EMN
Dimapur, December 23
The government of India is pushing for early activation of new passport cells in a number of north-east region states as part of the center’s oft-declared development and economic impetus, the Look Act Policy. Among the states is Nagaland where the center is expected to set up passport cells called the Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) with the next few months.
The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on December 22 outlining some of the significant international outreach initiatives the government had undertaken during the year. The statement was titled ‘A Year of Smart Diplomacy: Milestones 2015.’
‘The government expedited operationalisation of new Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the north-eastern states of India— Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim besides the one already functional in Assam,’ the ministry said.
“PSKs in the remaining north-eastern states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura will be set up in the coming months.”
According to the ministry, the government has taken a slew of initiatives to simplify and improve passport, visa and consular services to facilitate engagement with the diasporas and to assist business, educational and tourist travelers.
“The passport services became the embodiment of service excellence, having achieved the unique distinction of becoming the only Mission Mode Project to receive three ISO certifications (9001:2008, 20000: 2011, 27001: 2013) together,” the statement said.
“The facts tell their own story. A strategic reserve of 1 crore passport booklets has been created to ensure that shortage of booklets never becomes a constraint on timely issue of passports. More than 10,00,000 passport-related applications were processed and over 1,00,000 Common Service Centres across the country co-opted for filing passport applications online.”
The government said that the average ‘passport issuance time’ (excluding police verification process) has been brought down to under 21 days for 96% of the applications.
The External Affairs Ministry has also issued special instructions to all Indian missions abroad to scale up quality and speed in delivering consular, passport and visa services, the government said. “Several visa outsourcing contracts were finalized to better utilize the limited manpower resources of Missions,” it added.
Act East Policy: Vision, Vigour and Plan of Action
India’s ‘Act East Policy,’ enunciated with great vigor and foresight by the new leadership, acquired a new force in 2015 and manifested itself in the deepening of economic and strategic partnership with ASEAN countries and the extended East Asia region. India’s diplomatic efforts focused on leveraging synergies with this economically vibrant region and linking up these countries with India’s development agenda, pivoted around interlinked programs of ‘Make in India,’ ‘Digital India,’ ‘Smart Cities,’ ‘Start-up India,’ ‘M-Governance’ and ‘Skill India.’
The year also saw a marked upgrade of India’s security cooperation with the region, with the two sides mapping out concrete steps to intensify cooperation in combating terrorism, piracy and traditional and non-traditional security threats. These key drivers of Act East policy were reflected in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation in India-ASEAN and EAS summits in Kuala Lumpur in November and in his bilateral visits to Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.
The visit of Singapore’s president’s to India, and Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s trip to Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia, Myanmar’s foreign minister’s visit to India and visits of the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Indonesia and Thailand “telescoped multiple strands of intensified and reinvigorated engagement between India and the East Asia region across the spectrum.”
