India's ranking drops to 85th in Henley Passport Index, Singapore tops global list
New Delhi (PTI): India's ranking has dropped by five points to 85 this year in a global passport index, topped by Singapore for the second consecutive year.
The data draws from Henley Passport Index released by citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners on Wednesday.
"With historical data spanning 19 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations," according to its website.
The index is considered the standard reference tool for global citizens and sovereign states when assessing where a passport ranks on the global mobility spectrum, it said.
As per the index for 2025, India stands at 85th while the ranking of Pakistan and Bangladesh stood at 103rd (101st in 2024) and 100th (97th in 2024), respectively.
India's ranking in the Henley Passport Index for 2024 was 80th globally.
According to a data chart available on the firm's website, for the range of years from 2006-2025, India's rank was the lowest at 90th in 2021, while its best score was in 2006 when the country was ranked 71st.
For the US, the ranking for 2025 was 9th, down from 7th in 2024, while China's ranking rose to 60th from 62nd in 2024.
Japan's ranking stood at 2nd this year, while it had the top slot from 2018-2023. In 2024, both Japan and Singapore shared the top rank.
According to a statement issued by the firm, only 22 of the world's 199 passports have fallen down the Henley Passport Index ranking over the past decade.
"Surprisingly, the US is the second-biggest faller between 2015 and 2025 after Venezuela, plummeting seven places from 2nd to its current 9th position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, losing six places from 48th to 54th position, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5th place. Completing the top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4th to its current 7th place," the statement said.
In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers over the past decade, ascending from 94th place in 2015 to 60th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations in that time, it said.
The US nationals currently constitute the single largest cohort of applicants for alternative residence and citizenship, accounting for a staggering 21 per cent of all investment migration programme applications received by Henley & Partners in 2024, the statement said.
The firm has more American clients than the next four biggest nationalities -- Turkish, Filipino, Indian and Brits -- combined, CEO Juerg Steffen was quoted as saying in the statement.
"Faced with unprecedented volatility, investors and wealthy families are adopting a strategy of geopolitical arbitrage to acquire additional residence and/or citizenship options to hedge against jurisdictional risk and leverage the differences in legal, economic, political and social conditions across countries to optimise their personal, financial and lifestyle outcomes," he said.
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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
