Summary:External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj often uses Twitter to help Indians who're facing problems abroad. And now, it gets even better: thanks to 'Twitter Seva,' a new service that her ministry launched on Friday, you'll be able get help from your local Indian embassy or your regional passport office faster than ever. The service, launched by Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, will act as "an umbrella platform" of all Ministry-affiliated Twitter handles, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Summary:The government on Friday introduced a host of changes to ease the rules for applying for an Indian passport, including expansion of the basket of documents needed to be submitted for date of birth proof. "Let me assure you that where the passport services and consular services are concerned, we are going out of our way to ensure that simplification takes place so that ease of accessing these services are made better," Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh said while announcing the changes. "There are a great many things that we are doing," he said. "We are trying to review our procedures, we are trying to review our rules, and we are trying to see that in these times the needs are slightly different than what they were 40 years back. " He said that the changes were done to conform to the social necessities of the time. "These changes are slowly taking place and you will find that we are moving in a direction in which we will probably be at par with some of the nations which have got a very, very liberalized kind of a system," Singh said, while pointing out that today the entire passport application process is done online. He also said that the External Affairs Ministry would also be soon launching a pilot project that will have head post offices functioning as extensions of Passport Seva Kendras. Under the new rules, a person can submit any of the following documents as proof for date of birth: birth certificate issued by the registrar of births and deaths or the municipal corporation; transfer/school leaving/matriculation certificate issued by the school last attended or a recognized educational board; PAN card; Aadhar card or E-Aadhar; copy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only in respect of government servants) or the pay pension order (in respect of retired government Servants), duly attested or certified by the officer in charge of the administration of the ministry or department concerned of the applicant; driving license; election photo identity card (EPIC); and policy bond issued by the public life insurance corporations and companies. Several other changes have also been effected based on recommendations made by a three-member committee comprising officials of the External Affairs Ministry and Women and Child Development Ministry. The online passport application form now requires the applicant to provide the name of only one parent or legal guardian enabling single parents to apply for passports for their children.

The total number of annexes prescribed in the Passport Rule, 1980, has been brought down to nine from 15. Annexes A, C, D, E, J, and K have been removed and certain annexes have been merged. All the annexes that are required to be given by the applicants would be in the form of a self-declaration on a plain paper and no attestation before any notary or executive magistrate or first class judicial magistrate will be required. Married applicants will not be required to provide Annexure K or any marriage certificate. The passport application form does not require the applicant to provide the name of her or his spouse in case of separated or divorced persons and such applicants also need not provide the divorce decree. Orphaned children who do not have any proof of date of birth may now submit a declaration given by the head of the orphanage or child care home on their official letter head of the organization confirming the date of birth of the applicant. In case of children born out of wedlock, the applicant for the passport of such children should submit only Annexure G while submitting the passport application. In case of issue of passport to in-country domestically adopted children, submission of the registered adoption deed will no longer be required. Instead, the applicant can give a declaration on a plain paper confirming the adoption. Government servants who are not able to obtain the identity certificate (Annexure-B) or no-objection certificate (Annexure-M) from their concerned employer and intend to get the passport on urgent basis can now get the passport by submitting a self-declaration in Annexure-N that he or she has given prior intimation letter to his or her employer informing that he or she was applying for an ordinary passport to a passport issuing authority. Seers and mendicants can apply for a passport with the name of their spiritual guru mentioned in the application in lieu of their biological parent's name subject to their providing at least one public document such as Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC), PAN card, Aadhar card wherein the name of the guru has been recorded against the column for parent's name. Meanwhile, the practice of paying cash for Tatkal passports will soon be phased out. Answering a question, Chief Passport Officer Arun Chatterjee, who was also present on the occasion, said the process was on to install point of sale (PoS) machines at all passport application counters. He said the State Bank of India has been roped in for this.

Summary:The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has launched a new initiative, Student Connect, in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services under its Passport Seva project. The project is aimed at getting more students to apply for their passports in time, and at the same time, make them aware of e-Governance initiatives. TCS runs 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) across the country. Arun Chatterjee, Joint Secretary, MEA told ET, "We realized that there wasn't too much awareness in the student community about how streamlined the passport application process has become in the past few years. I am personally reaching out to about 500 universities to create awareness about this initiative. Additionally, the 38 regional passport officers are also conduction sessions and creating awareness locally." The groundwork for this has been going on for close to three months, while the initiative was actually launched about a month and a half back. The ministry noticed that every year there would be a surge in applications for a few months, which would lead to a delay in processing the passports for students who were planning to study abroad. The project aims to spread that out across the year, and also make the process easier for students. Rajesh Dogra, head-all India operations, passport project, TCS, said, "In some cases if students cannot come to the passport office during the week, we will hold a passport mela or camp on the weekend. If there is sufficient demand from a single university, we will go and set up a camp at their campus. We have some special solutions and portable equipment and we've already conducted such camps at XLRI, Jamshedpur and at Bhubaneshwar PSK for Utkal University and Jodhpur PSK so far." Chatterjee said that they would like this to be an ongoing engagement, and to start with, they are focusing on the AICTE approved institutes.

Summary:The much awaited Passport Service Centre (PSC) will be operational from next month. Furnishing of the PSC is on final stage. The facility would help passport aspirants of 16 districts of Indore and Ujjain division. The PSC is being set up on the first floor of new IDA building at Anandvan, Scheme No 140 near Pipliyahana. The centre would be set-up at 983 sq. meter area. Owing to increasing number of overseas passengers from city, Ministry of External Affairs has given approval to open PSC in the city. Following this, the process of separation of 16 of the region from Regional Passport Office (RPO) Bhopal was initiated. Assistant Passport Officer Yashwant Mathe has submitted a review report for separation of 16 district to Regional Passport Officer Manoj Kumar Rai. Marthe recently visited the city and had interaction with officials of IDA and inspected the furnishing work going on at PSC. The PSC is will be ready by second week of January. RPO will depute an assistant passport officer and other staff. Over 300 passports would be prepared daily at the new facility and will be delivered in 15 days to the applicants. Police verification of such candidates would be done after delivering the passport.
IDA and MEA sign MoU
On June 30 this year Ministry of External Affairs and IDA signed a MoU for setting up of PSC at 983 sq metre area of Anandvan building of the IDA. IDA chairman Shankar Lalwani handed over the possession letter to additional secretary of MEA DM Mulay. Estate manager of IDA Anil Agrawal and Regional Passport Officer, Bhopal Manoj Kumar Roy signed the MoU for the centre. "Over 60% furnishing work of PSC is completed and centre will be ready by the second week of January. We have already sent request to ministry of external affairs to set date for its inauguration.

Summary:The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is planning to utilize the infrastructure of India Post to expand its passport application and delivery services. It has also extended its contract with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for managing its Passport Seva Kendras for two more years. Now, TCS will manage the centers till 2020, as its initial contract from 2012 was for six years. The expanded services will include capturing real-time data from overseas applicants. Confirming the extension of the contract, Arun Chatterjee, Joint Secretary and Chief Passport Officer, said, "We want to use the postal department for the delivery of passport services. The idea is to use post offices for the processing and delivery of passport applications like it is done at the Passport Seva Kendras now. We will be able to use the existing infrastructure of post offices. The pilot centers will test the operations and if successful we will start replicating it." "We began by launching the 77 PSKs with TCS. The contract was for a six year period with an option of increasing the tenure by two more years. We have extended the contract with TCS for two-more years till 2020," said Chatterjee. The MEA has identified six head post offices - Patiala (Punjab), Delhi, Ghazipur (Uttar Pradesh), Bhuj (Gujarat), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), and Cuddapah (Andhra Pradesh) - for the pilot stage. India Post has over 800 head post offices. Chatterjee said if these were brought into the system, it will give the MEA good coverage area for its services to reach the far-flung areas of the country. "We have been working on this project for a month, both MEA and India Post are working out the modalities for implementing the project" added Chatterjee. One benefit of enlisting the help of the postal department employees was that they were government employees and could be used for the verification process. They would also need to be trained. There was a shortage in the number of employees for granting and verifying passports. TCS officials confirmed they would be helping out with the technical aspect of the new project. "Like the PSK counters, these would also be managed by TCS employees at post offices," said Shalini Mathur, project director, Passport Seva Project, TCS.

Summary:Pune is now the first city in Maharashtra and third in India to have an "m-Passport Police App" due to which the passport verification process will become speedy and transparent. The 'm-Passport Police App' and online verification system was officially launched on Thursday by Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla, Regional Passport Officer Atul Gotsurve, Joint Commissioner of Police Sunil Raman and Deputy Commissioner of Police (FRO) Shrikant Pathak and other police officials. Police and passport officials said that the m-Passport Police App would reduce the time period for receiving passport by seven to 10 days. Also, the citizens applying for passport would not require to visit police station for verification. It will be police officers, equipped with tabs, who would contact the applicants, visit them at the address mentioned on application, verify and scan the essential documents, upload the documents on the tabs and forward it online for further procedure.

How it works
- Field-level officer will receive applications for verification on the m-Passport App on the tablet
- Officer will visit applicant's address for verification
- Verified report will be typed out in real-time on the tablet
- Completed verification report will be digitally seen by police inspector in-charge and forwarded to the foreigners' Registration Office (which looks after verification process) online
- Approving authority will forward the same to the Regional Passport Office for further processing

Summary:In order to further simplify the application process for non-ECR passports for people with ECR (Emigration Check Required) passports, the ministry of external affairs has cancelled the requirement of submitting notary affidavit as proof of stay abroad while applying for passports. Starting from November 28, ECR passport holders while renewing passports need not procure notary public affidavit as proof for their overseas stay/employment, instead they can furnish these details in specific form available at the inquiry counter of the passport office while applying for the interview. The details of their stay abroad could be filled in the form and officers at inquiry counters will help out applicants in case they are illiterate. The form is sufficient as proof to get ECR passports according to statement from passport office. At present ECR passports are issued to illiterate people applying for overseas jobs. ECR passport holders while applying for jobs in 17 particular countries (most of Middle Eastern countries) should get temporary ECR certificate from protector of e-migrants office (PoE) which will verify overseas job agencies as well as local agencies. Further, such applicants going through PoE will get assistance from Indian embassy in case they have any issues with employment abroad. ECR passport holders, if they have stayed abroad for three years or more are eligible for non-ECR passports while renewing their passports. In this new method, it is sufficient for applicants to provide the duly filled form at B counter during the interview where officials will verify the passports with form and recommend for non-ECR passports. Officials at C counter will review the forms and issue non-ECR passports and applicants have to explain to officials about their overseas employment and duration of stay abroad.

