Indian Citizens To Get More Secure And Advanced E-Passport

Minister of External Affairs, Govt Of India, S Jaishankar has proposed a new concept called e-passport, which could change the way we obtain our passport and use them in the near future. On the occasion of Passport Seva Divas (June 24th), S Jaishankar has shared some information on the e-passport project that Govt of India is undertaking in the coming days.

Along with the announcement of e-passport, he also launched the mpassport seva mobile app, which enables Indians to apply for a passport directly from a smartphone.

What Is An E-Passport?

E-Passport, as the name suggests is an electronic passport, which comes with a chipset, which stores all the data digitally. The current generation Indian passport comes with printed information. With the e-passport, it will have both physically printed information and the data will also be stored on a secure chip, which can only be accessed by specific authorities.

Compared to a standard passport, it will be very difficult to forge a passport or to create a fake document, which increases the security of the document. The e-passport will be manufactured in India, and in the coming years, Govt of India will start to issue these passports to the users across the country.

Passport Cost Might Increase

As of now, S Jaishankar has not confirmed the pricing of the e-passport. However, considering the technology that it packs, it is most likely to cost more to produce an e-passport compared to a typical passport. Increase in the manufacturing cost is likely to impact the end-user.

S Jaishankar Minister of External Affairs, Govt Of India said

I am happy that the India Security Press, Nashik, is working towards further improving the quality and security features of our passport booklet. The Ministry has initiated discussions with the India Security Press regarding the project for issue of chip-enabled e-passports to the citizens. We propose to pursue the manufacture of e-passports on priority so that a new passport booklet with advanced security features can be rolled out in the near future.

What Do We Think About E-Passport?

Most of the europian countries have already started to issue e-passport to its citizens and India is going to join the league in the next few years. E-passports are known for improving the security of the most powerful document that Indian Govt issues to its citizen. Stay tuned to GizBot to learn more about the e-passport.