RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2565
TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.08.2018
SAFETY MEASURES FOR DIGITALISED DOCUMENTS OF e-VISA AND e-PASSPORTS
2565. SHRI A. VIJAYAKUMAR:
Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) whether e-passport and e-visa are being issued by the Ministry to Indian and foreign nationals under digitisation project;
(b) whether Government is aware that there are many hacking software available to misuse the digitalised e-visa papers and other documents; and
(c) if so, the measure taken to strengthen the safety of digitalised e-visa and other documents?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]
(a) The Government does not issue e-Passport. The e-Visa scheme was launched by the Government on 27.11.2014. It is a completely online and paperless system that grants visa to the foreigners in a time bound manner. At present, this facility has been extended
to the nationals of 165 countries, at 25 airports and 05 seaports.
(b) The e-Visa online application website and the visa processing/issuance system are isolated networks with air gap. Since the start of the scheme in November 2014, no hacking or security breach has been encountered.
(c) National Informatics Centre is the technical support provider for the e-Visa system and it maintains the system. It is a robust and highly secured system/network with all security measures deployed including ETAs (Electronic Travel Authorization) having
PKI based QR code.
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