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STATEMENTS BY PM DURING PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS (PBD) 2019
“Our embassies and consulates are being connected to the Passport Seva Project worldwide,” he said addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2019 in Varanasi.
“This will prepare a centralized system connected to the passport service for all of you,” he added. “Going one step ahead, work is on for issuing of the chip-based e-passport.”
ABOUT THE 15TH PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS
Its theme will be “Role of Indian Diaspora in building a New India”
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated every year in India on 9 January. The day also commemorates return of father of nation Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa in Mumbai (then Bombay) on January 9, 1915. The day is celebrated to mark contribution of overseas Indian community to the development of India.
Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth will be the chief guest.
ABOUT INDIA’S PASSPORT
According to the Henley Passport Index, which periodically measures the access each country’s travel document affords, India jumped two positions from 81st in 2018 to 79th this year.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal ranked further low at 104, 102 and 94 respectively.
Japan retained its top spot as the world’s most travel-friendly passport
BIOMETRIC PASSPORT
A biometric passport (also known as an e-passport, ePassport, or a digital passport) is a traditional passport that has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the passport holder.
The chip holds the same information that is printed on the passport’s data page: the holder’s name, date of birth, and other biographic information. In some countries, including Germany, ePassports include two fingerprints as well.
WHY E-PASSPORT
ePassports are designed to increase security, making it more difficult to change data recorded on a passport and therefore limiting the chance of fraud. In addition, all e-Passports issued by Visa Waiver Program countries and the United States have security features to prevent the unauthorized reading or “skimming” of data stored on the e-Passport chip.
THE USE IS SPREADING FAST Currently,
96 countries are issuing e-passports and this number will only increase.
While these biometric passports have an array of protection mechanisms, not each and every one of these countries are using the same ones.
IT IS INTERNATIONALLY RECOMMENDED
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in its document 9303, released the recommended specification of Electronic Machine-Readable Travel documents (e-MRTDs) or e-travel documents.
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