Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:

• Bangladesh goes to the polls

• US jobs data far outstrips expectations

• SK Hynix: from “zombie” firm to Nvidia ally

We begin in Bangladesh, where nationwide elections will be held today for the first time since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled former leader Sheikh Hasina.

What to know: While opinion polls vary, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — led by Tarique Rahman, who only recently returned to the country after 17 years in self-imposed exile — is thought to be in the lead. Rahman, heir to one of the country’s leading political dynasties, is supported by a countrywide BNP network and is expected to benefit from the absence of the party’s arch-rival, Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which has been banned from political activities. But he faces a coalition of 11 mainly Islamist parties led by Jamaat-e-Islami, which has seen rising support, according to analysts.

The contest for the 300 elected seats in Bangladesh’s parliament has been billed as the most credible vote in decades. Under Sheikh Hasina, opposition parties were hobbled and some boycotted polls they argued were rigged.

What’s at stake? Voters will also weigh a constitutional referendum on sweeping political reforms, such as instituting prime ministerial term limits. Since Sheikh Hasina’s ousting, the country has been in a tense transition under an interim government overseen by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is due to step down as soon as next week. Whoever leads Bangladesh will be tasked with leading the country’s economic recovery and navigating a thorny geopolitical landscape, including strained ties with India, where Sheikh Hasina fled.

Read more about the election and the dynastic heir hoping to lead Bangladesh.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: India reports January inflation data. The UK publishes fourth-quarter GDP figures.

• Singapore: Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will present this year’s budget statement in the city-state’s parliament.

• Results: SoftBank and Nissan report earnings.

The FT’s management editor Anjli Raval will be answering readers’ questions today on the challenges confronting CEOs and boards. Post your question ahead of time here.

Five more top stories

1. AstraZeneca’s former head of its China business has been formally charged by the country’s authorities with illegal trading, unlawful collection of personal information and medical insurance fraud, alongside another former employee. Leon Wang, who has been in detention since 2024, was the drugmaker’s most senior executive in China until his arrest.

2. India has sharply reduced the time social media platforms have to remove unlawful content, under new rules that critics warn will entrench censorship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government yesterday cut the deadline companies have to act on official takedown notices from 36 hours to “within three”. Here are more details.

3. The US economy blew past Wall Street’s expectations to add 130,000 jobs in January, signalling that the labour market is healthier than economists had feared following a number of recent gloomy reports. The data will help reinforce Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell’s case for halting the central bank’s campaign of interest rate cuts last month.

4. Ukraine has begun planning presidential elections alongside a referendum on any peace deal with Russia, after the Trump administration pressed Kyiv to hold both votes by May 15 or risk losing proposed US security guarantees. Holding an election would mark a dramatic political pivot for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

5. The founding principal of a prestigious London school’s Singapore offshoot is to step down, a move that comes after an FT investigation detailed allegations of bullying by some of its senior leaders, safeguarding lapses and health and safety breaches. Read the full story.

News in-depth

For years the most typical career aspiration for a young Korean would have been to snag a job at Samsung. But a recent survey of young jobseekers showed the country has a new most sought-after employer: SK Hynix. The chipmaker, for many years a creditor-owned “zombie” firm, is enjoying its most successful period thanks to its dominance of the high-bandwidth memory chips that are powering AI development. And that has made it a vital ally of Nvidia.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

Why are fertility rates collapsing? For many women, a big part of the decision to have children depends on how they expect their husbands to behave, writes Martin Wolf.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Tim Harford is fed up with receiving WhatsApp messages that could have been an email. Our columnist argues that, as a serious tool for important communication, email remains underrated.