A passport is an essential document for anyone who wishes to leave India and enter the geographical boundaries of another nation. Every country has different coloured passports, and the number of colours each country can use on their passport is limited to four. Passports are generally black, green, red or blue, and the Indian government has made available passports of three different colours to its citizens, which are as follow.
Ordinary (Regular) Passport An ordinary or regular Indian passport is issued to regular or ordinary citizens. This passport can be used for regular travel and reasons related to business or study trips and vacations. The document usually contains between 36 and 60 pages and is a Type P passport. The P refers to ‘personal’ passport and the cover of the document is black. Official Passport An official passport can be availed by Indian citizens who represent the country’s government on official business. The cover of this document is white and it is called a Type S passport where S denotes ‘service’. Only government employees who leave the country on national duty and are representing India are issued this passport. Diplomatic Passport A diplomatic passport can be availed by Indian diplomats, diplomatic couriers, and top ranking government officials. This is a Type D passport where D stands for ‘diplomatic’.
0 Comments
The Aadhaar Bill, 2016 was passed recently by the Lok Sabha and was then returned by the Rajya Sabha with certain amendments to be made and were then rejected with the Lok Sabha passing it as a Money Bill.
Although the Aadhaar is not compulsory as of yet, it has been made mandatory for the procurement of a number of government schemes and options. This Bill has carefully mentioned that each resident is ‘entitled’ to an Aadhaar number and also specifically states that the government may ‘require’ citizens to enroll for this card in order to verify his/her identity for the purpose of receiving a government service or subsidy. Aadhaar number was first put forth as an equivalent to the Social Security Number system that is prevalent in the United States of America. A number of controversies arose due to the security of online database that stored Aadhaar related information. What is an Aadhaar card? The Aadhaar card is a 12 digit unique identification number that is allocated by the UIDAI or the Unique Identification Authority of India. This number acts as a proof of identity as well as address and contains biometric information of the individual. Individuals can procure this card at a number of Aadhaar Seva Kendras throughout the country. What is the Aadhaar Bill? The Aadhaar Bill has been put forth with plans to utilise the identification number of the individual that has been provided by the UIDAI or the Unique Identification Authority of India in order to deliver State subsidies to the bank account of the beneficiary directly. Why is this Bill so important? A number of subsidies, payments and schemes are being offered by the Government of India to those who are economically backward but these payments are not provided directly. A number of intermediaries are involved and in the resultant chain, there is a high chance of the amount getting lost or misplaced due to bribes, mismanagement or even corruption. In order to curb this menace and to make matters more transparent, the government wishes to transfer the subsidy amount directly to the bank account of the beneficiary through the Jan Dhan Account - Aadhaar Number - Mobile Number, also known as JAM initiative. This initiative expects to reduce the Centre’s subsidy bill quite steeply. For example, there are around 17.8 crore LPG connections that are provided in India and the government provides 10 cylinders as subsidy to every family. In 2015, a number of individuals voluntarily gave up their LPG subsidy enabling the government to transfer resultant amount into the bank account of the households that required it. How does this impact individuals? The Aadhaar Bill directly affects individuals in two important ways. With the government now asking for the Aadhaar number prior to providing various schemes and subsidies, this document may be a necessity and is time all individuals procure this document. A concern that most individuals have is that since there is no much personal information of citizens on the web with the government, it might be misused or vulnerable to misuse by authorities or even data theft. However, in order to allay concerns, a few safeguards have been put into place. The UIDAI is not allowed to share information regarding any individual’s personal details except in two circumstances that have been mentioned in Section 33 of the Bill. The first one is in the interest of ‘National Security’ wherein a joint secretary working in the Central Government may issue a directive for the same. This decision will also reviewed by an oversight committee which comprises of the Secretaries of Legal Affairs and IT and Electronics along with Cabinet Secretary. Courts may also order that information of an individual be revealed. In conclusion, the Aadhaar card may come with its share of privacy and other concerns but at the end of the day is an important document that provides both proof of address as well as identity, and is hence advisable for every citizen to avail this document. ![]() The External Affairs Ministry has introduced a brand new set of regulations that must be followed if you wish to get a passport. These new rules are there so that the people of India can benefit from them. The 10 things you must know before applying for a passport is given below:
![]() In 2016, the legislation, “H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2016” was introduced which if passed, will restrict Indian based IT companies in the US from hiring Indian employees on the H-1B and L-1 visas. Such bills are being passed with the idea that Americans should be hired first. However, the Indian IT industry is of the belief that this bill has not addressed the issue of the shortage of STEM skills in the US. STEM refers to the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Shortage of STEM skills in the US The Vice President and Head of Global Trade Development in Nasscom, Mr. Shivendra Singh pointed out that the data received from the Labor Department of America also reflects the shortage of STEM skills currently in the economy. And passing this bill would adversely impact the economy as it is restricting foreign based companies unfairly and would cause a lot of issues for American customers who regularly require IT support. The projections by the Labor Department harp on the shortfall of college graduates from STEM background entering the American workforce and is of the notion that by the year 2018, US may see 2.4 million unfilled positions in the STEM