2019, Dube, Indrajit, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

Although there have been significant efforts towards the creation of an overarching global style for company reporting, currently there is no accepted style. Most of the countries do not have laws related to companies’ general reporting. As such, company directors tend to follow their own formats for preparing non-financial reports and disseminate only the information necessary to promote companies’ images. This trend undermines the capacity of reporting as a mechanism to promote accountability practice of the companies. By providing an assessment of the development and challenges of company reporting, this chapter suggests that companies must provide clear information regarding the economic benefit they created and the social cost attached to the creation of the economic benefits in their non-financial reports.

2013, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

In most developing countries, the overall quality of the livelihood of labourers, work place environment and implementation of labour rights do not progress at the same rate as their industrial development. To address this situation, the ILO has initiated the concept of ‘decent work’ to assist regulators articulate labour-related social policy goals. Against this backdrop, this article assesses the Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 by reference to the four social principles developed by the ILO for ensuring ‘decent work’. It explains the impact of the absence of these principles in this Law on the labour administration in the ready-made garment and ship-breaking industries. It finds that an appropriate legislative framework needs to be based on the principles of ‘decent work’ to establish a solid platform for a sound labour regulation in Bangladesh.

2024-06-07, Rahim, Mia M, Charlton, Guy C, Kanwar, Abhay, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

The inland river water regulations in India have become complicated by debates over river ownership, environmental sustainability, native aspirations, and industrial growth. This Article argues that such complexities surrounding the river water regulations inform a "state of entanglement" which cannot be addressed without invoking the unique way the Indian state is embedded within Indian society. This Article suggests that public interest litigation and increased participation for stakeholders and the common people may offer an effective mechanism to overcome the obstacles of the entanglement of state and society in India.

2013-02-11, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur, Wisuttisak, Pornchai

The convergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance has immense impact on the participants in global supply chains. The global buyers and retailers tend to incorporate CSR in all stages of product manufacturing within their supply chains. The incorporated CSR thus creates the difficulty to small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Incompetence in standardized CSR practices is an important issue that causes SMEs either losing their scope to access global market directly or serving as subcontractors to large enterprises. This article explores this issue by focusing on Bangladeshi SMEs under the CSR requirement of the important global buyer.

2009, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

This paper argues that relationships between countries and transnational corporations are not zero-sum games, but entail ‘complex governance’, where all actors must be considered in order to understand changes in the international system.

2013, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur, Nasrullah, Nakib Mohammad

The core principles of CSR are being integrated into the core policy objectives of different economies and global companies and are also moving beyond their individual business initiatives. This integration can be seen from individual states’ perspectives; states are also accepting these issues in their socio-economic strategies and thus are establishing these issues within national economies. Given this background, this chapter explicates the trends in implementing CSR principles in the EU and USA. It demonstrates that companies in the developed countries use a mix of different strategies to incorporate CSR principles in their self-regulatory mechanisms. Strategies based on legal regulation are not foremost in this mix; rather, in these countries regulation-based strategy is meant to assist the non-legal drivers of CSR.

2021-09, Wisuttisak, Pornchai, Kim, Chul Ju, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

This paper studies the rising roles of private–public partnerships (PPPs) and potential challenges for competition law and policy in ASEAN infrastructures. The PPPs policy is established to serve the need for infrastructure development in ASEAN. Various infrastructure sectors in ASEAN are under the control of monopoly state enterprises. The usage of PPPs policy transforms the monopoly structure ASEAN infrastructure toward more market competition and liberalization. By this, the rise of PPPs is an important factor assisting effective market governance in coherence with the set objective of ASEAN competition law and policy. However, the rise of PPPs can also create difficulties in competition law and policy because private investors under PPPs can assume monopolistic power, which is a challenging issue in reframing competition law and policy for ASEAN infrastructure sectors. The paper presents some challenging concerns on the PPPs and the competition law and policy in ASEAN. Some case studies in ASEAN member countries provided an overview of the challenges. Policy implications are proposed to address the challenges.

2012, Karim, Md Saiful, Vincents, Okechukwu Benjamin, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

This article reviews some of the roles environmental lawyers have played in ensuring environmental justice in Bangladesh. It leans on law and social movement theories to explicate the choice (and ensuing success) of litigation as a movement strategy in Bangladesh. The activists successfully moved the courts to read the right to a decent environment into the fundamental right to life, and this has had the far-reaching effect of constituting a basis for standing for the activists and other civil society organisations. The activists have also sought to introduce emerging international law principles into the jurisprudence of the courts. These achievements notwithstanding, the paper notes that litigation is not a sustainable way to institute enduring environmental protection in any jurisdiction and recommends the utilisation of the reputation and recognition gained through litigation to deploy or encourage more sustainable strategies.

2019, Kanwar, Abhay Vir Singh, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur

Although the pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion-dollar business, it fails to save the lives of millions. Astronomical drug prices are not just an economic problem that can be settled through clever marketing strategies but a significant ethical issue. This article delves into the ethical health care paradigm, which can supplant the present economistic paradigm. Grounded in the ethical-philosophical argument for recognising an individual's right to be healthy, it asserts the practical proposal of cost rationalisation and universal availability of essential and lifesaving drugs. This is achievable by supporting research and development funding for drug innovation by the business establishment, and as such falls within the scope of corporate social responsibility.

2024, Islam, Md Tarikul, Rahim, Mia Mahmudur, Kuruppu, Sanjaya Chinthana

Purpose - This paper examines the link between the failure of public accountability and stakeholder disengagement brought about by a New Public Management (NPM) style "smart solution" introduced to reduce public urination in Dhaka city. It shows how New Public Governance (NPG), Islamic and dialogic approaches can improve decision-making and solutions.

Design/methodology/approach - Drawing on the concepts of public accountability, NPM, NPG and dialogic accountability, this study highlights how narrow conceptions of accountability and poor stakeholder engagement impacted the effectiveness of the "smart solution" based on data collected through observation and unstructured in-depth interviews.

Findings - Evidence suggests that narrow conceptions of accountability driven by monologic NPM perspectives led to poor stakeholder engagement, which impacted the effectiveness of the "smart solution". The solution that consists of changing anti-urination signage from Bengali to Arabic script has not solved Dhaka's public urination problem. In many instances, the solution has disenchanted certain stakeholders who view it as an offence against Islam and a confusing de-privileging of the Bengali language which has significant national and cultural value in Bangladesh.

Originality/value - The findings of the study contribute to policymaking discussions on how to effectively engage with stakeholders and extend the literature on accountability within the context of conflicting public versus private demands related to a public nuisance. The study outlines important issues related to stakeholder engagement and introduces a framework that conceptualises how to increase the effectiveness of public policy decisions using NPG, Islamic and dialogic accountability approaches, especially on matters that require significant public/external stakeholder support. It also provides a conceptual integration of these various approaches, including nuanced insights into accountability challenges within "non-Western" contexts.