Due facilitation

The increasing use of biometrics and other new technologies are shaping the future of the global border security framework. The driver for these advancements is as much security, as it is facilitation. The need for technological improvements such as the introduction of e-passports is clear. The existing infrastructure at airports or sea or land ports will not be able to absorb the ever-increasing number of passengers that are projected for 2030 and beyond, when airport loads alone are estimated to rise above six billion annually. The process of issuing such passports started about 15 years ago and over 100 countries across the world have already initiated it. In fact, during the Covid period, a suggestion was mooted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to include a person's vaccination data also in the passport chip, along with the personal data already it carries. However, the plan and the outlay for introducing electronic passports in India was announced only in this year's budget. It was in 2008 that the first e-passport in India, containing biometric details, was issued to the then President Pratibha Patil.

Since then, there has been a significant delay of 14 years when the government has come out with a concrete funding plan for the e-passport project. The passports currently being issued in India contain an in-built microprocessor chip containing details of the holder, including biometric features. The e-passport will be a combination of paper and electronic passport, with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip. An antenna will be embedded as an inlay in the back cover. The passport's critical information will be stored in the chip. The characteristics of the e-passport have been specified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations.

There are more than 140 state and non-state entities, including the United Nations and the European Union, which currently issue e-passports. More than 490 million e-passports are now in circulation. These passports add a layer of security to the traditional non electronic passports. India's neighbour Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to have not only issued these travel documents to a major chunk of its citizens who had applied, but also installed e-gates at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. According to reports, 50 e-gates are currently being installed at international airports in Dhaka, Sylhet and Chattogram and the Benapole and Bangabandhu land ports. Some of these e-gates are being thrown open to the public this month, thereby launching an automated immigration system in Bangladesh.

In 1998, Malaysia became the first country to launch an e-passport, before the ICAO adopted a global blueprint for integrating biometrics into passports and other machine-readable travel documents. Belgium issued the world's first passport compliant with ICAO standards in 2004. Sadly, India has considerably lagged behind in this process.

A significantly large percentage of existing Indian passports (traditional passports) are only machine readable. Air travellers carrying these passports are often required to produce them for examination three-four times at the airport before boarding an aircraft. This is not only time-consuming, but also inefficient because every process, whether it is check-in, security, immigration or boarding or even entering the airport, treats the passenger as an unknown entity. The functional capabilities of e-passports like chip validation and biometric verification, would continually identify the passenger at each consecutive airport touchpoint through a biometric comparison. Of course, this necessitates authenticating the e-passport and matching the passenger with the identity credential through biometric verification at the first checkpoint. This is clearly faster and ultimately more secure than physical re-examination of passports each time. The e-gates would open automatically to those providing verified and valid information electronically.

The government also allayed the apprehensions of the Opposition parties and other critics about the safety of the personal data collected for the purpose, saying in the Parliament that "the data of the citizens obtained for e-passport will be used only for the purposes of issuance of the passport and related services." Several Opposition members, including Shashi Tharoor, raised the issue of data safety in the Parliament. They asked the government to clarify cyber security related to e-passport and warned that precious individual data could be stolen by international gangs, marketing companies, other groups including those related to terror. "There are global studies that tell us that these types of RFIDs can be skimmed. Terror groups, marketing companies, anybody can do this with the help of appropriate technology. So our worry is - are we going to expose our citizens to greater danger? If the chip gets skimmed, the vital information about citizens can fall into the hands of others. Passport is an essential document, but you have to give it at a number of places. So what kind of security measures can be taken to ensure the security of data of our citizens," Tharoor said in the Lok Sabha. Other members also wanted to know what measures were being taken to ensure data security of Indian citizens. In reply to these questions, the government said the transaction processes of the e-passports were being authenticated by digital certificates and were cryptographically signed. "Once captured, the data will be stored in a secured industry-standard database. The Security Operations Centre will perform relevant database security-related controls round the clock," the government said.

The e-passports will be made available in phases at all 36 passport offices across the country. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged the contract for delivering e-passports. While the government will source the hardware chips, TCS will be responsible for their encoding. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been entrusted with the technical responsibilities. These e-passports will be produced by the India Security Press in Maharashtra's Nashik, which has issued letters of intent for the procurement of 4.5 crore ICAO-compliant electronic chips. The data will be put into a chip through a personalisation process. There will be digital keys to ensure the safety and security of the data, like digital signatures. This way there will be multiple layers of security. There are 41 security features of these e-passports, which will be valid for five or ten years depending on the age of the applicant. These features include embossed holographic images in a laminated film which appear to change colour and move under light, demographic and biometric information of the bearer, fingerprints, Iris scans and colour photographs of the bearer whose digital signature will also be there. The ICAO has made it abundantly clear that global e-passport validation would not require or involve any exchange of personal data of passport holders. A passport of one country would be validated by another nation's border control authorities through a process of verifying the digital signature on its microchip to confirm its authenticity and integrity.

Global issuance of e-passports has now reached a critical mass which allows for international travel with improved facilitation through airline, airport and government processes. The majority of e-passports have been issued in the largest aviation markets which include Asia and Pacific, Europe, North America and the Middle East. But the results are still meagre. Identity verification and the use of e-passports as the globally interoperable medium for presenting and validating one's identity is central to all of the facilitation tools available, especially when facilitating international travel. The e-passport is the source for government-issued, standardised, secure and verifiable data which, if properly utilised, can allow passengers to be processed using more automated tools, creating efficiencies across the entire travel continuum. Hence, it is time that the e-passport is utilised more robustly to facilitate global travel, improved border security and safer air travel globally. Hence, the Indian government must expedite the issuance of e-passports and install e-gates at all international airports and ports to facilitate smoother and seamless passage of travellers.

Views expressed are personal