Summary:The average turnaround time of an applicant at all the four Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the state has been reduced to 45 minutes. "It was about 120 minutes last year and we have brought it down to 45 minutes this year. There are people who left the Kendras in around 15 minutes. We have improved our processing techniques and efficiency," P S Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Bengaluru said on Wednesday. He termed it as one of the biggest achievements in the last one year. Karthigeyan, who was speaking at a programme hosted by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI, said there was a good response on the five-day window period where the passport applicant has a flexibility to fix an appointment to visit the PSKs.
Mobile app
All those who apply for passport need not worry about delay in police verification at least in Bengaluru. Karthigeyan said the police verification has gone online in the city and all the 108 police stations are equipped with a tablet-based application which is directly connected to the passport officer. "With this, the average time taken for police verification is 12 days. This could be further reduced to three to four days," he said. Karthigeyan said Bengaluru passport office has launched attest and apostille (authenticating origin of public documents by Ministry of External Affairs) services, which is one of the five passport offices in the country. "Those people who want to authenticate their documents (personal, educational and commercial) to present it to the foreign authority need not go elsewhere. The facility is available in our office", he said asking people to visit:www.gov.in/apostille.htm for details. "We will upgrade Kalaburagi Passport Seva Kendra into a full-fledged passport processing centre in a month," Karthigeyan said. There is a proposal to introduce passport processing facility in the post office in future to cater to increasing demand. "This year, we have issued nearly two lakh passports without police verification, out of the 5.72 lakh passports issued between January and November this year. This is because a large chunk of people in Bengaluru apply for the renewal of the passport and some for minors," Karthigeyan said.

Summary:In a move to expand its passport services for the students, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) under its Passport Seva Project (PSP) has launched student connect programme. Also the offices are inviting applications from students in different educational institutes. "The aim of the programme is to build students who are ready for a global sphere," said regional passport officer (RPO) Harmanbir Singh Gill. "We are encouraging students to apply for their passports following a process which is simple and convenient," said Gill. The last date for the passport under the programme is December 30. "Nowadays students travel to different parts of the world under student exchange programmes, different competitions, for higher studies and to pursue career opportunities," said an official. "In such scenario, passport is one document which is recognized widely as an identity proof and for address," the official said.
RELAXATIONS PROVIDED
The passport offices are now accepting attested copy of the education certificate. Usually, the passport office asks for original certificates. Passport officials said that as educational institutions ask students to submit their original certificates during the time of admissions so it becomes difficult for them to produce the same for the passport applications.
"Students usually wait for the college tenure to end and then apply for passports," said an official. Applying for the passport, one has to provide an attested copy of education certificate along with a bona fide certificate from the respective education institute, certifying that they are the students. "The students can visit the Passport Seva office anytime with just an application reference number (ARN), without taking any prior appointment," said Gill. One gets the ARN number after applying on MEA's website - www.passportindia.gov.in. It is to be mentioned that the service will also be available for the faculty and staff members of the institute. Furthermore, if an institute has more than 100 students who are interested to apply, the regional passport office may also conduct special passport camps or melas at the nearby Passport Seva Kendra.
INSTITUTES SERVED CIRCULARS
The RPO, Jalandhar has served circulars to 18 educational institutes so far. Some of the major institutes include Lovely Profession University (LPU), DAV University, Doaba College, Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Banarsi Dass Arya Girls College, Punjab Technical University, Nice Institute and Mother Merry Institute of Nursing College.

Summary: A Joint Workshop was conducted by RPO, Delhi and Delhi Police, for its officers on 17.11.2016 with the purpose of further streamlining Police Verification Process, with special emphasis on upcoming mPassport Police App, in line with the vision of External Affairs Minister "To deliver passport services to citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner and in a comfortable environment through streamlined processes and committed, trained and motivated workforce". The Workshop was inaugurated by Shri Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Joint Secretary (PSP) & CPO, Ministry of External Affairs; was jointly led by Shri Hitesh J. Rajpal, Regional Passport Officer, Delhi; and Shri Rajneesh Gupta, DCP (Special Branch), Delhi Police and was attended by about 250 officers of RPO, Delhi and Delhi Police. In his opening remarks, Shri Arun Kumar Chatterjee, JS (PSP) & CPO,while applauding Delhi Police for its good performance of providing the Police Verification Report within 13 days (the time limit is 21 days) also encouraged Delhi Police to implement mPassport Office App as early as possible. The mPolice App, designed by MEA, once implemented by Delhi Police, is likely to further reduce the timeline of Police Verification Process and make passport issuance quicker, more transparent and PV-process completely digital, eliminating paper trail. Shri Hitesh Rajpal, RPO, Delhi, expressed satisfaction in being instrumental in this unique initiative of Joint Workshop and highlighted the importance of three C's - Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination - between RPO, Delhi and Delhi Police, to better achieve even greater heights in providing citizen-friendly passport services, in a timely and reliable manner. Standard Operating Procedures on Police Verification Process and issues of common concern were discussed. A dialogue on exchange of views and feedback on challenges ensued between the two Organisations. Shri Hitesh Rajpal, RPO, Delhi, also announced that many more such Joint Workshops will be held in the coming months and years. It is hoped that through this forum, regular feedback would be exchanged between RPO, Delhi and Delhi Police, and timely training provided to its officers; thereby, further streamlining the Police Verification Process, which forms an integral part of passport issuance process, and is an effort towards achieving the vision.

Summary: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a judicial order was not required for including the stepfather's name in a child's passport. Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain also overruled objections by the passport authorities on mentioning a stepfather's name after ruling that he was the child's legal guardian for all intents and purposes. The development is significant as the passport authorities were insisting that the stepfather's name can be mentioned only after he is appointed a legal guardian by the court. The ruling came in the case of a boy, whose custody was given to his mother after the parents obtained a decree of divorce in 1996. His mother re-married next year. At that time, the petitioner boy and his elder sister were both of a "tender age". The court was told that they were looked after by their stepfather, whose name was recorded as father in government records, including the ration card, Aadhaar card, PAN card and various school certificates. The elder sister's passport, in any case, carried the stepfather's name. The petitioner also applied for a passport with the stepfather's name but was told that it could be issued with his biological father's name in view of the Passport Manual Act, 2010. The Act said the stepfather's name could not be mentioned in the passport even on remarriage after divorce because the child's relationship with his biological parents subsisted even after parting ways. But the stepfather's name could be mentioned after he was appointed a legal guardian by the court. Justice Jain asserted the petitioner has consistently been referred to as his stepfather's son in the government records. His elder sister too was having a passport with the stepfather's name. "Therefore, the stepfather was his legal guardian for all intents and purposes. There is no need to obtain an order from the court for his appointment as a legal guardian until and unless the capacity of the stepfather, acting as a legal guardian, is challenged by the biological father. "Thus, in view of the facts and circumstances, the objection of the passport authority is overruled and a direction is issued to issue a passport to the petitioner mentioning his stepfather's name within a month from receiving the order's certified copy," Justice Jain ruled.

Summary: Cops will now show up at your doorstep for verification, conducted entirely on tablets. This could mean you receive your new document in as little as seven days. Renewing a passport or getting a new one is nearly always a tedious task, with most applicants haunted by visions of never-ending queues and delays. Now, aiming to bring the procedure onto the digital platform and cut down on the time taken to get the passport, the Pune city police have launched an initiative through which the police verification report (PVR) can be undertaken at your doorstep on a tablet through the mPassport Police app. The pilot project was floated at Lashkar police station last week and soon, officials at all 39 police stations in the city will have tablets and be able to use the app for the PVR. With the amount of time saved, applicants could get their passports in as little as seven days. In one of the first cases under the project (five reports have been conducted successfully since last week), police naik Sanjay More of Lashkar (Cantonment) police station completed the PVR of Idalina Rodrigues, a resident of Sagar Apartments on Synagogue Street, who had applied for re-issue of her passport. More asked a few basic questions about her identity and address, clicked a photo on the tablet, marked his location on GPS, captured her signature and submitted the verification report. A support engineer from the company, which supplied the tablets, helped More who is not yet conversant with the technicalities. The entire process took all of 10 minutes."I didn't know that a policeman would come to my house for the verification. I was told earlier that I would have to go the police station," said Rodrigues, adding that earlier, there was no verification done. Once the report is approved by senior police inspector Vasant Kuvar, in-charge of Lashkar police station, deputy commissioner of police (FRO & Special Branch II) Shrikant Pathak will further recommend to the regional passport officer (RPO) whether or not the passport should be issued. All of this will be done online and Rodrigues may get her passport within 10 days. Elaborating on the initiative, Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla said, "We are in the process of procuring tablets for all 39 police stations. Once staff across all stations are trained, the project will be launched in all police stations from November. It will ensure speedy police verification and reduce the time taken to get a passport." Police officials said that as per the current schedule, once an applicant fills the online form for a passport, s/he can get it in a maximum of 21 days. However with the use of tablet for the PVR, one can get it even within seven days. Pune regional passport officer, Atul Gotsurve, told Mirror, "The aim of the mobile application is to reduce delays in submission of the PVR. The app facilitates the field-level verification officers to directly capture the PVR into the system digitally. With the launch of this app, the need to download and print the physical form and questionnaire would no longer be required. This means there is a paperless end-to-end digital flow of the PVR." Pathak added, "At present, till we receive hard copies of documents from the police stations, we do not process the application, which often leads to delay in the overall processing time. The mobile app helps the verifying officer to capture the data for PVR on a real-time basis at the applicant's place of residence and expedites the submission of the report, making the entire process digital and transparent. We will know whether the policeman had gone to the residence of the applicant or not as s/he has to capture the location of the spot using GPS. And, s/he cannot make changes without the approval of the superior officer." The Pune city police handle more than 15,000 passport applications every month and have adopted the district police headquarters model for speedy disposal of PVRs. In this model, passport applications received by the Passport Seva Kendra are transferred electronically to the police headquarters of an applicant's city of residence, then segregated and moved through the online route to the police station concerned. After on-ground verification of the furnished particulars, the PVR is sent back to police headquarters and forwarded to the regional passport office for further processing. The process takes around 21days.

NO MORE PASSPORT WOES

* No serpentine queue outside regional passport office on SB Road

* No need to fill hard copy of application

* Applicant has to fill details online, go to the Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa as per appointment date and time for
  checking documents

* Wait for call from local police station for verification

* Get passport within a month in most cases

* We are in the process of procuring tablets for all 39 police stations. Once staff across all stations is trained, the project will    be launched at all stations from November

Summary: Getting a new passport is set to be easier as the Postal Department is planning to start issuing the document through its countrywide network of offices. As the government grapples with a lack of manpower for the huge number of applications, the department will process applications under a pilot project in the capital by the year-end. The Postal Department will start processing passport applications at major post offices in the capital by the year-end. If the project is successful, all Indian post offices will start issuing the document.

