``The external boundaries of India have not been depicted correctly in the maps,'' a Home Ministry statement said today while announcing the ban. Apparently, the maps do not recognise the entire Jammu and Kashmir as Indian territory.

Indian authorities usually allow the import of printed material after blackening out the offending portions or stamping a correction on the page. But this cannot be done with the computer-version of the encyclopaedia, officials said while explaining the ban.

They said the `discrepancies' in the CD-ROM version of the encyclopaedia were discovered when an individual importer asked for permission to bring it into the country.

Besides the maps, the authorities have problems with some portions of the text. The encyclopaedia says there has been a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the partition of India. It mentions warfare over the boundary between India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.

India objects to the characterisation of Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory, maintaining it to be an integral part of the country.

The ban does not affect the encyclopaedia in its printed form.