E-Passport- India has now joined the list of countries using biometric e-passports with chips. These include more than 120 countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan. This is a big step for the country due to which now everyone will be able to travel internationally easily.
With the help of this new technology, the security of India’s borders will be strengthened, identity fraud can be prevented and the immigration process of passengers will also become faster than before. Let’s know what benefits you will get from this and which countries already have the chip facility.
E-passport in India was launched in April 2024 under the “Passport Seva Program 2.0”. It was first tested in some major cities like Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Jammu, Goa, Shimla, Raipur, Amritsar, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Surat and Ranchi. Now it is expected that it will be fully implemented across the country by mid-2025.
What is e passport?
E-passport is a next generation passport which has a special chip (RFID chip) and antenna inside the back cover. Important information of the passport holder such as name, date of birth, passport number, photo and fingerprints are stored securely in this chip. All this information is coded in a special way so that no one can read it easily. To keep this data safe, international security techniques have been used such as Basic Access Control (BAC), Passive Authentication (PA), and Extended Access Control (EAC).
What are the benefits of this passport?
Biometric e-passports have now become the new identity for safe and easy travel around the world . They have a small chip that will instantly reveal your identity at immigration checkpoints. This makes it possible to cross borders quickly and without any manual checks through e-gates. This eliminates the need to stand in long queues and provides more convenience to passengers.
India’s move towards e-passport is in line with the security standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This will also provide Indian passengers the same facilities that citizens of digitally advanced countries get. Also, this will further strengthen India’s credibility at the global level.