Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman revealed today, during the presentation of Budget 2022, that e-passports would be available to the public, beginning next year for greater convenience.
Sanjay Bhattacharyya, the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs, also revealed that the country will soon issue people with e-passports. In a tweet, he stated that the next-generation passports will protect the security of biometric data and the seamless passing through immigration checkpoints throughout the world. He went on to say that the passports are ICAO-compliant and would be manufactured at India Security Press in Nashik, Maharashtra.
The concept of an e-passport is not new; it was initially proposed by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar a few months ago. In 2008, former President Pratibha Patil received India’s first e-passport with biometric information. Biometric passports are now being issued in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Bangladesh, among other nations.
An e-passport seems to be a standard passport at first glance. An e-passport, on the other hand, has a tiny electronic chip similar to that found on a driver’s license. The microchip saves all of the information on your passport, including your name, date of birth, address, and other personal information.
The microchip will assist immigration agents in promptly verifying a traveller’s information. The action will also aid in the reduction of counterfeit passports. The chip is said to have improved security measures, making it impossible for fraudsters to tamper with the data stored.
Until the government’s pilot e-passports were in the form of individualized printed booklets. The chip in the new passports will be positioned at the front and will bear an internationally recognized e-passport emblem. These chips can be strong and difficult to break.
