Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V. Muraleedharan in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha said that the government is planning to issue e-passports to its citizens with advanced security features. The Minister replied that an e-passport is similar to the present Machine Readable Passport (MRP) which comprises of an electronic chip, which contains the same information that is printed on the data page of the passport, i.e. name of the holder, date of birth , photo etc.
The personal details of the applicants will be digitally signed and stored in the chip. citizens’ data e-passport Will be used for a specific purpose only, i.e. issuance of passport and related services. There is no secondary use of data, thereby protecting privacy concerns. Further transaction processes are authenticated by digital certificates and signed cryptographically. Once captured, the data is stored in a secure repository, i.e. industry-standard database. Relevant database security related controls are performed by the Security Operations Center round the clock.
The sample e-passport has been tested and with the completion of the technical eco-system and infrastructure, the full scale manufacturing and issuance will start. The above facility will be made available in phases at all passport offices across India.
Earlier, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan had said in the Rajya Sabha that the personal details of the applicant would be stored digitally in a chip embedded in the passport booklet.
The government is expected to introduce e-passport this year.
“The ministry is planning to issue chip-enabled e-passports to citizens with advanced security features. The e-passports have contactless smart card technology, which includes an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip that covers the front or back. Or is embedded in the page. Passport,” he said in a written reply to a question on e-passport.
He said the “chip characteristics” are in line with the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that defines standards for travel documents.
“The personal details of the applicants will be digitally stored in the chip, which will be embedded in the physical passport booklet,” the minister said.
“If someone tampers with the chip, the system will be able to identify it, resulting in failure of passport authentication,” he said.
He said that apart from providing protection against fraud and tampering, e-passport will help citizens to upgrade existing passports and services.
Meanwhile, the total number of passports issued in the country during the last three years is 2,92,93,011. According to the data provided by the Bureau of Immigration (BoI), the number of people traveling abroad from India during the said period is 5,06,86,763.
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