What is ranking of Indian passport? | Why indian passport ranking is low? | What is passport ranking?

What is ranking of Indian passport? Why does the world hate Indian passport? How does it get decided which passport is weak and which passport is strong? And what difference does it make to us? Let's find out in today’s article. Our focus is talking on such topics, which all think about, but no one goes into detail.

I love India. I love my country, but I don't love my passport. Why? Because on the basis of their passport, the rest of the countries downgrade Indians even today.

India is going to become one of the top 5 countries in geopolitics. India's voice is getting strong. But if we look at the world's strongest passports, India is ranked 144th. Where even countries like Malaysia, Turkey, Venezuela are ahead of India.

 

Chapter One: Feeling of slavery. If you are feeling FOMO and want to feel what slavery used to be, then try applying for a visa to any developed country. For an American visa, there is long serpentine queue outside the consulate. If you now look at the processing times of the US visa, the wait time on an average is 500 days. While heading to Europe, don't know how many personal details are asked from you. Like your bank balance, income tax returns, employment status, your hotel bookings, and your return tickets. The list is endless. And why all this? The tourist who goes to Europe he will go and spend money there. He will stay in their hotels, will generate employment there. That means, despite giving money, we are treated like beggars. What is this logic? In big countries, it is surely said that all humans are equal. But their actions suggest something else. The truth is that your fate, every opportunity you get, is decided by a lottery. And that too before you are born. It is called an ovarian lottery.

 

Basically, which country you will be born in, what will be the color of your skin, will decide your future in the 21st century. This is a bitter truth. You won't believe your ears. But if you have a Singapore passport, you will get visa-free entry in the world's 193 countries. That means, you can wake up tomorrow and decide that you want to go and tour Japan. You can pack your bag, buy a plane ticket and go. Do you have this privilege as an Indian? No. Let's find out why.

 

Chapter Two: The truth about passport rankings. See, when it comes to rankings, there are many rankings on which you can decide how much to believe and how much to not. But there is one ranking that actually affects you and me. And that is passport ranking. Henley & Partners is a UK consultancy which for the past 18 years has been taking out these passport rankings. They analyze the data of international air travel authority and in every quarter take out the passport rankings. This ranking, is different from World Press Freedom Index, Global Food Security Index, World Happiness Report rankings. Because all these rankings can be subjective. Here, by changing a methodology different results can come forward. That is, ground reality can be different from the reality of the report. But passport ranking is objective. Because this methodology of ranking is quite simple. Every passport gets points on the basis that how many countries give that passport holder a visa-free entry. If no visa is required, then that passport gets one point. If you have to apply for visa or e-visa before departure, then it gets a score of zero. If a passport holder gets visa on arrival, even then they get one point. For example, if you want to go to Thailand, though you need a visa, but all those formalities can be done at the Thailand airport. In this case, India gets one point. But if an Indian passport holder has to go to the USA, then they have to complete all the visa formalities before departure here. That is why we get zero points. It's that simple. This ranking is important because it is a clear mirror of mobility.

 

In the first quarter of 2023, India's ranking was 82. With visa-free entry to 60 countries. In contrast, people of Singapore and Japan are at number one. Because they have the permission to travel visa-free in 193 countries. Similarly, Australia, 187 countries. Canada, 186 countries. USA, 178 countries, can get visa-free entry. These are some countries that always come on the top spots of this index. But all these are Western countries, developed countries. It's not fair to compare with them. Let's take the countries of our category. The BRICS nations. Brazil, 170 countries. Russia, 118 countries. South Africa, 106 countries. China, 81 countries. The passports of all these countries are stronger than Indian passports. Of course, our passport is stronger than countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan. But now we have to move forward. There are definitely some surprises in this passport index. Malaysia, from any angle, is not a developed country. But Malaysia's passport holders can travel visa free in 180 countries. In Argentina, inflation is the highest in the world. Even then their people can go visa free to 171 countries. A crisis has been going on, in Venezuela for many years, even then their people can travel visa free in 128 countries. So why is only India behind?

