Challenge

An overwhelming demand for passports that had put a strain on the resources of India’s Ministry of External Affairs

India’s rapidly expanding middle class and its rising economy had led to a growing demand for passport services. This put a massive strain on the Ministry of External Affairs’ limited infrastructure, obsolete and legacy systems, and inadequate human resources. Citizens had to deal with inconvenient and cumbersome processes, a limited number of passport offices, and endless delays. Despite attempts to automate operations, decentralize the collection of applications, open new passport offices, and introduce organizational reforms, operations could not reach the desired level of scale. Traditional manual processes led to inefficiency and made the passport service delivery process prone to errors and inordinate delays.

Solution

TCS provides a scalable technology platform for transparent and efficient passport services

Supporting India’s National e-Governance Plan, TCS helped the Ministry reimagine their existing system and transform passport services. Launched under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, we executed the project under the Build-Operate-Own-Transfer (BOOT) framework.

While the Ministry handles all the sovereign functions, we have set up and manage the Passport Seva Kendras (facilitation centers), IT and non-IT infrastructure, end-to-end core passport application, networking, portal, data center, and disaster recovery operations. We deliver services to citizens from 93 Passport Seva Kendras located in 63 cities across India. In addition, we, along with the Ministry, conceptualized and co-created a new service delivery model of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) – a model that leverages India’s vast network of post offices across the length and breadth of the country.

So far, we have integrated over 425+ POPSKs with the Passport Seva system, delivering passport services to citizens in not just India’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities but mofussil regions as well. The service has been extended to 180+ Indian missions and embassies overseas making it a single global system on a common platform that connects the global Indian diaspora.

“The Passport Seva Project, administered by Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, has tried to simplify the availability of passport services to Indian citizens across the globe. TCS has been a reliable partner of MEA in this endeavor… in establishing a citizen-friendly application system supported by robust IT infrastructure, managed, and maintained by it on 24X7 basis. The high quality of services delivered from the state-of-the-art Passport Seva Kendras [PSK] set up by TCS, where TCS staff work together with MEA officials, has been recognized globally,” said Shri Prabhat Kumar IFS, Joint Secretary (Passport Seva Program) and Chief Passport Officer of India.

The transformation also saw the design of a toll-free call center that offers support in 17 languages nationwide. TCS also manages the overall physical and technical scalability of the infrastructure and operations.

As part of this mammoth transformation, multiple stakeholders were integrated, processes re-engineered for faster throughput, and change management administered for officials at various levels.

A dedicated team of 2,500+ TCS associates continues to offer the Indian citizen quality-led services with an unwavering focus on bringing in efficiency and transparency to the process. In recognition of this service transformation that visibly improved a public service, the Passport Seva Program has been conferred several awards and accolades in India and overseas.

Today, TCS provides a scalable technology platform for passport services to 1.3+ billion Indian citizens, including 32 million citizens living overseas.

“PSP (Passport Seva Program) is a new benchmark in e-governance and is considered a laudable achievement for a digital India. We appreciate and congratulate TCS for their contribution. We value our relationship with TCS.”

Shri Prabhat Kumar IFS, Joint Secretary (PSP), & Chief Passport Officer, India