"Since the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not been able to cope with the huge application demand for passports and a lack of manpower, it will delegate the task to the postal department. We are in the final stages of discussion with the MEA," a senior official in the postal department said. He added that the reason of starting the pilot project in Delhi is to resolve the unforeseen operational problems that may arise on a day-to-day basis. There are five Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the capital, which handle 2,000 applications per day. Applicants who want a passport have to first take an online appointment to submit their application. The demand is so huge that most applicants have to wait even three-four months for an appointment. However, there are three categories at the PSK, namely A, B and C. Category A is outsourced to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), whereby the applicant's documents are uploaded and fingerprints and photographs are taken. The other two categories, B and C, are managed by the MEA. "Category A will be still outsourced to TCS. For the B and C categories, instead of MEA employees, the Postal Department will carry out the task. Postal employees are also undergoing training to get the applications done," the official said. It is expected that around 150-200 applications will be processed from a post office. According to the MEA, over 1.2 crore passport-related applications were processed in 2015, marking a growth of 18 per cent over 2014. As of March 31, 2015, the Indian Postal Service had 1, 54,939 post offices, of which around 90 per cent are in rural areas and the rest in urban areas.

Summary: The Minister of State for External Affairs, General (Retd) Dr VK Singh, along with Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, formally inaugurated the Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Itanagar on Wednesday 21, 2016, Bureaucracy Today has learnt.

PSLK Itanagar is integrated with Passport Seva Project (PSP) - a high impact citizen-centre e-governance initiative as part of the National e-Governance Plan. More than 3.97 crore passport service applications have been processed since the inception of the new system which is fully online. During the year 2015, more than 88,000 passport service related applications from the North-East were processed by the Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) in Guwahati and Kolkata. PSLK Itanagar is the seventh to be set up in the North East, the other six being at Aizawl, Imphal, Gangtok, Shillong, Dimapur and Agartala apart from RPO, Guwahati. With the formal inauguration of PSLK at Itanagar, the Ministry has fulfilled its commitment to set up PSKs in all the states of North-East. MEA has taken a big lead in the country in improving governance in Passport Offices by focusing on faster services delivery, transparency, citizen-friendliness and convenience.

Summary: The Centre is committed to streamline and bring visible changes in public services throughout the country and Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) will facilitate the process by making passport available to people in a hassle-free manner, Union Minister Gen (Retd) V K Singh said here today. Formally inaugurating the PSK here in presence of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Singh said the Kendra would facilitate people to get passport within the state instead of going to Guwahati and other places.

"As of date there are over 700 police districts in the country out of which 638 districts have the facilities of online police verification so that the process could be made faster. At present it takes minimum 28 days for police verification for passport and we are trying to make it short and accordingly the ministry is taking up the issue with the Home Ministry," the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said. He said, the ministry is contemplating to set up PSKs in all post offices of the state with all facilities soon so that people could be benefitted. "In the next two years, we want to establish PSKs in nearly 850 head post offices in the country which will also help in reducing the time in police verification process," Singh said, adding Arunachal Pradesh being a big state with sparse population, the state government had to work out the modalities for establishing PSKs in all the post offices. He further disclosed that the ministry had even provided passport to a day-old child and another to a 116-year-old person so far.

Summary: The passport issuance process in the city is set for another flip. In a first such initiative in Maharashtra, the Pune police are gearing up to empower its passport verifying officers with smart gadgets to bring down the time taken for the process by three to five days. At present, the Pune police currently takes approximately 21-24 days to submit the verification report of each passport applicant. Sharing details of the upcoming upgrade, Shrikant Pathak, deputy commissioner of police (special branch), in-charge of the foreigners' registration office (FRO), said, "We have formed an internal committee to identify what kind of tablets we will need. The tender will be out in another week or so. We hope to launch the new facility by mid-October. It will definitely help speed up the process."

In the new tech-enabled system, the verifying officer will be able to generate the final report directly on the tablet even while standing at the applicant's door by using the customized mPassport Police App, especially designed for the law-enforcing agency by the passport division in the ministry of external affairs. The system will be introduced in the city first by the Regional Passport Office which also has jurisdiction over Pune rural, Ahmednagar, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Solapur. Passport officer Atul Gotsurve is confident that the system will further improve Pune's record of the police verification time. "The Pune police has been able to drastically bring down the verification time from the earlier 70 days per application to its current performance which is close to the government mandated 21 days. The tablet will speed up things further making the system more economical and also paperless," he said. Clarifying that there will be no compromise on the security aspect, Gotsurve said, "The report will be authenticated by a senior verifying officer of the police before it reaches the FRO, which will then forward the same to us. In that sense, there are multiple checks in the system to ensure that there is no lapse or misuse of the facility." Meanwhile, the 'Thana Model', which empowers respective police stations to get passport applications directly on their computers, is set to be rolled out in Satara and Solapur rural.

How will it work:

* Field-level officer will receive applications for verification on the mPassport App on the tablet

* Officer will then visit the applicant's residence/ invite him/her to the police station for verification of particulars

* Verified report will be typed out in real-time on the tablet

* Completed report will be digitally seen by police inspector in charge and forwarded to police headquarters online

* Approving authority (foreigners' registration office) will forward the same to the RPO for further processing

Summary: Elaborate steps are being planned to ensure that citizens can complete passport-related work at the district level itself, instead of travelling to bigger cities, Dnyaneshwar Mulay, secretary in the ministry of external affairs, said here on Saturday. He was talking to reporters at a function organized by the Pune Union of Working Journalists. Mulay said that work to establish a passport facilitation centre at Solapur has progressed a great deal and would be made operational in a few months. "Work is on the right track. We are following all necessary processes and it will be made operational soon," he said.

Mulay said that the ministry was working at various levels to ease the process. "Studies have already been taken up pertaining to specific problems like non-availability of passport services in local areas that compel applicants from rural areas to travel to cities to complete the formalities. We are handling such issues on priority. Use of latest technology is under consideration to tackle the problem in the right way and help citizens to avail of passport services at district and even at the taluka level," he said. Mulay said that the ministry has brought about crucial changes in the passport and visa policy in the last five years.

Presently, there are 100 offices in the country that handle about 1.5 crore to 2 crore passport applications every year. The capacity would go up in the next few years in a phased manner. About 2 crore passport applications were received at these offices last year, he said. Mulay said that there was a plan to attract more foreign tourists to the country by introducing new initiatives. He said that about 1.5 crore Indian tourists go abroad while about 80 lakh tourists from other countries visit India every year.

Summary: For those who have applied for passports and walk into the Passport Seva Kendra at Kochadai, a wait of at least an hour is unavoidable. In order make the waiting time fruitful, the PSK has set up a library with a variety of books. To begin with, at least 5,000 English books have been stacked. Tamil books and magazines are also to be stacked soon. Madurai collector K Veera Raghava Rao inaugurated the library at the waiting hall on Wednesday.

Officials are planning to extend the facility to the regional passport office on Bharathi Ula Street at the Thamarai Thotti bus stop. Passport officials say the library will be more beneficial to applicants from far away districts who at times reach the office well ahead of their appointment time or have some time to spend after they have done with their work. At least 800 applicants, mostly from other districts, visit the office daily.

Madurai Regional Passport Officer S Manishwar Raja said, "On an average it takes 65 minutes for an applicant to finish his work in the office. They have to visit multiple counters. In between they will have to wait for some time. The books available in the library may help them to make the waiting time productive." He thanked M S Vijayaraghavan of We Serve Foundation who contributed the stack of English books.

Collector said people should make use of the facility. Earlier, it took several days to get a passport. Now only a fraction of that time is required to get one. This is because of the government's citizen-friendly approach. The library is yet another step towards such approach. District library officer C R Raveendran who took part in the inauguration said they would depute one of their staff members to supervise the library. They will soon introduce Tamil books too.

Summary: New generation e-passport featuring enhanced security features such as bio-metric details may soon be rolled out by the government.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said government was in the process of procuring devices for e-passport. The e-passport is likely to secure the data and curb the menace of fake passports. An e-Passport contains an electronic chip. The chip holds the same information that is printed on the passport’s data page. “The Government has plans to issue e-passports to the citizens. The Government has given its approval for procurement of electronic contactless inlays for manufacturing of e-passports to India Security Press (ISP) Nasik. “In this regard, ISP Nasik, has been authorised to float a global three-stage tender for procurement of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)-compliant electronic contactless inlays along with its operating system which is required for manufacture of e-passports,� Singh said. He said manufacture of e-passport will commence on the successful completion of the tendering and procurement process by ISP, Nasik. To a separate question, Singh said the MEA has received a proposal from the Ministry of Women and Child Development for waiver of No Objection Certificate (NOC) required from a father in case a child travels to India on tourist visa. He said MEA and Ministry of Women and Child Development have constituted a committee to effectively address issues like whether it should be mandatory to have the NoC of the father in case the parents are separated. To another question, Singh said as per information available with the Ministry, 78 Indian nationals were kidnapped in the last three years in foreign countries and out of them 33 have been released.

Summary: The increasing number of applications, made the officials of Visakhapatnam Passport Office open one more Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) 2 in the passport office building last year in August. Currently, the two Passport Seva Kendras in the city deal with nearly 900 appointments per day - the PSK at Muralinagar operates 600 and PSK2 300 - at the passport office.

The officials have been taking several measures to solve the problems regarding the issuance of passport. Earlier, one has to wait for 60 days but now it is reduced to just 15 to 20 days or less than that in the normal course and tatkal passport can be obtained in seven days. Everything is    becoming faster, from filling the application form and getting an appointment at Passport Seva Kendra to police verification, all the formalities can be done within 15 to 20 days. People can choose the slot and can even get an appointment for the next day if the appointment is available. "Several changes have been made in the documentation. We have deleted a few of them and included some in the past few months. We have removed ration card which was earlier needed as a proof of address or identity. As ration card cannot verify the authenticity of an applicant, the Central government issued a notice to this effect and we have stopped taking it. Earlier, we   used to accept only central authorised banks now we have started accepting the private banks as well and rental slips too are needed," said NLP Choudary, regional passport officer. "If we look at the statistics of the last few years, the number of passports issued is increasing year by year. In 2014, the number of people who got passports is 1, 87,815 and in 2015 it was 2, 24,000. In 2016, we have issued over 1, 06,000 passports from January to June," he added.  In addition to the Passport Seva Kendras in the state we have launched one more Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Bheemavaram on June 22, which will look after East and West Godavari districts. At present the PSLK at Bheemavaram is dealing with 100 appointments. The Seva Kendra usually gets around 300 appointments. Out of 300, the 100 appointments are diverted to Visakhapatnam and the other 100 to Vijayawada, since it has started its operations recently. The Seva Kendras usually have larger crowd on Mondays and Fridays. The grievances are also taken through twitter and emails. Students and working professionals are the people who opt for more and most of the problems arise regarding address and date of birth proof. Apart from the recently launched PSLK at Bheemavaram, Vijayawada may have a Passport Office soon for which the process needs to be started.

Summary: In a relief to passport seekers, the duration of the police verification process has been reduced by at least 10 days. This means that those who apply through the normal category will get the passport sooner. However, the process will still take at least 21 to 24 days, instead of an average of 35 days in the past.

Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Atul Gotsurve said this duration could shrink further in the days to come as the MEA would soon introduce the mPassport app in Pune to help Pune Police do the verification efficiently and quickly. "The good news is that the duration has finally shrunk considerably. From an average of 35 days to 20-24 days, is not a small difference. Also, the duration will reduce more when we introduce the mPassport police app in Pune which will help in faster police verification. It will cut another week or two," said Gotsurve. The mPassport Police App will make it possible for the police to access real-time data of applicants. The app will also facilitate field verification and submission of reports online. Since the facility comes with Global Positioning System (GPS), the police can confirm and capture the applicant's address digitally and create record of their visits.

Summary: Gone are the days when passport applicants had to wait for long periods for getting their passports issued. The procedure often took so long that people used to opt for tatkal passport, that too by paying very high fees. Of late, however, speedier processing of passport applications by the Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) resulted in a sharp decline in tatkal applications.

"The decline in tatkal applications indicates that passport applicants are satisfied with the service available through the normal channel. The all-India average of delivering passport service is 63 minutes. The relaxation of norms for passport issuance has enabled authorities to deliver passport in a few days after receiving application," said Ernakulam Regional Passport officer Prasanth Chandran.  Another factor that made the passport issuing process hassle-free is the option currently available to applicants to opt for police verification after receiving the passport.

"Earlier, police verification had to be done manually. With many police stations having the online verification facility, the process takes lesser time now, resulting in speedy delivery of passports," said Prasanth Chandran. "Around 4.3 lakh passports were issued at the Ernakulam Regional Passport Office alone in the last fiscal year. The faster service has resulted in the number of tatkal applications declining to 8 per cent of all the applications submitted in Ernakulam this year from 12 per cent in 2015," added Prasanth.

Summary: Summary: Tablets are the best medicine to speed up passport verification, Lalbazar has realised after nine police stations reduced the window by a fortnight within three months of switching to e-verification. Since being given tablets in April, these nine police stations have taken 33 days on an average to verify an application. The remaining 60 police stations under Lalbazar required 47 days on an average for the same task. Tablets are currently being used for passport verification by Burrabazar, Bowbazar, Jorasanko, New Market, Taltala, Girish Park, Muchipara, Posta and Hare Street police stations. Encouraged by how technology has increased efficiency, Lalbazar has decided to introduce tablets in the remaining seven police divisions in phases.

Post-police verification, or the system of issuing passports before the verification process is completed, has already ensured that first-time applicants receive their passports quicker than ever before. But for many who can't avail themselves of this facility because they don't have the requisite documents; faster police verification is the only way their passports would arrive in reasonable time. Cyberabad police were the first to use tablets to send verification reports to the passport authorities in March 2015, reducing the time taken to complete the process from two weeks to three days. According to the guidelines provided by the ministry of external affairs (MEA), the ideal timeframe to complete police verification is 21 days. Last year, Calcutta police verified only 17 per cent of the total number of applications within the stipulated three weeks. But based on current official statistics, the rate of verification within the recommended 21 days has increased over the past six months. "Statistics for June show that the verification completion rate within 21 days has shot up to 64 per cent," said a senior official, citing statistics.

Senior MEA officials attributed the success to "technological intervention and the aggressive, positive approach of the city police". The new system ensures that the verifying officer carries a tablet to the house of the applicant and files the report online from the spot. The officer is also expected to click a picture of the applicant at his/her home and upload it online through the tablet to prove that he or she visited the applicant for physical verification and not vice-versa. Photographs of the relevant identity documents are also taken and attached with the file online. The report is monitored by senior officers of the security control office, a wing of Calcutta police that handles passport matters. In the areas under police stations that have yet to graduate to e-verification, verifying officers have to manually download the relevant form from the passport server and upload the filled-in particulars after verifying the applicant's stated credentials. They also need to scan photocopies of the identity documents provided by the applicant and upload them to the server. The police are often accused of delaying verification or seeking irrelevant documents to harass applicants. E-verification eliminates some of these possibilities. "The mPassport police app has a column in which the verifying officer has to clearly cite the reason for an adverse report. Since superiors can access the filled-in forms online, verifying officers become cautious about making mistakes or harassing an applicant," said Golok Kumar Simli, principal consultant and head of the Passport Seva Project's technology wing.

Summary: The success of a pilot project running at five police stations -Cubbon Park, Viveknagar, Ulsoorgate, Highgrounds and Ashoknagar -could reduce the delay in obtaining police verification for passports from up to nearly 3 weeks to 3-4 days.

The new procedure for address verification will see details of passport applicants uploaded online and made available at the respective police stations. While the police constable will still have to visit the applicant's house, details of the verification, instead of taking days to reach the passport office, will be instantly transmitted using the tablets given to cops recently. After filling up details on physical verification on the tablet, the constable will record the location of the applicant's house with a GPS tracker. The form will then be submitted online for the commissioner's approval, before it proceeds to the passport office. Depending on the number of applicants within the limits of the police station, the entire process could be completed within 3-4 days. According to regional passport officer PS Karthigeyan, the system has allowed constables to carry out more verification in a single day than under the current procedure. “The tabs will be bought by the police department and officers will be trained to use the software,“ he added. Under the existing process, the verification form has to be physically delivered to the commissioner's office. Once approved by the commissioner, the form is then dispatched to the passport office, leading to a delay of weeks. The online police verification project ­ one of the three pilot projects in the country ­ was launched on May 14. In each of the five police stations, two constables were trained to handle a tablet, integrated with an app designed for this purpose. “Since the process is simple, applications can be verified in a short time and we can allot more men for core policing tasks. Policemen are happy because they don't have to spend hours filling application forms. More importantly, people can now get their passports faster,“said a senior police officer. The project is likely to be implemented across the city in the near future. Police stations have already been issued the tablets.

Summary: The Ministry of External Affairs celebrated 4th Passport Sewa Divas and organized Passport Officers Conference on Friday, the 24th June, 2016 at Jawahar Lal Nehru Bhavan, New Delhi. The day signifies the enactment of the Passports Act, 1967 and its enabling provisions of passport issuance. The event gained more importance with the august presence of Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs, Smt. Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for External Affairs General (Dr.) V.K. Singh (Retd.).The engagement of the day included discussions and presentations by the senior officials of the Ministry, Passport Officers and officials of the service partner M/s TCS on passport related issues including prospective improvements in service delivery. The performance of the Ministry during the last year towards rendering of passport related services has been significant in many ways. More than 1.2 Crore passport related applications were processed in 2015 recording a growth of 18% over the volume in 2014. The Ministry has endeavored to carry passport services closer to the citizens in a big way by organizing a large number of Passport Seva Camps especially in remote and far-flung areas across the country. Similarly, Passport Offices organized Passport Melas during the weekends to serve the citizens. Passport Seva Puruskars were given to the best performing Passport Offices and the meritorious individual officials of the Passport Offices and the Ministry by Hon'ble EAM and MOS. The Government remains committed to the principle of 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' and delivering services to citizens in a convenient, accountable and putting in place more and more inclusive and robust mechanisms to achieve these objectives. EAM and MOSD advised all present to renew their commitment towards delivering Passport Services to our citizens with greater dedication, consideration and in a transparent and professional manner.

Summary: The Central government is taking steps to issue passports to youth, who are aspiring for overseas education, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh. He inaugurated passport service centre set up at a cost of Rs 57 lakh near old bus stand here on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, Singh explained that it used to take three to four months to get passport in the past and added that now, any person could get passport in 10 days due to the steps taken by the NDA government. “The new passport office would benefit the people from twin Godavari districts and Krishna.

It would cater to the needs of 100 applicants per day and the number could be increased as per the demand. It would take only three days for the renewal of the passport, if all the details are correct,� he added. Explaining the need to open a new passport office in Bhimavaram, the Union Minister said that one lakh persons had applied for the passport from the twin Godavari districts in the last one year, whereas two lakh persons applied for the passport from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Yanam and Guntur districts. He maintained that the Central government was committed to provide passports for people in rural areas. Minister for Health Kamineni Srinivas termed the passport office in Bhimavaram as a boon for the people of West Godavari district. Minister for Endowments, P Manikyala Rao lauded the efforts of local people’s representatives in bringing passport office. Narsapur MP Gokaraju Gangaraju said that most of the people from Narsapur and Bhimavaram were going abroad and this passport office would be very useful for them. Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Hari Babu said that marine products to the tune of Rs 500 crore were being exported from Bhimavaram and it is boon for the region. Bhimavaram MLA Pulavarthi Ramanjaneyulu, Eluru MP Maganti Venkateswara Rao, Rajya Sabha member Thota Sithamahalakshmi and others were present.

Summary: External Affairs Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj today said that, "no police verification is required for fresh passport". Swaraj's comment came on Sunday afternoon at a news conference to outline the foreign policy achievements of the Narendra Modi government over the past two years, also about recent developments.

Swaraj also clarified that fresh applicants are just required submit their photo-identification card which includes PAN Card, Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Election Card, Senior Citizen Card. If any of the above is submitted by an applicant at the Passport Seva Kendra with relevant documents (ration card, electricity bill, house rent receipt) then the applicant will not face hectic police verification, said a source from MEA. The steps of avoiding police verification have been taken by the MEA to smoothen the process of fresh passport application. Normally in metro cities the process of police verification takes somewhere between 10-15 days and outside metro the process of police verification completes between 20-30 days. Swaraj said, "We have streamlined the process of getting passports. Last year we gave 98 lakh passports". Earlier this year, Swaraj had promised to smoothen the application and police verification process for fresh passport. In Bengaluru, the Regional Passport Office has started police verification through online medium, which makes the process smoother and the applicant gets passport within 10 days. The average time taken by police in Gujarat to verify fresh application is 27 days. Delhi takes only 12 days to complete police verification, while Assam on an average takes 265 days.

Summary: The ongoing two-month special "passport seva maha camp" organised by Pune Regional Passport Office has brought down the appointment availability cycle for applicants in Pune by almost nine days, from the current 19 days to 6-10 days. The special camp, which commenced on May 1 and will go on until June 31, has been processing about 600 passport applications daily. This is in addition to the 1,250 normal quota applications that are being processed at the Mundhwa Passport Seva Kendra, which also handles 120 tatkal applications every day.

Regional Passport Officer Atul Gotsurve said they hoped to further bring down the appointment availability cycle by June 31, when the camp ends. "The aim of the camp was to rein in the appointment cycle which was getting elongated due to increased demand and numerous public holidays, which also resulted in lower intake of applications. We have managed to bring down the appointment availability cycle to six working days at the special camp and 10 days at the PSK Mundhwa. We are hoping that by June 31, it will further shrink," said Gotsurve. According to Gotsurve, the special camp has so far processed more than 7,000 applications. This number is expected to double in June as the number of applications processed per day has gone up from 200 in the first week of May to 600 now. "Initially, we processed 200 applications per day. The number went up to 400 in the third week and to 500 in the next week. Now, we are processing 600 applications per day," said Gotsurve. Passport applicants also seem relieved over the shortening of the appointment cycle. "I wanted an urgent passport in mid-April. Since it was impossible at that time to get an immediate appointment, I chose to employ an agent and paid him Rs 5,000 to get the passport. If the camp was on, I would have managed to get the passport on my own. In this time and age, a citizen shouldn't have to wait for a month to get a passport appointment, “said Tushar Lakare, a resident of Sinhagad Road who is self-employed.

