Bank of England holds off on more QE; China's coercive diplomacy, India's fecklessness; Karnataka's (India) millionaire law makers

1 Bank of England holds off on more QE (Heather Stewart in The Guardian) Bank of England policymakers have voted against boosting their £375bn quantitative easing programme, amid  signs of a nascent economic recovery. At the close of their monthly two-day policy meeting, the nine members of the monetary policy committee announced that they would leave  interest rates unchanged at their record low of 0.5%, and refrain from implementing a fresh round of QE.

For the past three months, three MPC members, including the outgoing governor Sir Mervyn King, have advocated a £25bn extension of QE, but been outvoted by their colleagues, who are concerned that inflation remains well above the government's 2% target. However, a no-change decision had been widely expected, after official figures showed that the economy expanded by 0.3% at the start of 2013, avoiding a "triple dip" recession. The latest data from the industrial sector, released on Thursday, showed that output increased by 0.2% in the first quarter.

2 China’s coercive diplomacy, India’s fecklessness (Brahma Chellaney in The Wall Street Journal) When India announced that Chinese troops would draw back from a disputed Himalayan border region, Indian politicians hailed the retreat as a return to normalcy and a win for quiet diplomacy. In truth, the three-week Sino-Indian standoff on the Debsang plateau gravely weakened New Delhi's strategic position in a region that straddles key access routes linking China's rebellious Tibet and Xinjiang regions as well as China to Pakistan, while Beijing conceded nothing of value.

The dispute was a study in Chinese coercive diplomacy and Indian fecklessness. Beijing's incursion 20 kilometers past the de facto Himalayan borderline in mid-April bore all the hallmarks of modern Chinese brinksmanship, such as a reliance on surprise and a complete disregard for the risks of wider military escalation. Above all, the move demonstrated a keen sense of timing. India has never been so weak internally, and its response to the crisis was hobbled by political paralysis and leadership drift.

Merely by deploying a single platoon of no more than 50 soldiers, China won military concessions far beyond what it has gained through peaceful negotiations. In exchange for Beijing's retreat from an area China never had the right to control, New Delhi will dismantle a key forward observation post, destroy bunkers and other defensive fortifications, and potentially halt infrastructure development near the border.

Meanwhile, China will continue to build up its offensive capability in the Himalayas so that it can strike without warning. Over the past decade, an increasingly assertive China has steadily encroached on India's Himalayan territory in the name of expanding its "core interests"—a tactic reminiscent of its ongoing territorial and maritime spats with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. India's spineless Himalayan strategy should be a lesson to those other states on how not to respond to Chinese provocations.

3 Karnataka’s (India) millionaire law makers (Press Trust of India) The average asset per Member of Legislative Assembly in the 2013 Karnataka Assembly elections is Rs 235.4 million, a nearly 135% increase compared to the previous 2008 poll, when it was Rs 100.2 million, according to an NGO. 

Karnataka Election Watch (KEW) also said 93% or 203 MLAs of the total 218 analysed are millionaires. In 2008, 63% MLAs were millionaires. KEW said it analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 218 out of the 223 newly elected MLAs. It said 92 re-elected MLAs have been analysed. Their average asset in 2008 was Rs 175.3 million, which has gone up to Rs 301.5 million, a growth of 72%.

KEW said 34% or 74 of the 218 MLAs analysed have declared criminal cases against them, compared to 20% five years ago. Out of these 74 MLAs, 39 have declared serious criminal cases like attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity, assault against women etc. Five MLAs have declared that they have murder-related cases against them. Eleven MLAs have declared that they have been charged under Prevention of Corruption Act. Out of 218 MLAs, five (two per cent) are women in the new Karnataka Assembly, compared to three in 2008.