Indians will soon be able to carry e-passports while travelling

• The ministry of external affairs emphasised that passports would be secured with biometric data.
• Till now, passports were issued in the form of personalised printed booklets.
• The Indian government has previously issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports.

The government of India will soon start issuing e-passports for all citizens, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Thursday, January 6.

Ministry of External Affairs Secretary Sanjay Bhatttacharyya, in a tweet, emphasised that the passport would be secured with biometric data and will enable smooth passage through immigration posts globally.


Till now, passports were issued in the form of personalised printed booklets.

The Indian government has previously issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports. The passport was embedded with a microchip, which held all vital information related to the passport holder’s biometric data. The e-passport was also enabled security features that will disallow unauthorized data transfer through radio-frequency identification, also known as RFID.

While announcing the e-passport last year, the Ministry of External Affairs had mentioned that the e-passport would be harder to destroy and be compliant with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.

The government had previously decided to start issuing e-passport in 2021, but it was delayed.

It is important to note that the process of applying for the passport would continue to be the same. Users would still have to file out an application form on the government website and select a date of appointment for document verification. The issuance time too will also not be affected by the new system.

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