Summary: The Ministry of External Affairs is the most active wing of the Modi government on Twitter with 130 official Twitter accounts, revealed an RTI response. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cabinet number 2, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, have two accounts each for information dissemination and ensuring quick response during any crisis. The External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is widely acknowledged and appreciated for reaching out to Indians facing problems abroad with assistance.

Swaraj has 4.96 million followers, far ahead of her US counterpart Secretary of State John Kerry, who has only 1.33 million followers. Similarly @MEAquerry, the official account of Minister of State V K Singh, is dedicated to address queries related to the MEA and passports for Indian nationals. Besides, personal accounts of both Swaraj and V K Singh, the MEA has five other official accounts including @MEAindia (Twitter handle of the official spokesperson), @Indiandiplomacy (focuses on public diplomacy related to content and initiatives), @CPVindia (official Twitter handle of Additional Secretary Overseas Indian Affairs) and @Passportsevamea (Official Twitter handle for Passport Seva support). The Ministry, in its RTI reply, said that it was working to get all of its missions and posts across the world on Twitter in order to effectively use the medium to engage with local populations, address diaspora concerns and respond to consular queries and concerns.

"At present, 125 missions and posts have Twitter handles which are managed and operated by officers posted at the missions/post. Thus, the total number of official Twitter handles of the Ministry of External Affairs is 130 at present," the RTI reply said.

Summary: Last week, when the postman delivered the passport of his daughter, 48 year-old Mohd Asghar could not believe that it was issued within 10 days. Recounting his experience of getting a passport, he says, not only he ran from pillar to post across different offices but he had to take 23 days of leave and remain stationed in his hometown-Parwaha, a village in Sitamarhi district of Bihar-without any success. It took him full three month to get a passport. Ashgar's tryst with getting possession of a passport is not unique. In fact, getting a passport has been an arduous task for the citizens but with the intervention of technology, things are changing quickly.

Although in recent past, the numbers of applications have increased substantially, the time taken for police verification and issuing the passport has gradually gone down from 42 days in 2014 to 34 days in 2015. In fact, in 2014, India became the third country in the world after USA and China, to have issued more than 10 million passports. Senior officials in the MEA attribute the success to intervention of technology that has resulted in improving the ease of access for passport services.

"I think ease of doing business at passport offices could be one of the foremost reasons for this development. Since, I have been in this job for over five years now, I can give you some insight on why this is happening. In earlier days, until and unless it became necessary for a person to have a passport, the person would not apply for it. But that trend is now clearly changing. Young people are very enthusiastic and they are applying in large numbers," Muktesh K Pardeshi, joint secretary & chief passport officer, ministry of external affairs (MEA), government of India told FE.

The growth is so dispersed that Kerala is no longer the number one state which once used to have maximum passport applications and issuance. It has been replaced by UP where MEA has seen 40% growth. In a period of three years, the passport numbers have doubled. In 2013, it was around 6.5 lakh and in 2015 it touched 13.5 lakh.

Since the number of applications are increasing at rapid pace, it is crucial for the MEA to predict demand and pockets of growth with decent accuracy in advance for smooth operation of its passport seva kendras (PSK). That is why, now the passport division has started using data analytics in a significant way for the projection of annual growth, pocket growth, demographic growth and understanding of seasonal fluctuations.

"In UP, we are better placed now because of data analytics. As the demand grew, we geared ourselves adequately. We diverted people, created more counters and camps and allocated more resources to the state. All this has been possible because of timely analysis of data," says Pardeshi, adding that data analytics will also help in projecting future growth and accordingly the government will also know the pockets where new passport seva kendras need to be set up. In India, passport data has been declared as extremely sensitive data. In the National Security Council (NSC), there is a mechanism to ensure cyber security of these sensitive data.

Although, the passport division works in the PPP mode with Tata Consultancy Services, but they are not the custodian of the data. The data centre and disaster recovery centre are owned by the government. "We have two-key system in place like the bank locker. The citizen may think that they have gone through the TCS counter at PSK but the moment the data is submitted, they cannot open it as it becomes the sovereign property of the government," explains Pardeshi.

Impressed with the result of technology intervention, now the MEA is working on issuing biometric passports and aiming to make the passport smarter. MEA officials informed that the work is under tendering stage and they expect to do it by the end of 2016.

MEA is also envisaging e-passport that will have an invisible chip in which data will be stored electronically. So even if somebody tries to play around the data of the passport, they won't be able to change the data inside the chip. So the passport will become more secure.

"In many airports there are e-gates. A time will come when you may not have to go through the manned immigration counters. With an e-passport, the e-gate could read your passport by showing the passport and you will be allowed to go. Of course, these are futuristic things that require infrastructure up-gradation but surely one day it will happen," says Pardeshi.

Summary: While the state government is making all efforts to link the ration card with Aadhaar cards, the document, however, will no longer be accepted as a proof of identity and address along with passport application. The central government has issued a notice to this effect, which the Regional Passport Office said, would come into effect from April 1.

The External Affairs Ministry has directed all passport branches to comply with the orders. Earlier, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had on December 20 last year discontinued accepting ration card as proof of identity and residence. The ministry had come across cases where the details on the card had been tampered with. According to the passport officials, the ration card cannot verify the authenticity of an applicant, as people can make changes to it easily. "When they migrate, they alter the details to be able to misuse the card for various purposes," said officials from the passport office.

All passports offices have to now make the necessary changes on their portals, run a ticker informing the public that ration card is no longer a valid proof of identity or address. Besides the ration card, the other valid proof of address are water bill, Aadhaar card, income-tax assessment order, proof of gas connection, registered rent agreement, photo passbook of active bank account, electricity bill, and the passport copy of spouse. Regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve said," Presently, along with the ration card, we were asking for another address proof that made it almost negligent. However, with the present order from the government, we will make it mandatory. "It is a good move and we would be implementing it from April 1,'' said Gotsurve.

Meanwhile, Pune district is all set to complete its target of linking ration cards with Aadhaar cards. The district which has 16 lakh ration cards has nearly 52 lakh beneficiaries. The department has covered 65 per cent of them but with another 18 lakh beneficiaries to be covered, the administration is set to carry out the exercise in three categories-the total number of Aadhaar cards collected for the exercise and yet to be seeded with ration cards, the number of Aadhaar cards yet to be collected and the number of beneficiaries who are not alive or have shifted. The entire effort to link ration cards with Aadhaar cards is to weed out bogus beneficiaries. Earlier, the state was given time till December 31 last year to digitize date on food procurement system, god owns, ration cards, supply chain and open transparency portals in order to seed Aadhaar card data. The new deadline now is March 2016. The Centre is aiming big on Aadhaar-based biometric authentication which it plans to roll out at all fair price shops across the country by year-end.

Summary: With a view to helping students get passports issued at a faster pace, the regional passport office here is willing to conduct special camps in educational institutions. According to a report by The Hindu, of the nearly 1.3 lakh passports issued by the passport office in Coimbatore, more than 15 per cent of them are students.

Needless to say, students may need it to show to prospective employers or if they plan to go for higher studies abroad. To cater to students applying for passports, the regional passport office in Coimbatore has come forward to make it easier for students to apply for a passport. Regional Passport Officer S. Sasikumar has said that if education institutions take the initiative, the passport office is ready to conduct special camps at the Passport Seva Kendra, here, on Saturdays even though it is a closed holiday for the office, the media report said.

Even students from other districts and States can get their passport with their present address (hostel or private accommodation). All that students would need to furnish are - a certificate from the college, proof for date of birth, and copy of the Standard X mark sheet, while applying for passports. Sasikumar said that a request could be made to the respective city and district police officers to expedite police verification for students who applied through their institutions as their addresses could be verified with ease.

"Usually it takes about 15 to 21 days for issuing the passport but quicker police verification will help us hand over passports to students within a week," he added. The Hindu report went on to say that last year, the Union Government fixed a target to issue one crore passports across the country and it met the goal. However, this year, the target has been increased to 1.25 crore passports.

Around 800 student applications can be processed in a day and the camp can be conducted at one or more institutions a day depending on the student strength. For conducting special camps at the institutions, contact the passport office at 0422-2301415 during working hours or mail torpo.cbe@mea.gov.in

Summary: Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Monday inaugurated Puducherry's first Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) set up by the Ministry of External Affairs and said that it would cater to the needs of a large number of students seeking to pursue higher studies abroad. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rangasamy said that the dream of Puducherry to have a separate PSK had now become a reality. This would be of great help to students from various professional colleges going abroad for further studies. Passport applicants earlier had to go to the Regional Passport Office in Chennai, he said.

Muktesh K. Pardeshi. Joint Secretary and Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs said that no state or union territory was now without passport related facilities. "In 2010 we embarked on a journey called passport seva programme and tied up with Tata Consultancy Services and setup new centres. The country has around 37 Passport Offices and 90 PSKs." India is the third largest passport issuing country after China and the US. In 2016, India issued about 1.2 crore passports whereas in 2010 it was around 55 to 60 lakhs, he said.

K. Balamurugan, Regional Passport Officer, Chennai said that applicants from Puducherry and Karaikal could submit their applications at the PSK here and need not go to. On an average 90 applications were received from Puducherry and Karaikal daily. The centre at Puducherry could handle as many as 150 appointments daily, he further added. Member of Parliament R. Radhakrishnan, N. Gokulakrishnan, MLA G. Nehru, Chief Secretary Manoj Parida and Inspector General of Police Praveer Ranjan were.

Summary: The ministry of external affairs has simplified the passport application process by announcing that applicants will be given their documents (including originals and photocopies) back once their passport has been granted. Scanned copies of the documents and application forms will still be retained by the ministry . Even for applications put on hold for want of additional proof, only photocopies will be retained by the passport office and not the original.

The change, recommended by the ministry's internal all-India committee on Simplification of Administrative and Back-end Process, has been rolled out nationally with immediate effect. It is designed not only as a citizen-friendly measure which will allow applicants to retain andor reuse critical documents like certified copies of court orders, adoption deeds, divorce decrees and affidavits, but also as a means to free up critical physical space in passport offi ces across the country.

