Electronic passports embedded with a chip for fool-proof security following norms of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAI) are likely to be rolled out by the year-end of 2022, said Secretary (Consular and Diaspora), Ministry of External Affairs, Ausaf Sayeed.
The Secretary dismissed the notion about e-passports replacing old passports and said obtaining them was voluntary. The chip will carry the details of the passport holder in electronic form and this would, in all likelihood, put an end to forged passports.
Stating that the interests of diaspora are important, the secretary said several steps are being taken to facilitate Indian citizens who are migrating to work in other countries and providing legal support. He said 87 billion dollars have been remitted to India by diaspora last year, compared to the 83 billion dollars in the previous year.
Dr. Sayeed also said efforts are being made to make immigration process easy through legal processes and increase training levels of those migrants. He said all agents operating illegally will be eliminated.
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