India to roll out e-Passports for citizens to make international travel safe, easy

New Delhi [India], June 24: For the easier international travelling and to enable protection against identification of theft and data security, the Central government is working to roll out e-Passports, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday. On the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas, Jaishankar delivered a message to reaffirm the government's commitment of improving citizen experience and public delivery. Also Read: Four dead, 5 hurt in military cargo plane crash in central Russia  The MEA and Central Passport Organization, has been marking the occasion and renewing  commitment to provide passport and passport-related services to citizens of India in a timely, reliable, accessible, transparent and efficient manner. "It gives me great pleasure to join all our Passport Issuing Authorities in India and abroad on the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas 2022," he said. "I am happy to note that passport services were rendered with the same vigour and enthusiasm even during the testing times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two and half years of the pandemic, and dealt it swiftly with an impressive monthly average of 9.0 lakhs, with 4.50 lakhs additional applications granted in the last one month, thus setting a record," he said. Earlier, Jaishankar said the government has been very successful in simplifying the passport rules and procedures for the citizens. "To further smoothen the passport delivery ecosystem, the Ministry is continuously working with States/UTs police to reduce the time taken for police verification: the mPassport Police App is now used in 22 States/UTs covering 8275 Police Stations." He also informed that the Passport Seva System has also been integrated with the DigiLocker system to facilitate a paperless documentation process. Recognizing the need to continually improve the quality of passport services, the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) will be embarking on PSP V2.0, an improved and upgraded version of P SP V1.0, which would ensure a digital ecosystem among all stakeholders and offer enhanced passport services to citizens. Also Read: Who is Abdul Rehman Makki? Why are China and Pakistan protecting a terrorist? "It would ensure smooth governance end-to-end through standardized and liberalized processes, use of latest and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Chat-Bot, Use of Big-Data, Advance Analytics etc. The Ministry is also working to roll out ePassports for Indian citizens which would make easier international travel and enable protection against identity theft and greater data security," he said in conclusion. -PTC News