According to sources, the government of India is working to roll out e-passports in order to give its citizens a hassle-free international travel experience. This will not only make flying across the globe easier but it will also protect the people against identity theft. On the occasion of Passport Seva Diwas, the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar announced about this latest development and reaffirmed the efforts made by the government to enhance its citizens’ experiences and public delivery.
S Jaishankar has also made an announcement that the PSP, Passport Seva Program will embark on an improved and upgraded version, PSP V2.0 in order to make sure that a digital ecosystem exists among all stakeholders and also offer improvised passport services to its citizens.
S Jaishankar further said that this would make sure there is a smooth governance end-to-end through standardized and librarized processes, utilizing emerging and latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, use of Big-Data, Chat-Bot, Advance Analytics etc. He said that the ministry is also working on offering e-passports in India, which will make international travel easier while also enabling protection against identity theft and greater data security.
The External Affairs Minister also added that this upgraded Passport Seva System has been integrated with a DigiLocker system, which will facilitate a paperless documentation process.
The External Affairs Minister said that the authorities will continue with their commitment and will deliver the next level of citizen experience. He also added that the passport services were offered with the same enthusiasm and vigor even during the pandemic. Jaishankar further stated that the government managed to set a great record even though it was dealing with an increased demand that built up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, a monthly average of around 9 lakh were accepted and almost 4.50 lakh additional applications were granted in the past one month.
