India, Feb. 9 -- With defence budgets for both India and Pakistan now public, it is clear that the arms race in the subcontinent is intensifying at a pace not previously anticipated by international security experts.

Both countries are allocating close to a quarter of their budgetary resources to military preparedness-expanding conventional arsenals, investing heavily in artificial intelligence, drones and cyber capabilities, and modernising nuclear stockpiles.

The brief border clash in May 2025-dubbed Operation Sindoor by India and Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos by Pakistan-demonstrated how quickly tensions can spiral. Triggered by a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, that killed 26 civilians, the confrontation saw four days of drone ...