THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India have eyes above China's satellites looking down at the nation's borders in the north. Though China does have more satellites, India outdoes them when it comes to surveillance satellites.

India has deployed the world's most powerful surveillance satellite CARTOSAT-3, and RISAT-2BR1 to observe the northern borders. In its orbit 509 km above, the satellite is keeping an eye on both Pakistan and China. The Chinese presence in Ladakh was spotted in March itself by these satellites. China's reluctance to de-escalate was also spotted by the nation's eyes in the sky.

CARTOSAT-3 can take pictures of objects with just 25 cm size up to areas of 16 square kilometres and transfer it to ground station within seconds. It's much more capable than America's World View 4 satellite. RISAT-2BR1 satellite can do surveillance in adverse conditions and in dark.

China has launched 363 satellites to India's 118. As they fear American intrusion, the focus is on South China sea. Only once in five days, the Chinese satellite flies over the Indian border. Following the conflict with India, they have launched another surveillance satellite.

To empower satellite surveillance, India is all set to launch RISAT-2BR2 which has the Radar Imaging Technology. This is entirely an Army satellite. ISRO and other science departments don't control or have connection with army satellites. It's carried out by Technical Research Organization of the army.