As part of the change, granting officers will choose whether to keep or give back the file of documents at the time of deciding on granting of passport. Acknowledgement receipts given to passport applicants at the exit gate of the passport seva kendra will also mention the status of documents submitted, viz. returned or retained. The idea, first mooted by chairman of the seven-member committee Atul Gotsurve (regional passport officer of Pune) in the group's first meeting in Hyderabad last year, was seconded by another wor king group that later fine-tuned the idea. The final order has been passed by the ministry on February 16 and noti ied for immediate implementation. While the all-India committee comprises representatives and regional passport officers of Hyderabad, Ranchi, Coimbatore, Madurai, Bhopal and Delhi, the working group included officers of the passport offices of Chennai, Srinagar, Kolkata and Hyderabad and was chaired by the regional passport officer of Bangalore.

Gotsurve said, "The idea is as much to clear out physical space in our office as it is to benefit the applicants. We also get to save manpower currently lost in preserving and digging out files from records. "The announcement is in line with the go-green policy, says Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division in ministry of external affairs. "The idea is not only environment-friendly but is also aimed at allowing the applicants to retain a record of documents they submitted for obtaining the passport," he said.

According to the procedure followed till now, lakhs of brown paper covered files containing original documents of applicants and their photocopies are stored in respective regional passport offices for at least a year. Later, they are destroyed by shredding and pulping.

Summary: The humble passport is creating its own little revolution in governance in India. Like the landline telephone of yore, the acquisition of a passport signalled a rise in social status a few decades ago because you had jumped through several hoops to get it. Over the past few years, Indians have found it easier to get a new passport or have one renewed at computerised seva kendras, which have taken some of the tension out of the exercise, and serve 50,000 people a day. The passport, like the Aadhar card, is writing its own governance script, and government departments are adapting to keep up.

By the end of 2015, 6.33 crore Indian citizens possessed valid passports, up from 5.19 crore in 2013. This week, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) expanded its footprint with a passport kendra in Arunachal Pradesh. "We now cover the entire country," says Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer. Appointed India's next ambassador to Mexico, Pardeshi has helmed the MEA's passport campaign for the past five years. Having spruced up the front end of the passport service system by tying up with TCS and boosting manpower, Pardeshi says they are now tackling the back end. The weakest link here is police verification, but it is also the most critical component of the passport issuance process.

We all know how tough that can get - a deadly cocktail of inefficiency and corruption. Last year, MEA and states held a brainstorming session to fix this. In the past months, technology, coercion and political push has succeeded in integrating 683 of 731 police districts in India with the passport system online. This means police verification documents travel from passport offices to the police stations electronically, and return the same way. Police stations can no longer say, "document kho gaya" or no one was available to carry the papers. An e-trail shows how long the police station sat on it. This is very different from the days when you pleaded with the police station, or looked for someone who could "influence" them and found yourself funding a lot of "chai-paani" along the way.

Directors general of police in all the states have been provided with electronic dashboards to track progress, and pull up errant officials. In 2015, this brought the time taken for verification down to 34 days from 49 in 2013 despite the fact that passport applications shot by 40% across the country. This year, it is expected to come down to eight days. "We will soon bring J&K and Nagaland police districts within this ambit," Pardeshi said. The revolution has been most visible in Uttar Pradesh. Over the past couple of years that the new system has been in practice, UP has jumped from issuing 6.5 lakh passports to 13 lakh passports a year. In 2015, UP, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala issued more than 10 lakh passports each. At the five-lakh-mark are West Bengal, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab, while the highest growth was seen in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.

MEA has reduced the categories of passports that need pre-police verification, and is aiming for post-verification for the bulk of Indian citizens. So, if you submit your Aadhaar, voter and PAN cards and a signed affidavit, you can pick up your passport and travel, and get verified after you return. By August 2015, MEA had completely integrated the Aadhaar database with the passport system. This has taken the passport issuance process closer to a biometric verification. MEA is also pushing for the early rollout of the crime and criminal tracking and networking system (CCTNS), which will be able to verify if you have a criminal record.

But police verification can never be done away with, so the MEA has developed an app for the police. Constables will receive their assignments on the app, which is GPS-enabled, and they can take photographs, scan documents and mail them to their bosses. Commissioners are equipped to assign services and check the verification before reverting to the RPO. The app is connected to an online SMS system which seeks instant citizen feedback, keeping policemen on their toes. Seems like it's time for everyone to fly.

Summary: Single parents applying for a passport for their minor children need not scurry around for reasons deemed "acceptable" any more, in the absence of the consent of the other parent. They now simply have to choose from seven specified reasons.

Accepting the recommendations of the Bengaluru Regional Passport Office (RPO), that sought to liberalise the application process for minors with single parents, the Ministry of External Affairs has increased the number of reasons the applicants can cite for not having the other parent's consent. Though the Ministry had introduced some relaxation last year, there were other RPOs too who felt the need for further liberalisation, sources said.

Now, 'Annexure G', an affidavit that single parents have to file if there is no consent from the other parent, specifies reasons one can pick under the clause: "Signature/consent of ... (name of the father/mother) who is father/mother/parents of the child has not been obtained by me for the following reasons." This was earlier blank - allowing parents to fill in whatever the reason was, said P.S. Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru. The problem with that was a lack of clarity on what could be considered a "valid" reason.

"This would be limited to reasons such as not knowing the whereabouts of the other parent. The Passport Seva Kendras are not designed to take up such issues on a case-to-case basis," he said.

Summary: Speedier delivery of passports under normal applications appears to be nudging out the demand for services under Tatkal. The Regional Passport Office (RPO), Bengaluru, has seen a gradual fall in number of applications over the years. The share of passports issued under Tatkal this year in January was a meagre 6.6 per cent. Of the total number of passports issued - 46,712 in January, only 3,102 were issued under Tatkal. This is true of the whole of 2015 as well. Passports issued under Tatkal accounted for only 7.1 per cent of the total number issued (43,497 of 6.06 lakh), compared to the previous year's 11.4 per cent.

What is the difference?

The main reason why passport applicants apply under Tatkal is to get the document in hand within a few days. Those applications which did not require police verification were assured of getting their passports despatched within one working day (excluding the date of submission of application). At the same time, those that needed police verification could have their passports on the third working day (excluding the date of submission of application), without waiting for the police verification report. However, there are certain categories of people who cannot apply under Tatkal, including those belonging to Nagaland and citizens of India born to Indian parents outside India. In addition, there is an additional fee for applying under the Tatkal scheme.

Why the decline

Passport officials attribute the trend to liberalisation policies in the passport issual process that are enabling the document to reach applicants sooner under the normal scheme. The Ministry of External Affairs has also launched schemes aimed at speeding up the whole process. Among them was the option for applicants to opt for police verification - a major factor in determining the time taken to issue passports - after getting the document. The main difference between the two categories of applications, however, is the obligation that the Tatkal scheme has to deliver passports within the promised time.

Summary: India's chief passport officer-cum-external affairs ministry's joint secretary Mukesh Kumar Pardeshi along with regional passport officer (RPO) Bibhuti Bhushan Kumar today inaugurated a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) here. This PSK brings the NE region under the country's passport radar, Pardeshi said urging the Arunachala's to obtain passport.

People are travelling to different parts of India and abroad for work for which passport would prove to be a genuine identity, he said, The service would be normalized very soon with the deputy passport officer Lobsang Tsering being a local, whom he asked to create awareness about passports in engineering colleges and university. He lauded the state government, particularly former chief minister Nabam Tuki, Chief secretary Ramesh Negi, nodal officer Joram Beda for cooperation to set up the PSK.

The RPO termed it as a great achievement that fulfilled the long felt need of the people of Arunachal Pradesh with posting of three data entry operators and an engineer to discharge the duties in a transparent manner. While 1 crore Indians obtained passports in 2014, 1.2 crore in 2015, it would be raised to 1.35 to 1.4 crore target this year, Pardeshi said.

Summary: Police verification of a citizen's background to issue a passport is set to take less time than now, as the Kolkata Police are ready to use an application, mPassport Police. The Kolkata Police will shortly be on fast track of police verification with a unique app - mPassport Police. During the house-visit of an applicant to check his/her background, the officer concerned can use the app at his/her residence itself and submit the Police Verification Report (PVR) online directly, real-time basis at applicant's place of residence and would expedite the submission of PVR, making the procedure paperless, digital and accountable.

This app launched by the ministry of external affairs (MEA), is however, different from the one designed for citizens interested in passport-related information, said a senior passport officer. Now, the police will no longer have to download and print the hard copies of the Personal Particulars Form and questionnaire, required to be filled and submitted after the check. Instead, the field officer at an applicant's home can take pictures of the documents required on their smart phones, fill the firms on the app and submit them online, automatically expediting the process., which will also make resulting in paperless end-to-end digital flow of the PV process, further reducing the time required for completion of PVR. Only the final round of testing is left for the implementation of mPassport Police.

Under the Passport Seva Project, the MEA has been working on streamlining the police verification system by digitally integrating 685 of the 731 police districts in the country. This has cut down on the number of days taken to complete police check from 42 days in 2014 to 34 days in 2015. Back in 2013, the police verification process would take 49 days. In order to further improve and liberalize Police Verification procedure for passport issuance, The government has also decided that even first-time applicants can receive their passports like the 'tatkal' process. A resident can make an application receive the passport first, before the police verificiation is held. That way, said an officer, the passport can be issued faster and without payment of any additional fee., subject to successful online validation of Aadhaar number.

In addition, EPIC and PAN card may also be validated, if required, from the respective databases, said an officer of Kolkata RPO. Now an applicant can schedule his or her own appointment and even choose his or her nearest PSK for passport. After payment, one can choose any of the earliest five days. One can also choose your preferred PSK for the appointment. Hitherto, appointment is assigned by the Passport Seva system based on its availability and on First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis.
The applicants for passport have to fill-up their particulars online, pay requisite fee and schedule appointment through Passport Seva system before they physically visit a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) for further processing of their application. Currently, the appointment is assigned by the Passport Seva system based on its availability and on First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis. The Ministry has implemented a solution, whereby applicants can book their appointment as per their choice. The new provision would allow applicants to choose any appointment date from the earliest five working days, while scheduling or rescheduling an appointment for Passport related services.
To avail the facility, applicants may fill-up their personal particulars online and click on "Pay and Schedule Appointment link". After the selection of payment mode either through debit/credit card/netbanking or through challan mode, an applicants will be redirected to Appointment screen. They may choose any of their preferred PSK under the jurisdiction of the respective Regional Passport Office (RPO). At the next step, an applicant will be redirected to Pay and Book Appointment Screen allowing them to choose a date from the displayed Calendar. The Calendar will highlight latest five days available for the selected PSK.

Summary: The regional passport office has initiated a new scheme under which an applicant would be issued a passport within five days. In this system, if an applicant submits copies of the Aaadhar card, electoral photo ID and PAN card, the passport would be issued without waiting for police verification which can be received later. The system would be beneficial for people as police verification delays the whole process.

Regional passport officer Krishan Kumar said it takes around 21 to 35 days to receive the police verification from the Police Department which delays the issuance of passport. He said with the new system in place along with the three above identity proofs, the applicant would have to submit an affidavit stating that he is not facing any criminal case. He said in case the applicant supplies wrong information in the affidavit, his passport would be revoked and legal action would be taken. He added that the new system would be beneficial for the genuine applicants.

