Budget 2022: e-passports with embedded chips will be rolled out - Here's all you need to know

Budget 2022: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said issuance of e-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 to enhance convenience for citizens.  e-passports with embedded chips will be rolled out in India in 2022-2023. The e-passports will serve the same purpose as traditional passports but will come with embedded chips and futuristic technology.

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Citizens will get chip-enabled e-Passports with additional security features from the Ministry of External Affairs. The applicants' personal information would be digitally signed and kept in a chip that would be integrated in the passport booklet. If the chip is tampered with, the system will be able to detect it, resulting in the passport authentication failing.

"Issuance of E-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 to enhance convenience for citizens": Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Citizens will get chip-enabled e-Passports with additional security features from the Ministry of External Affairs. The applicants' personal information would be digitally signed and kept in a chip that would be integrated in the passport booklet. If the chip is tampered with, the system will be able to detect it, resulting in the passport authentication failing.

The Ministry of External Affairs on January 7 signed an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services Limited for the second phase of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP), one of the several Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) of the Government of India. The latest agreement will facilitate the next phase of the PSP termed PSP-V2.0.

The PSP-V2.0 is a continuation and enhancement of PSP-V1.0, an e-Governance instrument, which introduced unprecedented transformation in delivery of passport related services to citizens. The focus was on timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable platform, accessed by citizens in a comfortable environment through streamlined processes; and a committed, trained and motivated workforce.

The project design ensured that support functions like citizen interface, technology backbone, call centres, training and change management etc. were provided by the Service Provider, and the Government continued to exercise all sovereign and security related functions in the passport issuance process.

The key elements of PSP-V 2.0 are setting up of a state-of-art digital ecosystem, process overhauling and integration among various stakeholders and database, improving citizen interface, upgrading technology, adopting best practices and strengthening data security.

 Security aspects, including strategic assets such as Data Centres, Database and the Application Software will be owned by the Government. There would be strict access controls across the system, incorporating biometrics.

On the digital front, the programme envisages a Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre and Government Secure Repository networked to all PSKs/POPSKs, Passport Offices and also to Indian Missions/Posts aboard, an electronic file system for passport processing running across the passport issuance ecosystem and 24x7x365 monitoring and supervision through state-of-art Network Operation Centre (NOC) and Security Operation Centre (SOC).