The Ministry of External Affairs held discussions with foreign nations, including Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, the UK, and the USA, to streamline the visa appointments for Indian students.
According to Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, as the flow of students has been advantageous to both nations, they had decided to continue working to streamline and ease the process.
Senior MEA officials dealing with Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, UK, and the USA had fruitful conversations concerning expediting student visas for Indian people with the relevant Heads of Missions/senior diplomats of these countries, Bagchi tweeted.
According to reports, India brought up the problem of international students and requested that other nations speed up and clarify the visa application procedure.
The External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar noted that the MEA and the Central Passport Organization have been commemorating the Passport Seva Divas and renewing their commitment to providing Indian citizens with passports and services related to passports in a timely, dependable, accessible, transparent, and effective manner.
To facilitate foreign travel, protect against identity theft, and enhance data security, he claimed that the Central government is striving to implement e-Passports.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, “the passport services were rendered with the same vigour and enthusiasm even during the testing times,” he said. “The Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two and a half years of the pandemic, and dealt with it swiftly with an impressive monthly average of 9.0 lakhs, with 4.50 lakhs additional applications granted in the last one month, thus setting a record.”
He also disclosed that the DigiLocker system and the Passport Seva System had been connected to assist with a paperless documentation procedure.
The Passport Seva Programme (PSP), which will launch PSP V2.0, an upgraded and improved version of PSP V1.0, in recognition of the need to continuously improve the quality of passport services, said that it would ensure a digital ecosystem among all stakeholders and provide enhanced passport services to citizens.