He said the office has also launched an 'mPassport Police App' for speedy submission of the police verification report (PVR). The application would facilitate the field-level verification officer to directly PV report into the system digitally. He said the regional passport office had processed 1,33,114 applications in 2015 in comparison to 1,05,659 applications in 2014 because of the citizen-friendly measures taken by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Summary: The process of getting a fresh Indian passport has become easier with the government introducing two significant changes to further liberalise the procedure. "The first is that the ministry has implemented a solution whereby applicants can book their appointments as per their choice," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup explained at a media briefing here on Thursday. "The new provision will allow applicants to choose any of the latest five available working days while scheduling or rescheduling an appointment for passport-related services," he said.

Under the earlier system, the appointment was assigned by the Passport Seva system based on its availability and on first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis. Swarup said that now an applicant can fill up his or her particulars online and pay the requisite fees. "He or she will then be redirected to a 'pay and book appointment' screen allowing him or her to choose a date from the displayed calendar," he said, adding that the calendar would display the latest five available dates at the Passport Seva Kendra selected. "The second and more significant set of changes are in the police verification process," the spokesman said. He said the digital integration of police districts into the Passport Seva Project (PSP) has resulted in the reduction of days taken to complete verification from 49 in 2013 to 34 in 2015. "But now, under this system, normal passport applications of all first time applicants who furnish three documents -- Aadhar, electoral photo identity card and permanent account number or PAN card -- and an affidavit stating their address, citizenship and swearing that there are no criminal cases pending against them will be processed on a post-police verification basis without payment of any additional fees subject to successful online validation of the Aadhar number," Swarup said. Basically, he said, a citizen who has these three relevant documents would be issued the passport "virtually immediately" and the police verification would follow later. "The ministry has also launched an mPassport Police App which allows for police verification to enter the status of verification digitally and in real time, thus cutting down further on the time required for verification," he said. The changes have come into effect as of Wednesday which, Swarup said, was a Republic Day gift from the external affairs ministry. As of December 31, 2015, 63.3 million Indians held valid passports, the spokesman added.

Summary: Remember when just the thought getting a passport/renewing it or even visiting the passport office was too exhausting to even contemplate?

The process of issuing a passport has become easier, quicker and definitely better with the Ministry of External Affairs deciding to accept police verification after the passport has been issued. The directive is for first-time applicants through normal category. In a series of tweets, Union Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said:...henceforth normal passport applications of all first time applicants furnishing Aadhaar, Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), Permanent Account Number (PAN) and an affidavit will be processed on post-police verification basis, enabling faster issue of passport, without payment of any additional fees," a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said. It is part of government's efforts to improve and liberalise police verification procedure for passport issuance.

Regional Passport Officer in Pune Atul Gotsurve told The Indian Express that the MEA is not compromising any safety regulation by waiving police verification till after the passport is issued. "There would be no additional fee, and three documents and an affidavit about the criminal record would be enough to issue the passports. Police verification would take place post issuance. This will be most beneficial for passport aspirants in Maharashtra because police verification here takes 21 to 40 days, while in states like Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, it's only 14 days. "During January 2014 to December 2014, 1.01 crore applications for passport and related services were processed by the MEA. While 87.03 lakh applications for passport and related services had been received, 84.69 lakh passports and related documents had been issued through the Passport Seva System, Muktesh K Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, MEA was quoted as saying in this report. During 2014, there was a 15 to 20 percent growth in the issuance of passports compared to 2013. A total of 3,224 official passports and 283 diplomatic passports were issued 2013 through the Passport Seva System, he said.

Besides, about 14.95 lakh applications were received at the 183 Missions and Posts abroad and approximately 14.55 lakh passport and related serves were rendered at these Missions and Posts, the report added. During the year 2015, 1.20 crore passport and related services were rendered by Passport Offices in India and the Indian Missions/Posts abroad. There is an increase of 21% over 2014 in the number of services rendered. As on 31st December 2015, approximately 6.33 crores Indians held valid passports. Till almost six years ago, before the era of Passport Seva Kendras, getting a passport was nothing short of a hassle. The million trips to the passport office, negotiating and re-negotiating with the passport officers and finally giving up and hiring a 'passport agent' - the entire process was almost tailored to harangue travellers. Police verification has been a crucial part of the entire process of getting a passport and stayed that way since its inception.

The modalities of police verification have undergone various changes from time to time, whereas the principles have remained the same that is, ascertaining the applicant's identity, citizenship and absence of criminal antecedents. Reports have, in the past, said that the MEA streamlined the police verification system by digitally integrating 685 of 731 police districts in the country, which led to overall reduction in the number of days taken to complete police verification process to 34 days in 2015, as against 42 days in 2014 and 49 days in 2013.

Citizens will be granted a fresh passport under the normal category in a week if their applications are accompanied by three documents - copies of Aadhaar card, electoral photo identity card (EPIC) and PAN card - besides an affidavit in the format of Annexure-I (declaration of citizenship, family details and no criminal record). Until now, the process would take a month, with the police verification. Setting up of Passport Seva Kendras helped in a drastic way as it eroded the need for a middleman. Apart from precious money that was saved, applicants economised on time and unnecessary harassment at the hands of these agents. According to this report in The Telegraph, less than six percent of the population - 63.3 million Indians - hold passports.

However, India is the third fastest in terms of the growth of passport holders after China and the US. The Indian passport office issued 12 million passports in 2015, compared to 14 million by the US and 16 million by China. In August last year, government had already said that no police verification was required for reissue of passports. The MEA has also launched an 'mPassport Police Application' for speedy submission of police verification report. Apart from this new directive, the government had also announced a five-day appointment window for passport applicants according to which such applicants can "choose" their appointment date. "The applicants for passport related services have to fill up their personal particulars online, pay requisite fee and schedule appointment through Passport Seva system before they physically visit a Passport Seva Kendra for further processing of their application," the MEA said in a statement on Monday.

"Currently, the appointment is assigned by the Passport Seva system based on its availability and on first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis," it stated. Travel is being made easier by the government and there's no visible downside to the decision. With the option of choosing your own appointment dates and now by waiving police verification till after the issuance of the passport, the government is attempting to rip through the red tape - never mind cutting. And it is a welcome change. The new directives also remove the two biggest bottlenecks applicants used to face while applying for a passport.

Summary: The ministry of External Affairs has announced two major changes that will fasttrack the process for first-time passport applicants as well as make it more convenient to secure an appointment at local passport seva kendras. Citizens will be granted a fresh passport under the normal category in as little as a week if their applications are accompanied by three documents -copies of Aadhaar card, electoral photo identity card (EPIC) and PAN card -besides an affidavit in the format of Annexure-I (declaration of citizenship, family details and no criminal record). Until now, the process would take a month, with the police verification eating up a lot of time.

Now, police verification of such applications will be conducted after the passport is issued. Such a process was earlier reserved only for Tatkal. There will be no extra charge for the service that has been introduced to cut the waiting time for passports, a statement issued by the ministry said. The process is subject to online validation of the Aadhaar number at the time of processing and an approval from the granting officer. In addition, EPIC and PAN cards may also be validated, if required, through respective databases in real time, before the application is approved. Besides, passports may also be impounded and revoked later, in case of adverse police reports.

The idea of the upgrade is to liberalise the process without compromising on security, explained Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division in the ministry. "There are plenty of inbuilt safeguards in our system which can instantly spot fake identities and forgeries. Most importantly, our system is linked to the Aadhaar database which helps conduct real-time verification of the applicant while he she is still at the Passport Seva Kendra" he said.

We are trying to integrate EPIC and PAN cards as well. Additionally, the granting officer interviewing the applicant can use his discretion to extend or withhold the facility. "Besides, the option of impounding or revoking the passport post issuance is always available and we have exercised it several times in 2015," Sobti said. Hailing the change as an applicant-friendly initiative, Pune's Regional Passport Officer Atul Gotsurve said, "A smooth rollout of the facility hinges on accurate and complete documentation furnished by the applicant.

Adverse police reports can be avoided if applicants themselves play a pro-active role in their verification to ensure that it is completed within a month since the passport is issued. We will also institutionalise measures to prevent an increase in such cases."

Summary: The government on Monday announced a five-day appointment window for passport applicants according to which such applicants can "choose" their appointment date. "The applicants for passport related services have to fill up their personal particulars online, pay requisite fee and schedule appointment through Passport Seva system before they physically visit a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) for further processing of their application," the external affairs ministry said in a statement. "Currently, the appointment is assigned by the Passport Seva system based on its availability and on first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis," it stated. Now, to further facilitate the applicants, the ministry has implemented a new solution which allows applicants to book their appointment according to their choice. "The new provision would allow applicants to choose any appointment date from the earliest five available dates (working days), while scheduling/rescheduling an appointment for Passport related services," the statement said. To avail of this facility, applicants must fill up their personal particulars online and click on "Pay and Schedule Appointment" link. After the selection of payment mode either through debit/credit card/net-banking or through challan mode, an applicant will be redirected to the Appointment screen. "They may choose any of their preferred PSK under the jurisdiction of the respective Regional Passport Office (RPO). At the next step, an applicant will be redirected to Pay and Book Appointment screen allowing them to choose a date from the displayed calendar," the statement said, adding that the calendar would highlight the latest five days available for the selected PSK.

Summary: The Regional Passport Office in Bengaluru was recognized as the best passport office this year, by the Ministry of External Affairs. It was selected for its productivity and efficiency out of 37 passport offices in the country. The office had issued the highest number of passports in the country this year (6.18 lakh passports), generating a record revenue of Rs 101 crore. During the previous year, it had issued 5.24 lakh passports. The appointment time has come down to two-four working days across all four PSKs (Passport Seva Kendras), with tatkal appointments freely available the next working day. The time for police verification is 26 days and efforts are on to reduce it to 10 days, according to the Ministry. In an exclusive interview with Bangalore Mirror, regional passport officer PS Karthigeyan (in pic) spoke about how he managed to make it the best RPO in the country during his three year stint.

When you took charge as the passport officer in 2013, the RPO had many complaints, especially about the existence of intermediaries. How did you overcome the challenges? The only way to overcome this problem was to bring in more transparency in the system. Intermediaries could be reduced only if there was an improvement in the procedure. We had to balance the demand and supply, and this could be done only through conducting passport seva camps and jumbo melas to ensure faster delivery of passports. This was a gradual process. Do you think the process is completely free from intermediaries? The complaints have reduced. Intermediaries can exist only if the applicant is lazy or unaware. They will be taken for a ride then. We have intensified the awareness programmers to explain the ease of the process, and it seems to be working well. This has brought down the existence of intermediaries to a large extent. What were the major strategies and changes that you adopted to improve the productivity? The resources were limited and we had no option but to work with them. In any organization employees are your biggest strength, which is why there is a constant need to motivate the existing staff. We are 85 of us (including me). There was a shortage until recently, when 20 people were appointed at the junior level.

