Passport seva programme
- TCS bags phase 2 of Centre's passport plan valued at up to Rs 8,000 cr
- The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has chosen it again to implement the second phase of the Passport Seva Program
- It is country’s largest mission critical e-governance programme till date
About Passport Seva Program
- It was introduced in the year 2010 to improve the delivery of passport services.
- It is centralised system of issuing passports under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model
- The status of online passport applications can be tracked by the applicants through the passport website or through the mPassport Seva mobile application
- The MEA handles all the sovereign functions while the TCS managed powered technology manages application system, IT and non IT infrastructure, data centres and disaster recovery operations
Significance
- This programme has introduced a major digital transformation in the last six years
- The TCS has transformed the delivery of passport-related services, digitising the processes, and setting global benchmarks since its inception
- It has also improved transparency and reliability
Passport Seva Program-Phase 2
- The proposed e-passports will have chips embedded in the passport booklet which can make data more secure, and make it easier to read
- The TCS will refresh existing facilities and systems
- It will develop new solutions to enable the issuance of e-passports using technologies such as biometrics, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, chatbots, auto-response, natural language processing, and the cloud