India's e-passport rollout to start by end of year: All you need to know

TCS is working on a passport project with the government; earlier this year, the MEA renewed its 10-year Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) deal worth more than Rs 6,000 crore with the firm

IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will roll out chip-based e-passports by the end of this year, a news report said. The company will also set up a new command and control centre with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and a new data centre that will support all the backend requirements of the project, a report by The Economic Times said. 

 

TCS is working on a passport project with the government as earlier this year, the MEA renewed its 10-year Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) deal worth more than Rs 6,000 crore with the firm. The project is India's largest mission-critical governance programme to date, the report said. 

 

Here's everything you need to know about e-passports:

 

What are e-passports?

 

While it might seem like a regular passport, an e-passport comes with a small electronic chip inside it, similar to a driver's license to some extent. The chip will store all information of the person printed on the passport, such as name, date of birth, address and more. 

 

E-passports, which will have Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and antenna embedded as an inlay in the back cover, will help officials verify a traveller's details quickly. The passport holder's information will be stored in the chip and the passport's data page. 

 

With the issuance of e-passports, the government aims to reduce the circulation of fake passports by enhancing security and reducing duplication and data tampering. 

 

When will government roll out E-passports?

 

The MEA is looking at a launch timeline for chip-based e-passports within 2022, a TCS official told The Economic Times. 

The passports already in circulation will remain valid as they are. They will be replaced with e-passports as and when they are renewed.

 

TCS will also set up a new command and control centre with MEA to roll out new e-passports. The IT firm is also planning to refresh the existing PSKs and systems and build a new solution for issuing chip-based passports.

 

What other nations have chip-based passports?

 

More than 100 nations, like Ireland, Zimbabwe, Malawai, India's neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, have rolled out e-passports, as per the data by the International Civil Aviation Organization.