(Daily News Scan - DNS English) Henley Passport Index : How Powerful is Indian Passport?
The latest edition of HENLEY PASSPORT Index has been released. It is a global ranking of countries on the basis of travel freedom to their citizens. Topping in the list this year is JAPAN with the title of World’s strongest passport. Afghanistan has been ranked 107th in the list as the weakest. India’s ranking is almost near to the bottom with 84th rank.
In this DNS we will talk about the Passport Index, how the countries are ranked and also know about the previous rankings of our country India.
Henley Passport Index is published by Henley & Partners, the residence and citizenship planning firm. The Index lists the world’s passports on the basis of the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The data of the ranking is collected from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It is a trade association of some 209 airlines including all major carriers.
The passport index was launched in 2006. It covers 199 passports and 227 travel destinations. The data are updated in real time as and when visa policy changes come into effect. Each rank can be held by multiple countries.
Now let us know about the ranking of the countries
Japan is topping the index for the past three years. As per the index results this year, passport holder of Japan have the access 191 destinations without having to obtain a visa in advance. Second in the list is Singapore having visa free/ visa on arrival access to 190 countries. Germany is on number three with access to 189 destinations; it shares this position with South Korea, which dropped from the second place it held a year ago. The US and the UK have been falling consistently; both countries are in eighth place in 2020. UAE has climbed a remarkable 47 places over the past 10 years and is on 18th place. It has a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 171.
The top 10 powerful passport this year are - Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Finland, Spain, Luxembourg and Denmark.
Now let us know about India’s rank and it history in this index ranking. Since the year2006, the Indian passport has ranked in a band of 71st to 88th. For the 2020 ranking, India is on 84th place, providing visa-free access to 58 destinations, including 33 which give Indians visas on arrival. Among the 58 visa-free access destinations in the 2020 list, 20 are in Africa and 11 each in Asia and the Caribbean. Serbia is the only European country to which Indian passport holders can travel visa-free. There is no major or any developed country to which Indian passport holders have visa free access.
In the year2018 and 2019, Indian passport ranked better. In 2018, it ranked 81, with visa-free access to 60 destinations and in 2019 it ranked 82, with visa-free access to 59 destinations.
Lastly, let us know about the rankings of the neighboring countries of India.
Pakistan- 104th, China – 72nd, Bangladesh- 98th, Sri lanka- 97th, Nepal- 101, Bhutan 89th and Myanmar-94th rank.
