India’s Border Villages Struggle to Catch Up as China Expands Nearby
NPR reports that India's Vibrant Villages Programme aims to develop border communities with roads, power and tourism, but progress lags amid bureaucratic hurdles, unreliable utilities, and limited local buy-in, while China rapidly expands civilian-m military-linked villages along the border; residents note migration to towns, uneven services, and occasional gains from roads and tourism, underscoring a gap between promises and on-the-ground results.