• India’s rollout of biometric e-passports in 12 cities, including Chennai and Jaipur, aligns with global trends—over 150 countries issued such passports by 2019, starting with Malaysia in 1998, as per Wikipedia data, enhancing security through facial, fingerprint, and iris recognition.
  • These e-passports, compliant with ICAO 9303 standards, use a microprocessor chip with at least 32 KB of memory to store biometric data, employing public key infrastructure (PKI) to prevent forgery, though challenges like data privacy and chip tracing remain concerns.
  • The initiative reflects India’s push toward digital identity systems, potentially streamlining international travel, but it coincides with heightened border tensions, as seen in recent Pakistani shelling in Jammu and Kashmir reported by The Indian Express, which may complicate passport usage.