Dr. Yunus at a glance

Industry Desk: It was decided to form an interim government with Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser.
President Sahabuddin with the head of the three forces and the coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement for more than three hours, Nobel laureate professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Today, Thursday he will took over as the head of the interim government.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, there has been virtually no government in the country for two days. As a result, an unstable environment is prevailing in the whole country including Dhaka. To stabilize the situation, agitating students and leaders of political parties including BNP were demanding the formation of an interim government in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, Yunus Center informed the media yesterday that Muhammad Yunus will take charge of the interim government. Dr. Yunus told in an international media outlet, “When the students who have sacrificed so much have requested me to come forward at this difficult time, how can I refuse?”
Dr. Yunus is currently in Paris, the capital of France. It is said that he will return to the country today. He may take over as head of the interim government.
Dr. Muhammad Yunusat a glance
Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi Nobel Prize winning banker and economist. He was a teacher in the Department of Economics of Chittagong University. He is credited as the father of the economic system called microfinance. Professor Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is the first Bangladeshi to receive this award. Dr. Yunus has won more national and international awards including the World Food Award.
Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 in a Bengali Muslim family in Bathua village on Kaptai Road, Hathajari, Chittagong, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Bangladesh). He is the third of nine siblings. His father Haji Dula Mia Saudagar was a jeweller, and his mother Sufia Khatun. He spent his childhood in the village. In 1944, his family moved to Chittagong city and he moved from his village school to Lamabazar Primary School. Around 1949, his mother began to suffer from mental illness. Later he passed the matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School and ranked 16th out of 39 thousand students of East Pakistan.
He was an active Boy Scout during his school days and participated in jamborees in West Pakistan and India in 1952 and in Canada in 1955. Later, when Yunus was studying at Chittagong College, he became active in cultural activities and won awards for drama. In 1957 he was admitted to the Economics Department of Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.
After graduation, he joined the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant in the economic studies of Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan. Later he was appointed as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961. At the same time, he also set up a profitable packaging factory. In 1965, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. In 1971, he received his PhD in Economics from Vanderbilt University’s Graduate Program in Economic Development. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
Muhammad Yunus secured 16th place in the merit list in matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School and got admission in Chittagong College. There he involved himself in cultural and political activities. In college he won first prize for acting in drama. He was also involved in editing literary magazines and writing columns in Azadi magazine.
In 1957, Muhammad Yunus was admitted to Dhaka University in the Department of Economics with honors and completed BA and MA from there and Ph.D from Chittagong University.
Yunus taught at Middle Tennessee State University from 1969 to 1972 before returning to Bangladesh. During the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, Muhammad Yunus was engaged in organizational work to build public opinion in favor of Bangladesh abroad and provide support to freedom fighters. Returning home in 1972, he joined Chittagong University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and served as the Head of the Department. He was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1975 and held this position till 1989.
Yunus began his struggle against poverty in 1974 during the famine in Bangladesh. He realizes that small amounts of credit can be very effective in improving the quality of life of poor people. At that time, he launched the Rural Economic Project for research purposes. In 1974, Muhammad Yunus established Tevaga farm which was acquired by the government under the package programme.
Muhammad Yunus served as an advisor to the caretaker government formed in 1996 under the leadership of former Chief Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman. He was in charge of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Environment and Forests. Dr. Yunus made the head of the interim government of Bangladesh in 2024.
Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank in 1976 to provide loans to poor Bangladeshis. Since then, Grameen Bank has disbursed $ 5.1 billion in loans to 5.3 million borrowers. Grameen Bank uses “Sanhati Dal” system to ensure repayment of loan amount. An informal small group applies for loans together and its members act as guarantors for each other and help each other develop. As the scope of the bank expands, the bank also implements other methods to protect the poor. Microcredit is joined by other banking systems including home loans, fisheries and irrigation credit schemes. The success of Grameen Bank in the economic development of the poor has inspired the developed world and other industrialized countries including the United States to use this model of Grameen.
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, he founded jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is the first Bangladeshi to receive this award.
From 1978 to 2021 Dr. Yunus has won around 145 awards including national and international. These include: President Award (1978), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1984), Central Bank Award (1985), Freedom Award (1987), Aga Khan Award (1989), CARE Award (1993), Nobel Prize (Peace) (2006) ), Humanitarian Award, USA (1993), Muhammad Sahebuddin Science (Socioeconomics) Award, Sri Lanka (1993), Royal Admiral MA Khan Memorial Medal, Bangladesh (1993), World Food Prize, USA (1994), Pfeiffer Peace Prize, United States (1994), Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Memorial Gold Medal, Bangladesh (1994), Max Sachmidheini Foundation Freedom Award, Switzerland (1995), Dhaka Metropolitan Rotary Club Foundation Award, Bangladesh (1995), International Simon Bolivar Award (1996), Vanderbilt University Distinguished Alumni Award, USA ( 1996), International Activist Award, USA (1997), Planetary Consciousness Business Innovation Award, Germany (1997), Help for Self Help Award, Norway (1997), Man for Peace Award, Italy (1997), World Forum Award, USA (1997), One World Broadcasting Trust Media Award, UK (1998), The Prince of Austria Award for Concord, Spain (1998), Sydney Peace Award, Australia (1998), Azaki (Gakudo) Award, Japan ( 1998), Indira Gandhi Award, India (1998), Justice of the Year Award, France (1998), Rotary Award for World Understanding, USA (1999), Golden Pegasus Award, Italy (1999), Roma Award for Peace and Humanitarian, Italy (1999), Rathindra Award, India (1998), Omega Award of Excellence for Life Time Achievement, Switzerland (2000), Award of the Medal of the Presidency, Italy (2000), King Hussain Humanitarian Leadership Award, Jordan (2000) , IDEB Gold Medal Award, Bangladesh (2000), Artusi Award, Italy (2001), Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Award, Japan (2001), Ho Chi Minh Award, Vietnam (2001), International Cooperation Award’ Casa de Granada’, Spain (2001), Navarre International Aid Award, Spain (2001), Mahatma Gandhi Award, USA (2002), World Technology Network Award, UK (2003), Volvo Environment Award, Sweden (2003), National Merit Award, Columbia (2003), The Medal of the Painter Oswald France (2003), Telichenko Award, Spain (2004), City of Orvieto Award, Italy (2004), The Economist Innovation Award, USA (2004), World Affairs Council Award, USA (2004), Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award, USA (2004).
Awami League government filed various cases against Muhammad Yunus including money embezzlement. World leaders say Yunus is being harassed. 40 world leaders from the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to the musician and human rights activist Bono, think that the Nobel Prize-winning economist and founder of Grameen Bank is being harassed in Bangladesh. For that reason, world leaders have written an open letter to Sheikh Hasina expressing their concern.