Senior Indian officials have confirmed that the country's ePassport project is nearing the stage where citizens can apply for the document.External affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar announced that Indians will be able to apply the passport soon, as part of the government's focus on technology and digitisation, reported the Business Traveller."We are working with the Indian Security Press, Nashik, and National Informatics Centre to implement this project."I am confident that the introduction of e-passports will greatly strengthen the security of our travel documents. The procurement process for the production of e-passport is underway."Replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house), the minister said the personal particulars of the applicants would be digitally signed and stored in the chip which would be embedded in the present form of physical passport booklet."In the first phase we want to bring in about 22 million inlays electronic passports," he added.
Indian ePassport makes progress
