In today’s installment, Times of India reports on India’s science and technology secretary V S Ramamoorthy’s entry into the fray. More interesting is the last part of the article, where you’ll find the best defence yet of Google coming out of India, by none other than India’s military. Quote:

Yet, only last month, the armed forces had said that they had factored into their operational plans the threat of the satellite imagery of their military bases being freely available on the Net.

One senior officer had stated that, ‘One can even buy satellite imagery in the international market. If we have satellite pictures of Pakistani military bases, so do they. Modern day warfare is more about tactics, speed and deception. Moreover, satellite pictures available on the Internet are not real-time and serve no operational purpose’.

As for frontline IAF bases, they have ‘adequate protection systems’ in place, with even measures to thwart hostile attempts at ‘thermal imagery’ through ‘decoys’. Similarly, it does not matter if a satellite captures aircraft carrier INS Viraat berthed at Mumbai. ‘Ships are mobile platforms here today and somewhere else tomorrow,’, a Navy officer had said.