Overview
- Since May 28, all new Indian passports are e‑passports, with about 80 lakh issued domestically and roughly 62,000 through missions abroad, averaging around 50,000 per day.
- The booklets carry ICAO‑compliant RFID chips storing encrypted biometric and personal data for contactless checks, and are readable in more than 100 countries.
- PSP V2.0 adds central biometric matching, Aadhaar and DigiLocker integration, AI chat and voice support, and robotic process automation to deter impersonation and reduce paperwork.
- Average counter processing time has dropped from about 45 minutes to 30 minutes, supported by three data centres in Noida, Chennai and Bengaluru and a multilingual national call centre.
- The MEA aims to chip all passports in circulation by June 2035, states the chip is not trackable, and is currently absorbing higher production costs without raising fees.