BANGLADESH

Nobelist Muhammad Yunus has taken charge the new Chancellor of Scotland's Glasgow Caledonian University.

The formal ceremony in the University's Saltire Centre was preceded by a colourful procession through the city centre campus on Friday.

The 72-year-old Yunus succeeds eminent journalist and politician Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, who stepped down in June after a distinguished five years in the role.

Yunus said: "As chancellor, I will share my experiences and make them see there's nothing unusual in what I do – and that they can do that too."

Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning Mike Russell, GCU Principal and Vice-chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies and Students Union President Carla Fyfe also spoke at the ceremony.

Prof Gillies said: "The appointment of Professor Yunus, who is a world thought-leader in social business and a global anti-poverty campaigner, underlines not only our enduring commitment to the common good but our status as a globally networked institution.

"I believe with Chancellor Yunus as our figurehead we will continue to grow as an institution and deliver real benefits for our students and the communities we work for in Scotland and overseas.

"I am incredibly excited and honoured to serve as his vice-chancellor."

Yunus was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters of the university in 2008.

In 2010, the university opened the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing in Bangladesh to help bring nurse and midwifery training to an international standard.

Glasgow Caledonian later that year set up the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, which researches the impact of microcredit on the health and well-being of communities in Scotland and overseas.

Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus on Sunday visited celebrated writer Humayun Ahmed's mother.

Yunus met Ayesha Foyez at Humayun's younger brother Ahsan Habib's Mirpur residence in the afternoon. Humayun's two sisters and brothers were there during the visit that lasted about an hour.

The writer-filmmaker's elder son Nuhash Humayun reached the residence some 40 minutes after Yunus arrived there.

"He (Humayun Ahmed) created a league of readers which Bangladesh never had. He brought the attitude to Bengali literature it did not have," Yunus told reporters after the visit.

"So far we have seen Humayun was a popular writer. But after his death it seemed he reached deep inside his readers. So people are failing to fill his absence," he added.

Humayun died on July 19 aged 64 after fighting with cancer for about nine months at a New York hospital.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has questioned the necessity of forming a probe commission to look into Grameen Bank's activities since its birth.

In a statement, Yunus on Wednesday said he was afraid that the bank's future would be at stake if the government exerted more influence on the bank.

"I believe without doubt that Grameen Bank's future will be endangered if the government reinforces its role in the bank affairs by changing its legal structure," he said in the statement.

"Has Grameen Bank done any major misdeed that needed (the government) to initiate this probe?" he asked. "I am saddened at hearing the news."

The government on May 16 formed the commission to review the ownership of Grameen Bank and 54 related social businesses that Yunus still heads, 14 months after Yunus was removed as its Managing Director.

The Bank and Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance in a circular announced the institution of the panel under 'The Commission of Inquiry Act, 1956' .

The committee will look into changing the structure of the profitable network of ventures that include Grameen Bank's stakes in Bangladesh's biggest mobile-phone company Grameenphone and recommend ways to ensure good governance, transparency and accountability of the microcredit NGO and how to bring it within the reach of state regulatory agencies.

The commission will identify the institutional strengths, weaknesses and constraints in the Grameen Bank's operation and review the purposes, legal status and operations of the institutions, companies and enterprises established by it.

The commission will also comment on the microcredit NGO's ownership and composition of its Board of Directors specifying qualifications for such membership. It will report to the government in three months.

Yunus added: "I am now enormously worried about the possibility of Grameen Bank being put under government control. I fear even to anticipate the course that Grameen Bank will take if it is made a government institution."