About 80 lakh e-passports issued till date in India; system upgrade to check fraudulent applications
New Delhi (PTI): In a major upgrade of its passport-related system, the government has introduced a next-generation "e-passport" that combines both paper and electronic elements, a step that also seeks to detect and check forgery, impersonation and other fraudulent acts.
A senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday said old legacy passports, which have not expired, will continue to remain valid till 2035 or until their expiry.
The MEA recently announced the successful rollout of the upgraded version of its flagship Passport Seva Programme (PSP), which includes the Passport Seva Programme (PSP V2.0), the Global Passport Seva Programme (GPSP V2.0), and the e-Passport, for citizens in India and those who are residing abroad.
The e-passport is a hybrid passport that combines both paper and electronic elements. It features an embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and an antenna, which store and secure the holder's data in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, the officials said.
The passport's critical information is printed on its data page as well as stored in the chip, thus making it harder to forge, they said.
Pilot testing of the e-passport began at Regional Passport Offices in Bhubaneswar and Nagpur in 2024.
After the successful pilot launch and requisite certifications, subsequently, it was rolled out at the remaining Regional Passport Offices across India in a phased manner and completed in May 2025.
"Around 80 lakh e-passports have been issued in India, till date, since the beginning of the rollout. And around 62,000 e-passports, till date, have been issued through Indian missions and posts abroad since June 2025," another senior MEA official said.
The data stored in the embedded chip of an e-passport is "read-only" and gets accessed by the system when it is tapped on a platform used during the immigration process at an airport.
"This data cannot be retrieved by anyone else, in case a person's e-passport gets lost or stolen by someone. And in case of theft, once a police complaint has been filed, the entire data on the chip can be locked by authorities," the senior official said.
Also, the embedded data is matched with pre-stored biometric data during the course of application for a passport, as this is a "major upgrade" in the entire passport-related system using modern technology, the official said.
"So, if someone tries to forge a passport or attempts to impersonate someone or get a passport issued in someone else's name, the new system will first alert if a passport with that name and demographic data already exists, and then compare and match the data furnished by an applicant with stored biometric data, and alert in case someone attempts fraudulence acts," he said.
Besides, in an e-passport, the photo used will be compliant with ICAO standards, the other official said.
The PSP Version 2.0 is designed to create a digitally integrated ecosystem connecting all stakeholders involved in passport services, with a focus on efficiency, transparency, and user convenience.
With AI-powered chat and voice bots, citizens can get help while filling out applications or when they have passport-related grievances. The new and improved passport website and mobile app give users a better experience through features like auto-filled forms, simpler document uploads, and easy online payments using UPI or QR codes, according to the MEA.
The introduction of e-passports, alongside PSP V2.0, marks "another significant milestone" for the ministry, it said.
"Critical information printed on the data page is also stored electronically on the chip, enabling enhanced security and authentication. Going forward, all newly issued passports will be e-passports, while existing non-electronic passports will remain valid until their expiry," the MEA said.
PSP V2.0 was successfully implemented across all 37 Passport Offices in India, along with their respective 93 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and 451 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) on May 26, 2025.
Subsequently, GPSP V2.0 was launched across Indian embassies and consulates worldwide on October 28.
There are 202 Indian missions and posts abroad, the official said.
An e-passport carries a particular symbol, and nearly 100 countries have such facilities in their immigration system, he said, adding that, in countries where such facilities are not available, "machine-readable data" printed on the e-passport page can be read by the system at an airport.
The government has three "data centres", one each in Noida and Chennai and Bengaluru, and the system and data are "owned" by the central government, the official said.
Also, there is a seven-layer security control in the security architecture to avoid any attempts of hacking and other kinds of disruption, he said.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
