Government plans to roll out e-passports soon | Fusion - WeRIndia

Good news to Indians as the government is planning to roll out e-passports soon in the country. Yesterday, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan that the government is mulling to roll out these passports soon this year.

Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman also said that e-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Parliament.

E-passports will have advanced security features like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip. In other words, they will have embedded chips for extra security.

The following are the features of the e-passport:

• The e-passport will have more advanced security features like tamper-proof technology. If anyone tampers with the embedded chip, then the passport authentication will fail as the system recognizes it. Thus, it assures more security.
• The microchip in the passport will contain the information of passport holders. In other words, all personal information of the passport holders will be stored in the embedded chip. It will ease the scanning process at the immigration counters and help in their faster clearance. Normally, huge queues are seen at immigration counters for immigration clearance and physical verification of passports.
• E-passports will adhere to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
• It will have smart card technology, including the RFID chip. RFID technology uses radio waves to recognize people and objects. It also helps prevent unauthorised data transfer.
• The advanced security features help control fake or forged passports. They also prevent identity theft.

Those who want to apply for an e-passport can do it on the government website. The procedure will be the same as that of a regular passport which is going on at present. The time required for issuance of a passport and the delivery system will also remain unchanged, i.e. they are also the same as going currently.

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Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_Passport_Type.png