As part of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Version 2.0, launched in April last year, the Central Government has officially begun the issuance of e-passports embedded with advanced technology. A pilot rollout of these e-passports is currently underway in select cities including Nagpur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Goa, Jammu, Amritsar, Shimla, Jaipur, Chennai, Surat, Hyderabad, and Ranchi. Plans are in motion to expand this service nationwide in the near future. In Tamil Nadu, the Regional Passport Office in Chennai started issuing e-passports in March this year, and by March 22, a total of 20,729 e-passports had been issued in the state. What distinguishes the e-passport is the inclusion of a small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and an antenna embedded within the passport’s cover. This chip securely stores the passport holder’s biometric and personal details, offering enhanced security and faster identity verification. E-passports can be easily recognized by a golden emblem printed beneath the front cover. The sensitive data stored in the chip is protected by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption, which ensures it cannot be misused. The government has clarified that there is no obligation to convert existing passports into e-passports; current passports will remain valid until their expiry. The transition to e-passports is completely voluntary at this stage.