All about India’s new e-Passport!

The government has already decided to issue virtually chip-based e-passports. It uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a biometric. Foreign Secretary Sanjay Bhattacharya made the announcement last month. He said it would meet the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Security details are encoded on the electronic chip on the passport jacket. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will roll out e-passports in FY22-23 during her budget speech. The Indian government will issue e-passports with electronic chips. It is known that these will be available by 2022-23.

Get more protection with these new passports. Passengers' personal information, fingerprints, and travel details are stored. Finance Minister Sitharaman explained this in her budget speech. She said that the dream is expected to come true soon. Passports are currently being printed. The jackets of the new passports are expected to include an electronic chip with vital security information encoded on it. The following are some of the features of the new e-Passports.

·         The e-passport comes with advanced security features. Applicant information, a                   digital signature is stored on the chip.
·         The tampering of the chip will be known immediately if anyone does.
·         It takes a few seconds to read e-passports.
·         E-Passport is accredited in the U.S. Government Accredited Laboratories and the              sample was tested.
·         E-passport covers are thick. Characters and letters look a bit bold.
·         The back cover contains a small chip that contains 64 KB of information.
      

Malaysia was the first country to issue biometric passports in 1998. In December 2008, 60 countries were issued such passports, which increased to over 150 by mid-2019.