New Delhi: Applying for passport has been made easier with an initiative of the central government under which citizens will be able to use the DigiLocker platform to furnish the required documents.


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Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan launched the new scheme on Friday (February 19) which would enable people to submit various documents required for Passport Services in a paperless mode.


“With the launch of this new scheme, applicants applying for passport services can provide link to their specific documents uploaded in the DigiLocker. This would enable citizens to submit various documents required for Passport Services through DigiLocker in a paperless mode. They are not required to carry the original documents,” the MEA said in a statement.


"In the upcoming Passport Seva Programme V2.0, the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Chat-Bot, Analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), etc. will help ease the citizen experience and expeditious service delivery," the ministry added.


The ministry is also planning to bring ePassport services which will increase security and improve facilitation of immigration processes at foreign airports.


“We are working on the idea of a passport to be included as one of the documents in DigiLocker. Moving forward, I am confident that this will help the citizens to retrieve the passport whenever required,” Muraleedharan said.


DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents/ certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents.


“Once passports are also uploaded in DigiLocker, details would be easily accessible to authorized users from any location, which would be useful especially in case of loss of passport,” the ministry further said.


Muraleedharan said that the new approach is aimed enhancing the passport service experience in a paperless mode.


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