Govt plans passports with ‘brain’ to curb identity fraud

Mumbai: With number of passport-related frauds rising in the country, the Centre is planning to issue e-passports on a pilot basis from December 2007. The e-passport will have an integrated circuit chip embedded in the back cover of it. The chip will display personal data of the passport holder that is usually given on the 'photo page' of a regular passport. The information in the chip will be locked until it is read by swiping its information page across a special scanner.
According to government sources, the identification technology is also likely to be included in the existing 40 million passports that are already in use, apart from the new ones. According to rough estimates, the move will cost the government nearly $1billion. Sources in the civil aviation ministry said that a Bangalore-based microchips maker was leading the race to bag the contract for introducing the identification technology in India.
03/06/07 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Categories: New Jun 2007, Safety Jun 2007