(Image source from: Orissapost.com)

E-Passports are soon going to be introduced in India. Marking the occasion of Passport Seva Divas, Dr.S.Jayashankar , external affairs minister announced on Wednesday.

As a revolutionary move, India is going to embark on the production of chip-enabled e-passports which will boost the security of Indian travel documents.

Every e-passport shall contain an electronic chip that holds the data of the authorized person. The chip will be printed on the first page.

Addressing the country on Passport Seva Divas, the External Affairs Minister, S.Jayashankar said, “The procurement process for the production of electronic-passport is underway”.

All you need to know about e-passport:

• An e-passport is a biometric passport that has a microprocessor chip embedded in it. It contains the biometric information of the passport holder that can be used to validate the authenticity.

• The digital passports will hold all personal data of the applicants digitally stored and signed.

• It is difficult to tamper or erase data present on the chip and if anyone tries to do so, the authentication will be failed.

• The software for e-passports is developed by IIT Kanpur along with the help of National Informatics Centre. There is no role of private or commercial companies in it.

• The chip has a capacity to store about 64KB of data which can be up to 30 international travel visits.

• This e-passport can be scanned in few seconds, which would eliminate the hassle of standing in long queues to get the verification done.

• The chip-enabled passport can only be read under physical possession and not everywhere.

• E-passports will be slightly than the present ones, especially the front and back covers.

• The government has approved India Security Press to procure electronic contactless inlays which are used for manufacturing the passports.

Already, 120 countries including the US, UK and Germany have been using electronic passports.

Jaishankar also said that government is also planning to open a Passport Seva Kendra in every constituency of India to ease the process of passport applications.

“At present there are Passport Seva Kendras in 488 constituencies across India”, he mentioned.

He also said that digital apps such as ‘mpassport seva’ and ‘apply from anywhere’ have been a greater help in easing the process of application submissions.

“We continue to identify ways of further simplifying passport rules”, he added.

The Passport Seva Diwas is observed on June 24 every year. The day marks the enactment of Passports act in 1967.

- By Gayatri Yellay