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In recent months, a video by an Indian travel influencer expressing frustration over India's weak passport gained massive traction across digital platforms.

The influencer stated although neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bhutan were more welcoming of Indian tourists, obtaining visas for visiting many nations in Europe and the West continued to be difficult.

Such concerns regarding India's poor passport strength was reflected in recent Henley Passport Index, which placed the country at position eighty-five among 199 countries, a decline of five positions than last year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings yet.

Nations like Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies compared to India – a nation that is the world's fifth biggest economy – are ranked higher in the ranking in the seventies range, respectively.

Actually, India's rank in the past decade has hovered in the 80s, falling to the 90th spot in 2021. Such standings are dismal when measured against other Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore, all maintaining top positions.

What Passport Strength Measures

Passport strength indicates a nation's soft power and international standing. This leads to better mobility for passport holders, improving commercial and learning opportunities. Limited passport power results in more paperwork, higher visa costs, reduced travel benefits and extended processing periods for travel.

But despite the drop in position, the count of nations offering visa-free access for Indian citizens has actually increased over the last ten years.

For example, in 2014 – when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed office – 52 countries provided visa-free travel to Indians with the passport at seventy-sixth position on the index.

The following year, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then rose to eightieth over the past two years, dropping again to the 85th position currently. Meanwhile, visa-free destinations to Indian citizens grew from 52 in 2015 to sixty last year and sixty-two this year.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The count of visa-free destinations this year (57) exceeds the number in 2015 (52), but India's rank during both periods is 85. What explains this situation?

Analysts note that a major reason involves growing competition in global mobility – indicating that countries are forming additional travel agreements for their populations' advantage and their economies. According to recent analysis, the global average number of destinations people can visit visa-free has nearly doubled from fifty-eight nineteen years ago to one hundred nine currently.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has expanded its count of visa-free destinations its citizens can travel to from fifty to eighty-two in the past decade. Consequently, its position in the ranking has enhanced from 94th to 60th in that same duration.

Meanwhile, India – previously positioned 77th on the index during summer – dropped to eighty-fifth place this autumn following the loss to two countries.

Other Influences Impacting Passport Power

An ex-diplomat from India notes multiple elements influencing the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability as well as its openness to accepting travelers from abroad.

For example, the US passport has fallen from the top ten and now occupies twelfth place – its lowest ever – because of its more inward-looking approach in world politics.

The diplomat mentioned that during the seventies, Indian citizens had visa-free access to numerous European and Western nations, but that changed after the Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Later political disturbances have further chipped away the country's reputation as a stable democracy.

"Numerous nations are also becoming more cautious regarding migrants," he stated. "The country possesses a high number of people migrating to other countries or remaining beyond visa limits affecting the national image."

Elements like the security level of a national passport and its immigration procedures also play a role to obtaining visa-free access to other countries.

Enhanced Security Measures

India's passport remains vulnerable to security risks. In 2024, law enforcement arrested 203 people for suspected visa and passport fraud. The country also has complex immigration processes with lengthy timelines for visa approvals.

The former ambassador says that technological advances, such as the newly introduced electronic passport or e-passport, may enhance safety and ease the immigration process. This electronic document includes a microchip holding biometric data, increasing difficulty to counterfeit or alter the document.

But, increased diplomatic efforts and travel agreements continue essential to boosting the global mobility for Indian citizens and, by extension, the Indian passport's global position.