In a major announcement in the budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that E-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 to enhance convenience for citizens, The passport jacket will contain an electronic chip which will have important security-related data encoded on it. Currently, India issues passports for its citizens in printed booklets.Earlier Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar had earlier said that the ministry has initiated discussions with the ‘India Security Press’ regarding the project for issuing chip-enabled e-passports to the citizens.
The External Affairs Ministry will issue chip-enabled e-Passports with advanced security features to citizens. The personal particulars of the applicants would be digitally signed and stored in the chip which would be embedded in the passport booklet. In case, anyone tampers with the chip, the system shall be able to identify it, resulting in the failure of the passport authentication. E-passports will also have a digital signature that is unique to each country and can be easily verified using a certificate.The government has so far issued 20,000 official and diplomatic e-passports. This is the first time citizens of the country will be issued e-passports. The first e-passport in India was issued to the then President of India, Pratibha Patil in 2008. With a view to manufacture e-Passports, India Security Press, Nashik has awarded the contract for procurement of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-compliant electronic contactless inlays along with its operating system necessary for chip-enabled e-Passports.