Border Management

India has been grappling with the problem of devising an efficient border management strategy that would prevent the entry of dangerous elements while at the same time allowing the legitimate flow of goods, services and people. Given that it has always been vulnerable to cross-border threats and challenges such as illegal migration, drug and human trafficking, gunrunning, smuggling of commodities and cross-border terrorism, India has taken a largely unilateral approach towards border management whereby security of the borders is accorded primacy over the free movement of people and goods.

• Pushpita Das
• January 2012
• Strategic Analysis

India’s internal security situation in 2011 was relatively better than in previous years. To ensure that 2012 also turns out to be a quiet and secure year, New Delhi not only has to consolidate the gains made in 2011 but also undertake new initiatives to address these gaps.

• Pushpita Das
• December 13, 2011
• Issue Brief

Replacing the Assam Rifles with the BSF along the Indo-Myanmar will be a sub-optimal option to ensure security in the Northeast region.

• Shivananda H
• July 29, 2011
• IDSA Comments

The changing security environment calls for re-fashioning the use of hard power, which may have to be managed differently in the future.

• Harinder Singh
• January 24, 2011
• Issue Brief

With a friendly dispensation in Dhaka, it is an opportune moment for India to deliver on its promise to exchange the enclaves and surrender adverse possessions.

• Pushpita Das
• December 27, 2010
• IDSA Comments

India faces risks at its borders even more severe than those faced by the United States. Indian authorities would benefit by studying the US methodologies and experience and drawing appropriate lessons.

• Arvind Gupta
• December 14, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The aggressive posture that the Chinese have adopted along the otherwise relatively tranquil Line of Actual Control (LOAC) has come under a lot of analytical examination by Indian Sinologists. They have advanced a number of explanations for the Chinese actions, all of which have a ring of truth about them.

• P. K. Upadhyay
• September 23, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan has yet again shown its proclivity to raise tensions with India. This time, the Pakistan Army or its proxies have fired three rockets across the International Border (IB) near Wagha in Punjab. Although no injuries were reported, such attacks pose a major danger to the people living in areas adjacent to the border, and some 150 farmers of the area indeed protested. This is the second time that rockets have been fired from Pakistan in the recent past.

• Ramesh Phadke
• September 14, 2009
• IDSA Comments

A number of Chinese border intrusions across the Line of Actual Control have been reported in recent months. One such event near Mount Gya in the Chumar sector of Ladakh saw Chinese troops intruding 1.5 kilometres inside Indian territory and writing “China” on the rocks with red paint. The intrusion was first noticed by an Indian patrol team on July 31, 2009. An earlier incident of Chinese intrusion in this area reportedly took place on June 21st, when two Chinese M1 helicopters violated the Indian airspace and air dropped canned food at Chumar.

• Pushpita Das
• September 10, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Though tensions between India and Nepal over a few disputed pockets along the border have persisted for more than three decades, the first half of 2009 witnessed an increase in the frequency of border disputes. An obvious fallout of the disputes was the drumming up of anti-India feelings in Nepal and tension in bilateral relations.

• Pushpita Das
• August 31, 2009
• IDSA Comments