India to Google Earth: Block sensitive locations

NEW DELHI: India may be following China, at least when it comes to the Internet.

The government is planning to approach Internet giant Google and demand the masking of certain high-resolution imageries available on Google Earth, said Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan.

He told Rajya Sabha that the Ministries of Defence and Science and Technology were in touch with other concerned agencies to find a way to prevent the availability of high-resolution imageries of sensitive installations of the country.

Sources in the government told DNA that the government is seeking opinion from the ministries and intelligence agencies on how to classify sensitive locations and installations. It is also looking at creating a national list of sensitive installations.

The move, similar to the steps taken by China and other authoritarian governments regarding various Internet facilities, is not being received well by everyone in the government.

Some sources say that the move wouldn't go down well with India's image as a liberal democracy and could damage its efforts to attract foreign direct investment, especially in the booming technology sector.

Google Earth's imageries have ridiculed India's otherwise obscure governmental standards on declassifying official maps. There are innumerable problems because of dated standards practiced by the government. And very complex procedures exist for obtaining even basic official maps.

There are stories galore of outdated rules governing maps and its pitfalls. In a recent incident, the National Archives, custodian of most of the official maps, is still awaiting clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs for providing an official map of the Mumbai high and surrounding waters to another ministry for a proposed visit of the Prime Minister to the location. A section in the government is suggesting blocking off Google Earth in India, which sounds quite naïve given the fact that the government's fear is that the high resolution imagery would be misused by the country's adversaries, who should mostly be outside India.

Fears regarding Google Earth first expressed in public in India by President APJ Abdul Kalam, has been heard from several countries like Thailand and South Korea. However, censoring of Internet by coercing big Internet companies like Yahoo and Google are tactics adopted by authoritarian regimes like China.