Taking ownership of your work, sustaining the tempo and providing leadership is the key. I have had my staff working long hours, and even during weekends to improve the efficiency. Any new initiatives that will be in store. As of now, our main focus is on cutting down the waiting time spent inside a PSK. We need to conduct a massive pendency clearance drive. We want to ensure that the files are not pending beyond a year. The mini-center at Gulbarga will soon become a PSK. There are also efforts on to reduce the time for police verifications. How satisfactory has been your three-year tenure as a passport officer. It has been excellent with the department seeing dramatic improvement. We hope to make it even better this year.

Summary: While 6.33 crore Indians now hold valid passports, up considerably from 5.19 crore in 2013, the issuance of passport continues to suffer from delay in police verification, latest figures compiled by the foreign ministry show .In fact, the average all-India time taken for police verification has now reduced to 34 days (it was 49 in 2013), but that's still way above the ministry's desired period of 21 days. According to foreign ministry joint secretary and chief passport officer Muktesh Pardeshi, 61% of all passport verifications were completed within 21 days. "Today, on a pan India basis, 68% of normal passports which require police verification are issued within a month. If police verification period is excluded, then 94% of normal passports are issued within 21 days," he said. Interestingly, the newly created Telangana has emerged as the best performing state by completing police verification in eight days. It is followed by Andhra Pradesh (12 days), Chandigarh (12 days), Goa (12 days) and Delhi (14 days).According to the official, in the case of Tatkal applications, 34% passports were issued on the day of submission. Overall, 87% were issued passports within three days. In addition to the 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) currently operational in public private partnership (PPP) mode, the ministry has set up eight additional Passport Seva Kendras in Agartala, Aizawl, Gangtok, Imphal, Kalaburagi, Karimnagar, Darbhanga and Shillong, providing extended reach to passport applicants in the north-east. Ten more PSKs are likely to come up in 2016.The data compiled by the ministry also reveals that Uttar Pradesh now accounts for the maximum number of passport applications. It is followed by Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Together they account for more than 51% of the applications. Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad receive the maximum number of applications in that order. Malappuram, Pune, Thane and Khozhikode are on top among the smaller towns and cities. The maximum number of Indian passport applications received abroad were in the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US, Kuwait and Qatar.

Summary: Union Minister V K Singh today inaugurated a Passport Seva Kendra at Chumukedima in Dimapur district of Nagaland and said that it would cater to the greatly felt need of the people of the state. The newly opened centre would cater to the greatly felt need of the people of the state and they would now get the facilities at their doorstep, the Union Minister of State for Cultural Affairs, Statistics and Programme Implementation said. This is the seventh Passport Seva Kendra in the Northeast region. Henceforth an applicant from Nagaland need not be physically present before the passport authority at Guwahati in Assam. Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang said that the opening of the Passport Seva Kendra in Dimapur will provide great relief and convenience for applicants from Nagaland. He pointed out that earlier, additional verification was required by Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) for most of the Northeast states like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. However this requirement has been done away for other states except Nagaland. "If this additional SIB verification can be done away with in other states then there is no reason why the same cannot be done here in Nagaland," Zeliang said and requested the Union Minister to take up the matter with appropriate authority for the benefit of the people of the state. Responding to the Chief Minister's suggestion, Singh assured that the ministry would seek solution over the matter. The lone member of Lok Sabha from Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio also attended the function.

Summary: Central Hajj committee has released a notification for this year's Hajj pilgrimage. The application forms will be available from 14th January, 2016. The last date for submitting applications is 8th February, 2016. Only the passport holders with machine readable passports valid till 10th March, 2017 are eligible for application. Hajj applicants who need passports should register online and reach the nearest PSK on time. Online appointments are easily available for hajj applicants at PSKs situated at Kollam, Vazhuthacaud, and Neyyattinkara. In case of any difficulty in getting online appointments, the applicants are advised to contact assistant passport officer or passport officer at Trivandrum.

Summary: India ranks third in the World for issuing the most number of passports in the year 2015.An official from the external affairs ministry confirmed that India issued about 12 million passports to its citizens. Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi, the Joint Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs said, "India is in third place in issuing passports to the citizens. China is in the top position, followed by US." He further added, "This year 12 million passports have been issued and some were ready to be issued."

In 2014, India issued about 10 million passports, whereas, five years ago, the number of passports issued was only 16 lakh. The ministry earned Rs 2,400 crore this year, as compared to Rs 2,100 crore in 2014. The Joint Secretary said that the target of the ministry is to increase the number of issued passports by 20 per cent and improve the position of India in issuing passports.

There are about 65 million passport holders in India. The ministry has established 84 Passport Seva Kendras across India in order to assist and organise passport camps and aims at increasing the service centres to 90 by March. Pardeshi said that the passport services are being provided through India's 183 diplomatic missions abroad and one lakh common service centres in the country.

Summary: Government has extended the deadline to replace handwritten passport to February 8 2016 post which the government will stop considering handwritten passports of Indian citizens. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have given citizens time till Feb 8 to get handwritten passports replaced with machine-readable ones (MRPs).

Summary: Frequently identified as India's greatest merchants, Gujaratis not only form a significant part of India's population but countries world over. Always at the forefront of migrations world over, it comes as no surprise when Gujaratis top the chart of world's richie riches, international education, business conglomerates and literary awards to name a few. With their immigration almost directly linked with India's economical growth and foreign investments, a recent step by the ministry of external affairs promises to cut short Gujaratis' wait to acquire a passport, immigrate and make it big abroad.

In a recent notice to all the passport offices, the ministry informed that e-Aadhaar card will be accepted as a substitute of original Aadhaar card to process passport applications submitted from December 30, 2015 onwards. The step will reduce the duration of passport processing for those awaiting their Aadhaar card to arrive manually. While manual delivery of the card takes between three to six months, the electronic version of the same is available in around month's time from its application. "Given that e-Aadhaar is updated on the UIDAI website within a month of its application, we will henceforth accept it as a document to verify a passport applicant's address, identity and birth.

Following a number of complaints and requests to accept Aadhaar card's electronic version as the document for passport processing, the ministry of external affairs was compelled to grant the same," said Regional Passport Officer Z A Khan. Claiming that the new rule besides speeding up the passport process, will make work less lengthier for passport issuing authorities, an official from Passport Seva Kendra said, "Every month, 100 people on an average used to visit us with requests to accept e-Aadhaar card. Most of them we people who had the electronic version of the card but had been awaiting for as long as six months to receive the original copy of the card."

The process of checking one's e- Aadhaar card is simple. After a month of applying for the card, the applicant may visit the UIDAI website and enter his/her enrollment number, which will display whether the electronic card had been generated or not. Once the applicant gets the e-Aadhaar card, s/he can submit a printout of the same while passport application. And in case a person wishes to apply for passport online, s/he has to upload the e-Aadhaar's soft copy in the required column. "Among all nationally valid list of supported documents, Aadhaar card is one that is accepted everywhere as an all-in-one proof of identity, address and birth.

Hence, as my daughter decided to go abroad, the first thing I did was to apply for her Aadhaar card. However, it has been months and her Aadhaar card is yet to reach. All the while we were distressed as her passport application was struck because of this. However, now that passport application norm has been relaxed, she will apply for IT with e-Aadhaar card and will be able to go abroad on time," said Jayesh Patel (53), resident of Maninagar.

Summary: Patna Passport Office resolved a total of 83 cases at the Passport Adalat organized on Monday, 4th January, 2016 at the Maurya Lok complex.

Summary: Mr Balamurugan said a special Passport Mela was organised on December 12, last year for replacement of passport to the applicants whose passports have been lost or damaged in the recent torrential downpour and flood at Chennai and other districts. So far 2670 passports have been issued to the affected people in the rain at free of cost.

Summary: A Passport Seva Kendra to issue international passports was opened by the minister for information and finance, Bhanulal Saha, here this morning. However, Union minister of state for external affairs V.K. Singh skipped the programme owing to "urgent preoccupation". Saha welcomed the opening of the kendra in Agartala at a time when issuance of hand-written Indo-Bangla passport is banned. "The newly introduced Agartala-Calcutta bus service via Dhaka is helping the Tripura people who are affected by geographical isolation. Our sole access to the country is through National Highway 44.

Air travel is expensive, hence, the bus service, coupled with the kendra, will help us a lot," said Saha. Regional passport officer Gitika Srivastava and chief passport officer and joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi said the newly opened center in Agartala was the sixth in the Northeast. "We will now cover Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland by the end of next year. We have altogether 84 kendras in the country now and the number will be 90 by the next financial year," an official said. In the current financial year, the target was to issue 1.2 crore passports but already 1.8 crore passports had been issued, he added. "India is the third highest in the world after China and USA in terms of people having international passports. We have also been organizing fairs to distribute passports and the passport seva kendra service has received the first prize in the sector of e-governance provided by the Centre," said Pardeshi.

At present, Indian citizens have 6.5 crore valid passports and in the current financial year until now, the Centre had earned Rs 2,400 crore by issuing passports. "We have organized 125 passport camps to collect application forms from the remote areas of the country," said Pardeshi. He, however, expressed concern over "delays" in police verification process. "The national average of time taken for police verification is 34 days but in Tripura it's 91 days, whereas in Arunachal Pradesh, it's 200 days. Delhi is the fastest in this regard as police verification is done in only 12 days. It's done in 18 and 21 days in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh respectively," Pardeshi said. A passport application form collection center was launched in Tripura on November 1, 1997. "Between 1972 and November 30, 2013, altogether 1, 58,021 hand-written Indo-Bangla passports were issued. Since hand-written passports are now banned, all the hand-written Indo-Bangla passport holders will have to apply afresh and obtain international passports," he said.

Summary: The regional passport office, pune has undertaken a special passport application pendency drive. The passport file closure notice letters are being issued to applicants whose applications are pending for want of documents, adverse police verification reports and other such things. "It has been observed that many people have got the passport in reissue category but were either not available for the police verification or they have given false information in the passport application form. The action is being taken against such applicants under the passport act,1967 and passport rules 1980, which broadly consists of a penalty up to Rs. 5000, cancellation of passport if required and/or imprisonment up to two years in serious cases," said Regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve.

He said that giving false information particularly about the period of stay in the passport application form by the applicants is causing inconvenience to the applicants themselves and increasing the work pressure on the police and passport authorities. Gotsurve stresses that applicants must mention their complete and correct present and permanent address without fail in the applications. "Incomplete and incorrect addresses delay passport processing application. Applicants may carefully read the instructions given in the website (www.passportindia.gov.in) before filling the application. Failure to mention the previous/present addresses may lead to the closure of files and imposition of penalty up to Rs5000 and in some serious cases imprisonment up to two years." Gotsurve said.

For passport application, the period of stay that is important is the last one year from the date of applying.