Indian travellers will soon be able to travel with microchip-enabled e-passports. Sanjay Bhattacharya, Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, announced on Twitter that India would receive e-passports with secure biometric data. He stated that the e-passport would adhere to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s standards (ICAO). The e-passports would include microchips that would store vital security information. Users in India are currently issued only printed passports.
Bhattacharya described the e-features passport’s in his tweet. He revealed that the passport would contain secure biometric data, would allow for smooth passage through immigration checkpoints around the world, and would be ICAO compliant. It will be produced at India Security Press in Nashik.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had noted that the ministry is in talks with the ‘India Security Press’ regarding microchips. “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,” Jaishanker had said.
TCS, which had bagged the second contract to run the Passport Seva Programme, also announced that it would introduce the e-passport. “We will bring in the technology (for e-passport), but you know the sovereign functions like granting or printing of the passport booklet will continue with the government,” Tej Bhatla, business unit head for public sector at TCS, told
