In recent years, the Government of India has taken many
initiatives to usher in an era of e-Governance to improve the delivery of
public services. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) includes many high
impact e-Governance projects that have been identified as Mission Mode Projects
(MMP's). One such project focuses on reforming Passport services in India.
The
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is responsible for issuance of Passports to
Indian Citizens through a network of 36 Passport offices across the Country and
190 Indian Missions and Posts abroad.
A
Passport is an essential travel document for those who are traveling abroad for
education, tourism, pilgrimage, medical attendance, business purposes and
family visits. During the last few years, the growing economy and spreading
globalization have led to an increased demand for Passport and related
services. This increasing demand for passports and related services is coming
from both large cities and smaller towns, creating a need for wider reach and
availability. To augment and improve the delivery of passport services to
Indian citizens, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched the Passport
Seva Project (PSP) in May 2010.
The
project has been implemented in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with
Tata Consultancy Services, selected through a public competitive procurement
process. Under this program, the sovereign and fiduciary functions like
verification, granting and issuing of passport have been retained by MEA. The
ownership and strategic control of the core assets including data/information
is with MEA.
Passport
Seva enables simple, efficient and transparent processes for delivery of
passport and related services. Apart from creating a countrywide networked
environment for Government staff, it integrates with the State Police for
physical verification of applicant's credentials and with India Post for
delivery of passports.