“We are working on the design aspect of the new generation passports which, along with the e-chip, will have better paper, better layout, improved security features and other improvements,” says Muktesh K. Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. In conversation with Express Computer.
How do you look back at the year 2014 as far as the issuance of new passports in India is concerned?
The year 2014 was a great year for the Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) Division of the Ministry of External Affairs in terms of passport issuance. In this year, for the first time in history, we have issued some 10 million new passports. There are only 3 countries in the world which issue more than 10 million passports in a year — China, USA and now, India. Normally, 60 to 70 million passports get issued by all the nations in the world. So in 2014 more than 10% of the new passports in the world were issued by India. This trend of growth in new passport issuance is likely to continue in India during the coming years. In 2015 we are expecting that there will be a growth of 20% to 25%.
Is there a significant improvement in the speed with which new passports get issued?
We are now able to issue new passports in a faster and more efficient manner. The average time taken by the government for issuing passports has now come down significantly. We are trying to make the processes even more efficient, so that passports can be issued in fewer number of days. eGovernance is a key theme in this. Without the use of ICT and the new managerial processes we could not have brought such improvement in the system of passport issuance. In this, I would also like to congratulate TCS, the private sector partner in the Passport Seva Project. It has been a good partnership between the government and TCS, that has led to vast improvement in the way passports are issued to citizens.
Can you give us some specific examples of the ways by which ICT has led to the improvement in the process through which passports get issued in the country?
The Passport Seva Project was rolled out in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, we made significant improvements in the project. Earlier we didn’t have the facility of online payments for passport fees. But we added this component for bringing further convenience to our citizens. Today most people make pre-payment through online system. In fact, appointments for passport applications are only given after the online payment has been made. Other than the facility of online payments, we have also made vast improvement in the number of SMS alerts that we send at every stage. The Passport Seva Project has entered the era of m-governance with the development of a mobile app, which can help the applicant track the status of his passport application. You don’t have to come to the passport office to track the status of your application; you can do it through our national call centre; through a mobile app or through SMS.
It has generally been seen that the biggest delays in passport issuance happen on the stage of police verification. What steps are being taken to bring improvement in this area?
To address this issue, we are working on the development of mobile app for police officials. Currently the Police Verification Form (PVR) is sent to the SP office, from where it is downloaded and sent to the constable for final verification. But this app will bring digitisation to the last stage. With the app, the police constable can see the PVR on his tablet. When he visits the place of the residence of the passport applicant, after doing the verification, he can upload the PVR report through his tablet. The SP can see the PVR in his office and can use his digital signature to authenticate it, before sending it back to the Passport authority. With this the entire exercise of passport issuance becomes a seamless digital process.
In the rural areas, due to lack of digital literacy, many people are unable to access the online systems for filing a passport application. What steps are being taken to enable these people to take advantage of the eGovernance initiatives that you have talked about?
With the idea of serving the people in rural areas, we have also taken the step of integrating the passport service with the common service centres. In the early part of 2014, we started a pilot project in UP and Jharkhand. When the service became successful we began to roll it out all over India. Large-scale training programme has taken place, to ensure that the CSCs have the comprehensive knowledge of how to file the passport applications on behalf of their clients. The project has been quite successful and till now about 30000 applications have been filed around the country by the CSCs. Under the current arrangement the CSCs are allowed to collect up to Rs. 100 from the citizen for filing his passport application. The CSCs can also make the payment on behalf of the applicant, in case the applicant does not have his own credit/debit card or online banking facility.
It has been announced that India will in near future start issuing e-passports. What is the concept behind the e-passports?
The International Civil Aviation Organisation has recommended that the member nations should start issuing e-passports, which is the electronic version of the machine readable passports. About 100 nations have already switched over to e-passports. In our case, we had done a pilot project few years back. The pilot project was successful and India Security Press, which is responsible for manufacturing passports, did the tendering for procuring the e-chip which goes into the e-passports. The e-chip will have the software, which will make it readable to the immigration department of every passport issuing nation. Whatever is printed in the passport is also there in the e-chip. In addition, the e-chip has the biometric information of the passport holder.
How much time will it take for e-passports to be issued in India?
The tendering process has already been started by India Security Press. The pre-qualification bid inviting bids from interested parties has already been floated. Once the supply of e-chips starts, the India Security Press will start manufacturing the new generation passports, which will have many new security features. There will be some design changes as well. We are working on the design aspect of the new generation e-passports, which, along with the e-chip, will have better paper, better layout, improved security features and other improvements. The India Security Press supplies blank passports, and all the data in the passport is entered in the passport office. For this we need to have a better printing machinery. As soon as the systems are in place, we will begin issuing the e-passports. Currently the passports that we are issuing are machine readable.
By 2015 all countries have to phase out handwritten passports. What steps are being taken to ensure that the passport holders in India can transition to machine readable passports?
By 24 November 2015, all countries have to phase out handwritten passports. So all governments are trying to ensure that there are no handwritten passports with pasted photographs. We have estimated that there could be about 2.5 lakh handwritten passports still in circulation amongst Indian citizens. These passports could be within India or with Indians living outside. We have taken adequate measures to ensure that the holders of handwritten passports can renew their passports at a very quick notice. We are trying to contact all holders of handwritten passports to inform them that they have to get a machine readable passport before the deadline.