India has a long and troubled border with China and Pakistan fraught with contentious issues. Examine the conflicting issues and security challenges along the border. Also give out the development being undertaken in these areas under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) and Border Infrastructure and Management (BIM) Scheme.

Operation Sindoor shows that the Pakistan front now involves air and missile threats, making networked air defence part of border security.

• Operation Sindoor began on 7 May 2025 with strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and PoK linked to LeT, JeM and Hizbul Mujahideen, after the Pahalgam attack of 22 April 2025 killed 26 people.
• The IAF's IACCS links military radars, civil radars and the Army's Akashteer system into one air picture, with first nodes in the western sector such as Barnala, Jodhpur and Ambala.
• The Defence Ministry's report credits an S-400 kill at 314 km; Pakistan denies losing any aircraft, so cite it as the Ministry's claim.

Use it to show that the China boundary dispute is also fought through cartography, and how India asserts sovereignty through standard names on official maps.

• On 2 October 2026 the Centre and Ladakh fixed standard names for 28 features on the Survey of India map, including Gogra and Hot Spring, friction points in the 2020 standoff with China.
• China has issued names for places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Zangnan, in 2017 (6), 2021 (15), 2023 (11), 2024 (30) and May 2025 (27); India named 27 places there on 7 August 2026.
• The MEA said in May 2025 that "creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality" that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.