E-passports: All care being taken on security aspects, says Jaishankar in Lok Sabha

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, February 4

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said all care is being taken regarding security aspects of e-passports which will be rolled out in the coming months.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister said they would be secured by the digital signature of the issuing country, which will provide data authentication to countries citizens would travel to.

Certain digital keys will also verify e-passports at multiple stages.

“The current Passport Seva Project includes robust safeguards for data privacy, as well as adequate measures for data security. Passport data is used for the specific purpose for which it is obtained,” he said

“The digital signature which will secure the data will be sent to other countries for recognition purposes. The e-passports will ensure multiple layered security as the data will be on paper like regular passports and also on the verified chips”, he said.

The minister said transfer of existing visa citations will not be required in the case of e-passport as they will continue to have physical visa pages.

The government is planning to issue e-passports to its citizens, starting 2022-23. This will be a combined paper and electronic passport, with an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID chip) and antenna embedded as an inlay in the back cover.

The passport’s critical information will be printed on its data page as well as stored in the chip. The characteristics of the document and the chip are specified in International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) document 9303, according to the written reply.

“The main benefit of the e-passport is its enhanced ability to maintain the integrity of its data. This is expected to increase the level of confidence in the Indian passport.

“E-passports would also facilitate the ease of travel for Indian citizens, making their interface with immigration authorities much smoother.

“Since the ICAO has recommended its introduction by member countries, the introduction of e-passports would be in consonance with global best practices,” he said

Jaishankar said this is the right time for India to adopt chip-based passports as many other countries are already using it

To DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran’s query whether the government was planning to issue e-passports only in Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi, Jaishankar said the government “has never discriminated among citizens of different states for passports”.

“On passport side we have never discriminated in favor of any state or against any state. I resent that”, he said, urging the DMK leader to not make such comments.