India’s rank in the Henley Passport Index may soon go up further given the government’s plans to quickly introduce a new generation of e-passports.
New York: The Henley Global Mobility Report 2022 Q1, published quarterly by global immigration consultant firm Henley & Partners, shows that the Indian passport now has visa-free access to 60 destinations worldwide. The power of the Indian passport has improved, with the country climbing seven places to rank in 83rd place in the Henley Passport Index, up from the 90th position in the previous year’s rankings.
The index ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa and is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
However, India’s rank in the Henley Passport Index may soon go up further given the government’s plans to quickly introduce a new generation of e-passports. More than 12.8 million passports were issued in 2019 by the Passport Issuing Authorities (PIA) in India and abroad, making India the largest passport issuer globally after China and the United States.
The latest results from the Henley Passport Index show record-breaking levels of travel freedom for top-ranking nations Japan and Singapore, but also the widest recorded global mobility gap since the index’s inception 17 years ago.
The index shows that without taking temporary Covid-19 related restrictions into account, passport holders of the top nations – Japan and Singapore can now enter 192 destinations around the world visa-free. This is 166 more than Afghanistan, which sits at the bottom of the index.
