Business
Nobel Laureate Ousted
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| Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has been ousted from the pioneering microfinance lender Grameen Bank, which he founded three decades ago. Yunus, 70, was dismissed from his post as managing director by the government, ostensibly because he is past the 60-year mandatory retirement age.
Yunus’s supporters says his removal is in retaliation for his political advocacy and several foreign governments, including the United States, are pressuring the Bangladesh government for his reinstatement. Talks are reportedly underway for a compromise to allow him to play some role in the Grameen Bank, which has always been very visibly associated with him. However, Mahabubul Alam Hanif, general secretary of the ruling Awami League, criticized Yunus for trafficking in poverty: “Whenever Prof. Yunus goes anywhere, he takes a poor woman with a goat or hen with him and portrays Bangladesh as a poor nation.”
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