workforce, specifically in computer and IT related jobs. In computer programming alone, there could be a million unfilled positions by the year 2020. Under the H-1B visa program, companies based in the US can hire a maximum of 85,000 foreign workers per year out of which 65,000 can be hired abroad and 20,000 foreign nationals who are studying in the US. Of the 65,000 foreign nationals hired, around 25,000 to 35,000 H-1B visas are being issued to Indian nationals. The present situation after the US Elections The president of United States, Donald Trump’s pick for the position of Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions is assuring lawmakers that steps will be taken to push legislative measures that will curb the misuse of H-1B and L-1 visa, which are extensively used by Indian professionals. Currently, India is the biggest single country source for work visas as American companies as well as Indian companies operating in America hire Indian professionals on such visas. Cognizant, IBM and other companies will face the worst brunt of the bill, if passed. If Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the US Senate, he will head the office of Special Counsel for immigration-related unfair employment practices. The office is intended to protect foreign employees who hold valid employment visas from being discriminated, however, the office is also obliged to ensure that American workers are not being discriminated in the workforce. Bills that could hurt Indian employment in the US The bill on the H-1B visas has recently been reintroduced in the US Congress by 2 lawmakers who believe that this bill will be break the abuse of work visas in the country. Another bill “Protect and Grow American Jobs Act” was also re-introduced by Republicans Scott Peters and Darrell Issac on January 5th, 2017. This bill focuses on making crucial changes to the current eligibility requirements for H-1B Visa exemptions. Furthermore, the bill also focuses on increasing the H-1B visa minimum salary to $100,000 per year and eliminate the exemption of a Master’s Degree. ![]() In November 2016, Rajiv Bhansal, the Joint Secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology gave a keynote address at Mobile Sparks's fifth edition in Delhi. His keynote address greatly focused on his vision on Digital India and his belief that everyone who is a part of the Indian mobile ecosystem have a great future ahead of them. Here are the takeaways about the Indian Mobile Ecosystem as shared by Rajiv Bhansal: The landscape of digital India is changing: Various programmes such as Digital India, India Stack, Startup India etc. are moving beyond recognition. In addition to this, entrepreneurs could find opportunities in the mobile space in fin tech, mobile app development, manufacturing and an Aadhar enabled space. Increase in the use of smartphones in the future: He stated that currently, out of the 1 billion mobile phones in the country, 30% constitute the use of smartphones. However, in the coming 3 to 4 years, the sale of smartphones in India will beat the sale of feature phones, making the smartphone to feature phone ratio – 70:30. Manufacturing smartphones in India, thereby increasing its penetration across the world: India is manufacturing and assembling 150 million smartphones each year and these phones are also being sold in Africa and the Middle East. In the next 3 years, we will manufacture 300 million smartphones which will help not only the use of smartphones but also the internet in India as well other countries. Mobile is the device of the future: Mobiles have evolved starting from desktops, laptops and tabs. This trend suggests that preference has been given to reduction in size and increase in power, capacity and speed. This trend also suggests that mobiles will be the only device that will continue in the future. Penetration of internet: In a county of over 1.2 billion people, there are approximately 450 million who have access to internet. Although this number seems small in comparison, it should be noted that 100 million connections are being added every year and this number is only said to increase in the near future. The growth of phone users increased from 100 million to 1,000 million the last decade and the growth of internet connections will see a similar trajectory. Indian Language penetration in mobile phones: A large segment of the Indian population does not speak English. Therefore, the penetration of internet in rural areas is also quite low. The challenge pertaining to the use of language in India is greater when compared to most other countries. This is because most other countries speak have around 6 to 7 spoken languages, however, India has 22 major languages alone and many dialects. Therefore, to overcome this challenge, starting from July 2017, all mobile phones manufactured in India will support 3 languages for text inputs namely English, Hindi and 1 local language. They will also have readability options in 22 languages. Aadhar Revolution: Currently, around 98% to 99% of the target population of the country have Aadhar numbers and in the near future, India will see approximately 700 to 800 million users of internet out of which 500 million will use internet through smartphones. Combining the power of Aadhar and smartphones in the country, we will see a lot of innovators and problem solvers in the future. UPI (Unified Payment Interface): The evolution of the banking system started with money lenders. It transitioned into post banks and then into ATMs, credit cards, internet banking and currently, mobile banking. UPI will combine all these steps into a single step and give mobile transaction access even to those who do not have bank accounts. In his keynote address he also talked about a 20 hour contact programme on digital literacy wherein Indian citizens will receive basic training on the use of smartphones, navigation and searching for content. A programme that will be taught in many local languages. ![]() In a recent case against a woman arrested under the Indian Foreigners Act, the Calcutta High Court refused to accept Aadhar card as proof of Indian citizenship of the woman. The woman had produced a government issued Aadhar card and argued for bail that being an Indian citizen, she cannot be held under the Foreigners Act. The woman said that Aadhar card had been issued to her considering her long period of stay in India. The court, presided by Justice Jogmalya Bagchi, however, opined that as per the Aadhar Act of 2016, the card cannot be considered as proof of residence or citizenship. Neither did the court accept a letter of declaration issued by a local body as proof of residence. The court went on to reject the bail application of the woman citing that there was sufficient evidence pointing to the woman being a foreign national. |