Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that the government is planning to issue e-passports to its citizens, starting in 2022-23. V Muraleedharan’s remarks came in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question on the government’s plans for the issuance of e-passports in the calendar year 2022 and its details.
The MoS inform that the e-passport will be a combined paper and electronic passport, with an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and antenna embed as an inlay in the back cover.
V Muraleedharan Said :
“The passport’s critical information will be print on its data page as well as store in the chip. The characteristics of the document and the chip are specified in International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) document 9303,”.
V Muraleedharan also said that the Ministry of External Affairs has entrust the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with the technical responsibilities in the context of the issuance of e-passports.
V Muraleedharan Said :
“The e-passports will be produce by the India Security Press, Nashik, which has issue letters of intent for the procurement of 4.5 crore ICAO-compliant electronic chips along with its operating system,”.
The MoS inform the upper house that sample e-passports are currently being test and the full-scale manufacture and issue will commence with the completion of the technical eco-system and infrastructure.
