, comprises four separate countries, Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao. The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely, some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas territories, with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own
4.
Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, officially the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The countrys maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area, Bangladesh is the worlds eighth most populous country. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong which has the countrys largest port, Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions, Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the worlds third largest Muslim-majority country, most of Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km of inland waterways, highlands with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef and it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The countrys biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered Bengal tigers, the Greeks and Romans identified the region as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries, the region was home to many principalities which had inland naval prowess. It was also a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trade. As part of British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance, the Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the Dominion of Pakistan, and was renamed as East Pakistan. The region witnessed the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after independence, a parliamentary republic was established. A presidential government was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to parliamentary democracy, the country has also been affected by poverty, natural disasters, hunger, dominant party systems and military coups. Bangladesh is a power and a major developing nation. Listed as one of the Next Eleven, it has the 46th largest economy and it is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation
5.
Divisions of Bangladesh
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The administration of Bangladesh is divided into eight major regions called divisions. Each division is named after the city within its jurisdiction that also serves as the administrative headquarters of that division. Each division is split into several districts which are then further sub-divided into Upazilas. Following the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the country had four divisions, Chittagong Division, Dacca Division, Khulna Division, in 1983, the English spelling of the Dacca Division was changed into Dhaka to more closely match the Bengali pronunciation. In 1993, Barisal Division was split off from Khulna Division, in 1995, Sylhet Division was split off from Chittagong Division, in terms of area the newly formed Rangpur Division ranked fifth followed by Barisal and Sylhet division. On 14 September 2015 Mymensingh Division was added as eighth division, in 2015 there started process to create two more divisions, Comilla Division and Faridpur Division. The following table outlines some key statistics about the eight divisions of Bangladesh as found in the 2011 Population, Faridpur Division – proposed to consist five southern districts of the existing Dhaka Division. ISO3166 codes Districts of Bangladesh Upazilas of Bangladesh Villages of Bangladesh
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Chittagong Division
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Chittagong Division is geographically the largest of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the south-easternmost areas of the country, with an area of 33,771.18 km2. Chittagong Division is home to Coxs Bazaar, one of the worlds longest natural beaches, as well as St. Martins Island, Chittagong division is subdivided into eleven districts and thence into 99 sub-districts. Before 1995, the six districts of Sylhet Division were also a part of Chittagong Division, Chittagong Hill Tracts Chittagong Tripura Division Sylhet Division Census figures for 1991,2001 and 2011 are from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Population Census Wing. The 2011 Census figures are based on preliminary results
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Districts of Bangladesh
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The divisions of Bangladesh are divided into 64 districts, or zila. The capital of a district is called a district seat, the districts are further subdivided into 493 sub-districts or upazila. District Council is a government body at the district level. The Bengali word parishad means council and zila parishad translates to district council, divisions of Bangladesh Upazilas of Bangladesh Villages of Bangladesh
8.
Chittagong District
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Chittagong District is a district located in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chittagong Division, the port city of Chittagong, second largest city in Bangladesh, is located in this district. Because of the harbour, Chittagong had been an important location for trade. The region fell under the rule of kings from Arakan in the 16th and 17th centuries, but later, during the 17th century, the region also faced a lot of attacks by Portuguese pirates. The Mughals established Chittagong as a district in 1666, the Chittagong Hill Tracts were separated from Chittagong in 1860. After the liberation of Bangladesh, Coxs Bazar District was separated in 1984, administrator of Zila Porishod, M A Salam Deputy Commissioner, Mezbah Uddin There are 14 Upazilas and 16 Thanas within Chittagong District. Also Badar Awlia Dargah is a tomb in Chittagong
9.
Bangladesh Standard Time
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Bangladesh Standard Time is the time zone of Bangladesh. It is offset six hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, Bangladesh briefly observed daylight saving time in 2009 to cope with the ongoing electricity crisis, but in 2010 the decision was cancelled by the government of Bangladesh. In the IANA time zone database, it is represented by Asia/Dhaka, between 1858 and 1941, the Bengal region was under British Raj and used Calcutta time. For a brief period in the 1940s, amidst World War II, on 1 October 1941, the region switched to UTC+06,30. On 15 May 1942, the year, the region switched to UTC+05,30. On 1 September 1942, the year, the region was returned to UTC+06,30. Following the independence of India in 1947, British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan, the time zone of East Pakistan was not immediately affected by the partition. In 1951, the changed its time from UTC+06,30 to UTC+06,00. Most of the responses from the ministries were positive, June was selected instead of April or May, as the HSC examinations are run from 18 April through 28 May. The time was advanced by exactly 1 hour on the midnight of 19 June, and was planned to be set back two months later on the midnight of 30 September. The proposal primarily sought to reduce energy usage, as the crisis was the most severe in that period, with power demands of 4, 800–5,800 MW against a generation capability of 3. The time zone was advanced from UTC+6 to UTC+7, government officials in support of the scheme said that it was easier to save power than to generate more, but ultimately the scheme proved a failure. The change was criticised as early as days after the adoption of the scheme, people had not become accustomed to the change and businesses and shop owners had not followed the governments directives properly. Citizens also complained that the load-shedding situation hadnt improved, the country went back to its original time offset on the midnight of 31 December 2009, months later than the scheduled end and through the winter. Students and teachers were the first to be affected as many had to leave for their institutions before sunrise. In December, the problem worse, and the cabinet lifted the scheme. DST was due to be observed again from 31 March through to 31 October in 2010, however, on 22 March 2010, the cabinet cancelled the scheme permanently, citing public interest and decided to remain in the former UTC+06,00 offset. The BST website, maintained by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution
Bangladesh