The Ministry of External Affairs has launched the “Passport Seva Programme” by which Indian citizens who need to apply for a passport can submit documents required for passport verification via the DigiLocker app and won’t have to carry their original documents during verification.
Union minister V Muraleedharan launched the programme which would enable the citizens to go paperless and this also speeds up the entire process of passport deliveries in India.
“This has seen a sea change in the last six years. The monthly submission of applications has crossed the one million mark for the first time in 2017. I am told that more than seven crore passports have been issued through the Passport Seva project till date,” he said.
Passport details anytime, anywhere
The minister also said that the government is looking to include the passport as one of the documents in the DigiLocker app which will help citizens retrieve their passport information whenever they want.
Also, the facility can also be used in case of passport loss or to re-issue the same.
The DigiLocker app is an initiative for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology that aims at “digital empowerment” of citizens and providing access to original government related documents via a digital wallet.
The issue of digital documents via the DigiLocker app is deemed to be at par with original physical documents. You can also store your Aadhaar, and PAN card details in the app. You can also store your driving license and vehicle registration details on the app.
The ease of e-passports
“We are also working towards rolling out e-passports for the citizens that are designed to increase security, making it more difficult to tamper with the data recorded on a passport, thereby limiting the chances of fraud,” Muraleedharan said.
In the near future, e-passports will help with biometric authentication at airports hence making the entire security check process much faster. In the second version of the Passport Seva Programme, the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, chatbot, analytics, robotic process automation (RPA) will further ease the experience of the citizens and lead to expeditious service delivery, the minister said.
