The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday had said the government is putting e-passports or chip-enabled passports on their priority list. Electronic or e-passports are majorly used because of the security features it offers. The passport holds an electronic chip and the information of the holder, that is name, date of birth, sex, a biometric identifier, and other biographic details.

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The chip technology reduces the chances of data tampering and number of failed checks for passport authentication.

The 64-KB (kilobyte) chip will be placed on the back of the passport and will have a rectangular antenna and will contain information for up to 30 visits, as of yet. The chip will also store the photograph of the passport holder and biometric data such as fingerprints.

As per reports, the chip-carrying passport will have thicker covers and better pages, in order to avoid the tampering.

In India, the technology was developed by Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur (IIT-K), National Informatics Centre (NIC), India Security Press (ISP) and officials in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Many foreign countries, such as European nations, Bangladesh, Australia, among others, are currently using e-passports. As of 2008, 60 countries had already migrated to chip-technology powered passports.