India has rejected Google’s plans to put Indian cities, tourist spots, hills and rivers in an application in which one can explore them through 360-degree, panoramic and street-level imagery.
The Home Ministry has conveyed to Google that its plan to cover India through the Google Street View is rejected.
The security establishment got wary of allowing such image-capturing given that planning for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai is believed to have involved photographic reconnaissance of targets by Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley.
Official sources said the rejection came after a detailed analysis by security agencies and defence forces which feel that allowing Google to cover India would compromise the country’s security interests.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said once the proposed Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016 comes into force, issues related to internet-based applications would be resolved.
The internet services giant wanted to cover most parts of India through Google Street View. It explores places worldwide through 360-degree, panoramic and street-level 3D imagery.
Everything that is captured is posted online.
Initial permission While it has been extensively used in the US, Canada and many European countries, its application in India was initially permitted for a few locations. Google had on an experimental basis launched Street View in some tourist sites such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Varanasi river bank, Nalanda University, Mysore Palace, Thanjavur temple and Chinnaswamy stadium, in partnership with the Archaeological Society of India.
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth, which provides panoramic views from positions along many streets in the world.
It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the US and has since expanded to include cities and rural areas worldwide.