Piyush Goyal says value of Indian passport has increased: What's the truth?

By: Anshul Vipat

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal is on a week-long visit to the United States of America from 5th September to 10th September to attend the India-US Strategic Partnership Forum conference and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) ministerial meeting in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

While addressing the US-India Strategic partnership forum (USISPF) in San Francisco, Piyush Goyal said that India offers a variety of investment opportunities for investors across the world and urged the American investors to invest in India during the next 25 years when India will be going through its Amrit Kaal (Golden Period). Commenting on India-US relations, Goyal stated that the relationship is a "Partnership of Trust," founded on the 3Ts of trade, technology, and talent. He stated that India-US relations are characterized by strong government-to-government engagement, people-to-people ties, a large Indian Diaspora, business-to-business connections, increasing bilateral trade, deep cooperation in geopolitically relevant vibrant Quad, Ministerial Dialogue, IPEF, and robust trade policy forum.

After the launch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in 6 regions in the US, Piyush Goyal asked Chartered Accountants (CA) across the world to be the ambassadors of brand India. He also had an interaction with the leadership of GITPRO (Global Indian Technology Professionals Associations) and FIIDS (Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies) in San Francisco. Prior to that, he paid a visit to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and the Gadhar Memorial Hall in San Francisco. While interacting with the faculty and students of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the minister said that India means opportunities and added that this not just ‘India’s decade’ but ‘India’s century.’ He also launched the India-US startup SETU (supporting entrepreneurs for transformation and up skilling) and marked that it will act as a bridge between Indian and American companies.

Piyush Goyal while talking during a press conference also said that many overseas Indians expressed that the value of Indian passport has been increasing. The chart below shows India’s passport rank over the years.

Source: Henley Passport Index

The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world's passports based on the number of visa-free places to which their holders have access. It compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. The Indian passport ranked at the 87^th position in 2017 and went up to the 81^st position the next year with visa free access to 60 countries. India’s passport rank fell to 82 in 2019 and remained at the same position in the pandemic hit 2020. 2021 witnessed India’s passport rank being dropped to 90 with visa free access to 58 countries. In 2022, India was able to go up on the list by 3 spots as its ranking improved to 87 with visa free access to 60 countries. Ten years ago, in the year 2012, India was ranked at 82^nd position but the Indians had visa free access to just 51 countries compared to 60 as of today.  Though the Indian passport gives visa free access to 60 countries, data shows that its rank has not improved much in past few years.