On Thursday, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that the government intends to provide e-passports to people beginning in 2022-23. Muraleedharan made the statements in Rajya Sabha in response to a query on the government’s plans for the issuing of e-passports in the calendar year 2022, as well as the specifics. According to the MoS, the e-passport will be a combination of paper and electronic passport with an integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and antenna embedded as an inlay in the rear cover.
‘The vital information on the passport will be printed on the data page as well as saved in the chip. The specifications of the document and chip are established in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) document 9303,’ Muraleedharan explained. The minister went on to say that the Ministry of External Affairs has delegated technical responsibility for the issue of e-passports to the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
‘The e-passports would be manufactured by India Security Press, Nashik, which has given letters of intent for the acquisition of 4.5 crore ICAO-compliant electronic chips as well as its operating system,’ he said. The MoS informed the upper house that sample e-passports are presently being evaluated, and that full-scale production and distribution would begin once the technological eco-system and infrastructure are completed.
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