The External Affairs (MEA) Ministry has again chosen Tata Consultation Services (TCS) to implement the second stage of the SEVA passport program, the largest critical mission e-governance program in the country until now. TCS will manage the project for nine and a half years, which can be extended for two more years.
While the company did not reveal the financial details of the contract, analysts track the company said the agreement could be in the range of Rs 6,000-8,000 Crore.
“The issuance of e-passport to increase customer satisfaction, increased security and the level of the next residents will also be launched,” said MEA in a statement.
In the next phase of this program, TCS will refresh existing facilities and systems, and develop new solutions to enable the publication of e-passports using technology such as biometric, artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis, chatbots, automatic response, natural language processing, and clouds.
“The first aspect of the contract was refreshed. We began working with MEA on this agreement in 2008 and hence the refresher technology needed. So all the infrastructure we have made – data centers, servers etc. – will be refreshed, which will be for a period of 18 months and The remaining time will run the project, “explained Tej Bhatla, head of the business unit, public sector, TCS. While Bhatla refused to comment on the size of the agreement, he said this would be one of the biggest offers for companies in Indian geography.
He plans to establish a third data center to store important data after installing the primary and secondary data center as part of the first phase.
“This idea is to achieve many citizens. There are provisions to see whether cellular vans can be introduced to take services to the threshold of the residents. One of these will come in version 2.0,” added Bhatla.
The proposed e-passport will have chips embedded in it. “MEA has expressed his intention to move to e-passport. The plan is to introduce the chip in a passport booklet that can make data safer, and it will make it easier to read too. It’s part of the process going forward,” Bhatla said.
Launched in 2008, the Seva Passport Program sees TCS transforming services related passports, by digitizing processes, and establishing global benchmarks in timeliness, transparency, and reliability.
Since then, TCS and MEA have established 93 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKS), 428 Office PSKS posts, and 36 passport offices. Some months of missions and foreign embassies are also integrated into the TCS system.
“We have around 86 million active passports in this country, but this is still a small percentage compared to the country’s population. Therefore, the government will continue to increase passport coverage to citizens. For us, this is a great achievement, we celebrate 20-25 years Engagement with clients globally. Here is an opportunity for us to do the same thing in India with MEA with version 2.0 of this passport contract, we will celebrate 20 years of relationship, “Bhatla added.