E-Passport coming soon: The common citizen of the country can get the first e-passport in the next two months. All the technical tests of these chip-enabled passports are almost complete. Indian Security Press Nashik is printing 70 lakh e-passport blank booklets in the first year. This press has got an order to print 4.5 crore chip passports.
With the new passport with 41 advanced features, the immigration process will be completed within minutes at airports in 140 countries that comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. In appearance it will be similar to the present passport booklet. Only on one of the pages in the middle of the booklet will there be a radio frequency identification chip and a small foldable antenna at the end.
The chip will have our biometric details and all those things which are already there in the booklet. The scheme called Passport Service Program 2.0 (PSP) is yet to be launched. The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner so that there is no rush at the centers for chipped passports. For this, passport centers are being technically upgraded.
| Old passport | e-passport | |
| Which data | Details of thumb impression, photo name, date of birth and other documents. | Photo, fingerprints, geometric image of face, eyes, digital signature etc. |
| Data store | Booklets contain a maximum of 60 pages. then re-issue | The 64 KB data store in the chip will last forever. |
| Verification | Somewhere it takes half an hour and somewhere up to an hour. | Time will be halved. Verification in minutes. |
| Fees | Rs. 1500 to 5500 | Fee not decided yet. |
| Technique | Not in booklet. | 41 Advance Features |
| Duplicate | Duplicate booklets are now made. | Duplicate passports will not be able to be made from the chip. |
| Data security | Data remains unsecure if booklet is stolen | Digital lock will remain in the chip, change is impossible. |
| Life | Fear of damaging booklet pages by water, fire. | All the information in the e-chip will be safe for life. |
Advantage: System will catch lookalike
According to sources in the Ministry of External Affairs, modern biometric systems will be installed at the airport for e-passports. In this, the facial image stored in the passport and the live image during immigration will be matched in seconds. If someone has come impersonating, the system will catch him immediately. At present, many times the old photo and live image in the booklet passport do not match.
Passport testing continues with foreign chip reader
The information entered in the passport booklet and the chip information have been adapted from the ICAO. Indian e-passport trials are underway with chip readers from different countries. The chip should not be read, the digital signature should be matched immediately, and the chip data should be clearly displayed on the receiver computer, so the technical test is almost done.
Three questions related to e-passport…
How do I get an e-passport – After the launch of PSP 2.0, all passports that will be made will be chip ones.
Even if the old booklet is empty – you can apply for a new one by submitting the old passport at the designated centre.
What will you get on re-issue – If you get the old booklet re-issued after the launch, you will get only e-passport.
Uniform passport preparation around the world
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) currently has 193 member countries. The organization has started the process of implementing uniform e-passports across these countries, so that digital passports of international excellence become the new standard for immigration.
The Indian passport has also been made true to these standards. The National Informatics Center is the technical partner in this work of the Ministry of External Affairs, in which the ISP has been added under a tripartite agreement.
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