On May 23, the seven-week long Indian election process will come to an end. The votes will be counted and a winner will be declared. No matter who wins, the real winner will be Indias democracy. I say this as an Indian American who has had the privilege of living in the two largest - and, I would add, greatest - democracies in the world. I have watched in awe as this years election in India has unfolded. It brought back memories of Indias national election of 2014. The scope and size … [Read more...]
Articles
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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There will be no winners in US-China trade war
The United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, are currently engaged in what might be called the mother of all trade wars. The first salvo of the trade war was fired by President Donald Trump in January 2018 — less than a year into his presidency — when he announced tariffs on products of several nations, including Chinese solar panels and washing machines. In spite of several rounds of bilateral talks over the past 17 months, major … [Read more...]
Pakistan Needs a Master Plan to Win the Climate Change War
Pakistan is among the leaders in climate change. Unfortunately, it is leading not in fighting climate change but as being one of the countries most affected by and at risk because of climate change. That’s what Yale’s 2018 Environmental Performance Index revealed. The Index ranked 180 countries in terms of their environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The five countries at the bottom of this list included neighbours India, Bangladesh and Nepal. It should be of little solace … [Read more...]
GOOD CITIZENSHIP: THE TEST FOR OUR TIMES
In 1930, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a seminal piece for Pictorial Review titled Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education. In her article, Ms. Roosevelt asserted, In our schools are now given courses in civics, government, economics, current events. Very few children are as ignorant as I once was. But there still remains a vast amount to be done before we accomplish our first objective — informed and intelligent citizens, and secondly bring about that the … [Read more...]
Enfranchise NRI Voters to Enhance India’s Democracy
There is a simple and straightforward solution to solve this problem. It is to reform the election law and to let the NRI’s vote from where they are. They could cast either postal votes or vote online. By May 19, close to 600 million Indians will have cast their ballots in what will be the largest electoral process in human history. More than two-thirds of the 900 million eligible voters, living across the length and breadth of the country, are expected to vote in this election. The … [Read more...]
Recognizing Middle School Teacher Civic Engagement Champions
On April 8, at its annual legislative conference, the National Association of State Boards of Education announced that it was collaborating with the Frank Islam Institute for 21st Century Citizenship to present civic engagement champion awards to middle school teachers. Following that announcement, Frank told the conference attendees why he was supporting these awards through his Institute by answering three questions: Why civics? Why middle school? And, why teachers. His … [Read more...]
India-Pakistan peace is the only way forward
Pakistan and India came to the brink of war in February this year when their air-forces clashed following a deadly suicide attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pulwama district. This was frightening because the only rational way forward for these two nuclear armed rivals must be peace and not war. This is the point that Tarun Basu makes in his article for last month’s South Asia Monitor in which he advises that both countries need to acknowledge their mistakes and act in the best interest of … [Read more...]
A Sound Idea That Will Be Difficult To Implement
“The rich are different than you and me” F. Scott Fitzgerald allegedly said to Ernest Hemingway in the first quarter of the 20th century. Hemingway replied, “Yes, they have more money.” Today, in the first quarter of the 21st century, the rich have a lot more money. And because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), they will have even more and the middle class and average US citizen will have less. That’s what William Gale, the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in … [Read more...]
Opportunity Zones For Whom?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 contains a provision for the establishment of Opportunity Zones (O-zones or ozones) across the United States. The question is opportunity for whom? Ostensibly, the TCJA, which gives substantial tax credits to O-zone investors, is designed to increase investments in distressed communities in order to spur economic development and job creation. In its early stages, though, it appears that the primary beneficiaries of this legislation may … [Read more...]
Negotiation is the only way out of the India-US trade war
Commentators in the United States and India are beginning to call the current trade standoff between the two countries a full-blown trade war. “It’s official: India is Trump’s next target in the trade wars,” the Washington Post recently declared. What prompted the Post and other newspapers and analysts to come to that conclusion was the US announcement that it will end preferential trade treatment for thousands of Indian products guaranteed under the Generalised … [Read more...]