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Ban on satellite photos lifted

India has lifted the ban on the sale of high-definition American satellite photographs. Their distribution had earlier been prohibited in the country for security considerations.

From a height of 700 kilometres the satellite "IKONOS" can take pictures of objects as small as a bicycle tyre.

The Indian defence ministry had objected to the distribution of IKONOS pictures, fearing that they could compromise national security by revealing secret defence installations.

The ban has now been lifted following an agreement reached on July 12 between India's Department of Space and Space Imaging, the American firm that operates the IKONOS satellite. DOS Chairman K Kasturirangan signed the agreement during his visit to the United States earlier this month.

The signing of the agreement marks the end of a nine-month tussle between the state of Andhra Pradesh, which wanted to purchase the pictures, and the central government, which was concerned about the security implications.

In October 1999, the Chandrababu Naidu government had placed an order worth Rs 50 million for the IKONOS pictures of the entire Andhra Pradesh coast for use in its cyclone hazard mitigation project. But the defence ministry had stopped the deal since it felt the photographs would expose vital military installations along the coast.

The agreement signed this month has lifted the ban and paved the way for Andhra Pradesh to revive the cyclone mitigation project, in limbo for the last nine months.

Under the agreement with Space Imaging, the US company will market IKONOS products in India only through Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of DOS, and not sell them directly to the users as it had originally intended. And Antrix will have the images distributed to users through the National Remote Sensing Agency in Hyderabad, after blacking out areas which the defence ministry considers sensitive. So Indian users will get a censored version of the IKONOS images.

"This is a security requirement we even otherwise follow for imagery from India's own remote-sensing satellites," an NRSA official said.

PTI

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