Healthcare: India and US can learn from each other (Comment) India and the United States of America are the two largest democracies in the world. For most of this 21st century, they have served as solid examples for others to follow. The same cannot be said for their delivery of healthcare. The World Health Organization (WHO) provided its first and only ranking of health systems in 2000. The US ranked 37 and India ranked 112 out of 191 countries. The current coronavirus crisis, … [Read more...]
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Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
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Trump’s India visit was aimed at the diaspora vote
By all accounts, the India visit of President Donald Trump was a grand success, if one were to judge it as a pure spectacle. The highlight of the trip was a public event at the Motera Stadium, where huge numbers of adoring Indians cheered the United States President. It was perhaps the largest crowd ever drawn by Trump in his short public life. Crowd size apart, how consequential was the Trump visit? Will it have any long-term impact on US-India relations? In the weeks prior to the … [Read more...]
Trump’s India visit: More symbolism than substance
The past few days have been bad ones for the Trump presidency in general due to the President’s inability to think and speak directly about the coronavirus and the markets falling precipitously. By contrast, the few days before them with his India visit were very god ones for the President himself. Here’s why. In September of 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went from India to the United States on a ballyhooed visit. It kicked off in Houston with an event called “Howdy Modi” … [Read more...]
The Trump Administration: The Plot Sickens for Our Democracy
This past decade was a one of loss for the United States. We’ve hoped that this decade would be one of recovery. As we noted in our last blog, however, we are not off to a good start in this regard. There were five disquieting events in the first week of February indicating that the loss in the 2010s might continue and even accelerate in 2020s. They were: President Trump’s State of the Union address The Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump on the impeachment … [Read more...]
2010–2019: A Decade Of Loss. 2020–2029: A Decade For Recovery.
The decade 2010–2019 for the United States, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, was one that “ended not with a bang but with a whimper.” Some of that whimper was President Donald Trump bemoaning the unjustness of his impeachment by the U.S. House. Some of it was writers looking back retrospectively and commenting on those ten years. In their assessment, this past decade was not one of joy and American progress but one of sadness and retreat. The cover page of the Sunday Review … [Read more...]
India’s Budget 2020: Needs a few course corrections (Comment)
In her marathon 2 hours and 46 minutes speech introducing India''s 2020 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman painted an optimistic picture of the Indian economy. She stated at the outset that her budget''s goal is to boost "incomes and enhanceÂ… purchasing power" of the people of India. "Only through higher growth can we achieve that and have our youth gainfully and meaningfully employed," Sitharaman added. The Finance Minister''s assessment that higher growth and employment … [Read more...]
Combatting Corruption: A Need in Pakistan and Around the World
The 2019 Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which ranks 180 countries based on “perceived levels of public sector corruption” released last week revealed that “a majority of countries are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.” Pakistan falls into this category. It received a CPI score of 32 in 2019 and a ranking of 120 compared to a score of 33 and ranking of 117 in 2018. Pakistan’s score is below the average of 43 … [Read more...]
What the US, India and the world can learn from King and Gandhi
In January, 2020, India, the US, and the world, need more peace, love and healing. We need a renewal and a reawakening of our better angels. Those of us who understand this must hear the voices of King and Gandhi and step forward to “walk in the light” and to “be the change”. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, and Mahatma Gandhi died on January 30, 1948. However, there is a much more indelible connection between these two foremost practitioners of non-violence … [Read more...]
China’s Inexcusable Internment of Uighur Muslims: Reason for a Boycott and Sanctions
On January 15, President Trump announced phase I of a trade deal with China, proclaiming, “This is the biggest deal anybody has ever seen.” In spite of the hoopla surrounding the announcement, many knowledgeable commentators and experts were skeptical about the size and nature of the deal. There has been little skepticism or disagreement, on the other hand, about the gravity of China’s internment of Uighur Muslims there and what the U.S. should do in … [Read more...]
2019 Word of the Year: Trust
As 2019 drew to a close, various organizations announced their word of the year. Oxford Dictionaries named “climate emergency.” Dictionaries.com named “existential.” Merriam Webster named “they.” As this new year begins, our choice for word of the year just past is Trust. We select trust not because of its presence in 2019 but because of its absence. Indeed, this absence of trust could be seen as one of the underlying reasons or a root cause of the climate emergency, which is precipitating an … [Read more...]