 

Chapter Three: Visa Discrimination. Visa, that is, 'visitor international stay admission'. Where one country decides that if the people of a particular country are fine, then we can take them. And people of other country are problematic. They are not to be taken inside at all. But how is this decided? Broadly, there are three factors.

First is the economy of a country: If we talk about economy, the majority of the countries think that the people of wealthy countries travel as tourists. On the other hand, when the people of a poor country go to a rich country, they never return back. They become illegal immigrants.

Second is diplomacy: Second point is diplomacy. How are the diplomatic relations of two countries? How many things are culturally common in them? Is the religion of those people there same? All these things are important for a visa-free entry.

And third is stability: Third and last point is stability. If a country's international perception is bad or there are conflicts taking place in this country, if there is no peace here, then their visa score is bad. There are civil wars in Yemen, Syria, and South Sudan. This is called the fragility score. And this fragility score puts India in a warning zone. It says that there can be a civil war in India anytime. Think about it. This is the score of 2022. And here, Ukraine's score is better than India. That is, according to this scale, Ukraine is less fragile than India. Hashtag 'white privilege'.

 

Chapter Four: What can we do? We definitely try one thing in all our articles. We try to go one step ahead of the problem. We try to find solutions at our level. The government can improve our passport score. But we have to ask the right questions for this. India strictly needs to change its branding today. We are not a country of 'Slumdog Millionaire'. We are a country of the third most billionaires in the world. This reminder needs to be given to other countries. And how will this happen? With data. According to this report, in 2020, Indian people had spent $12.7 billion on tourism. As more and more people will travel, the more this amount will keep increasing. Today, the entire world is engulfed in recession. And India is the safest place to avoid recession in the world. This is not us, but all the international organizations saying. We need to give this reminder to everyone.

 

Let's leave aside developed countries like America, Australia, and UK. But can we start negotiations with Asian countries? Let's take the example of Vietnam. In 2022, by November, 1.09 lakhs Indian tourists went to tour Vietnam. But even then, for Indian tourists, it is compulsory to take a visa. During the COVID time, India established Vaccine Maitri. Vaccines, relief, food were freely distributed without condition. But maybe now, we should leverage this friendship. We can learn to improve passport ranking from UAE. In 2006, UAE was ranking 61. In 2023, it improved and became 13th. How? By changing its focus. In the case of UAE, their government had started a task force. To put UAE's passport in the top 5. After focused attention and negotiations, UAE has improved its position a lot. Another reason for our passport to be weak is reciprocal visa formalities. That is, even our visa process is very tedious. Which also impacts our tourism sector. We are a big fan of our external affairs minister. We want him to make the Indian passport strong in his tenure. The countries with whom, we have good relations, at least demand for visa on arrival if not visa free.

 

Chapter Five: See, when we say that India needs rebranding, then this rebranding is going to happen at two levels. One is at the government level and the other is at the individual level. Many Indians, when go abroad to travel, take all their bad habits along with them. Breaking the line, litter the streets, talking loudly. These things do seem nominal, but remember, whenever we go to another country, then we do not go as an individual. We go as the representative of our country. The way we behave, forms the mirror image of the whole country. Indians who go on tourist visa and break the visa regulations and continue staying there. Students who go to do a course and drop out after a semester. Companies who do visa fraud are responsible for our weak passport. Due to all these issues, foreign countries get an excuse to look at Indians with doubt. If we want to reform India, in the 21st century, want to come before the world as an equal, then even we need to improve. If you got value from this article, got to learn something new, then share it with your friends. Because this country is ours. That is why all the problems of this country are ours. And the job of finding a solution on them, is also ours. And bringing this important thing to you, makes a difference to me.

 

Thank you so much for reading, because your support makes a difference to us.