Moneylife’s consistent campaign since March 2013, has led to a series of customer-friendly initiatives by MEA and TCS; the latest is with mobile technology. The mPassport Seva app provides a wide variety of services such as status tracking, locating a passport office and other general information

No more the arduous trips to your passport office and exasperating interaction with the officials who often make you run round and round. Now, to track your passport application; to find out which is your passport office if you are residing in a small town or overseas; to get the required contact numbers; to find out exactly what are going to be your application fees and; any other general information, all you need is to search it on your smartphone!
 

Termed as the `mPassport Seva’, this new mobile application enables Indian citizens to access passport related information on their smartphones. This service has been executed in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
 

It may be recalled that since March 2013 Moneylife succeeded in breaking the TCS’s corporate secrecy, when it took up the passport issue at Pune, which was in utter mess. For more than a fortnight, the TCS officials refused to take note of the constant emails being sent to them regarding the breakdown in services. The writer agitated in front of the Pune’s TCS’s Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa, after which TCS officials came out in the open, to discuss the problems. Passport applicants were also encouraged to use Right to Information (RTI) to track status of their passport application.
 

Thereafter, it was after Moneylife’s managing editor Sucheta Dalal’s intervention through a meeting she organized at the Moneylife Foundation office in Mumbai. This meeting held sometime in April 2013, broke the ice of corporate secrecy. Tanmoy Chakroborty, head of Global operations at TCS, took the lead in making the Pune passport office citizen-friendly through various facilities including online payment along with the online application form. It is heartening to note that this has now resulted in an extra facility that was not envisioned before – that is, the `mPassport Seva.’ Moneylife heartily thanks the TCS and the passport division of the MEA.
 

See these links for other Moneylife impact stories on passport:

Moneylife Impact: TCS swings into action to ease some difficulties faced by Pune passport applicants

Moneylife Impact: Now pay online for your passport; challan option also available

Moneylife Impact: Ministry of external affairs begins action on Pune Passport mess

Pune Passport Seva Kendra improves process of applications and facilities: A Moneylife Impact

Moneylife Impact: Chief Passport Officer increases daily appointments to 1,100 after inspecting Pune’s Passport Seva Kendra

An RTI application gives Peyush Rai his passport even before submitting his plea

File an RTI application if you do not get your passport in time

A press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on 5^th November, states, “In order to keep pace with the current technology, the Ministry of External Affairs had launched the mPassport Seva mobile app on Android platform, as a pilot, in March 2013. Encouraged by positive public response, the Ministry has now launched this app on Windows and Apple iOS platforms as well.’’
 

To avail the facilities available on your Smartphone, you would have to download it their respective stores:
 

Android-based handsets: www.play.google.com/store/apps/
 

Windows-based mobiles: www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store
 

Apple iPhones: www.apple.com/itunes
 

Following are the facilities offered on your smartphone:
 

• • mPassport Seva, enables Indian Citizens to access passport related information on their smartphones. This application provides a wide variety of services such as status tracking, locating a passport office and other general information
• • The application provides information on various steps involved to obtain a passport related service and related phone numbers in case of queries or concerns
• • The users will be able to search for a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or District Passport Cell (DPC) in a district where a passport application can be submitted. This can also be searched based on PIN code. For certain states and districts, the users can search for police stations as well
• • Citizens residing overseas who apply for a passport service in Indian missions/posts abroad can also utilize this facility for searching address and other relevant information
• • The fee calculator feature of the application enables users to find out the applicable fee based on the service and mode of submission
• • Users can track the status of their passport applications by providing file number and date of birth. In case the passport has been dispatched, delivery status can also be tracked
   

• In the meanwhile, citizens share their happiness on getting their passports with the guidance of Moneylife. An example: Dear Vinita Happy Diwali and trust you are doing good. This is to inform you that I have received my passport today. It was indeed a great commitment by Passport Officer Mrs Rane who had promised me to expedite the case, provided everything being in order. I appreciate her and her office's sense of responsiveness and expediting this so promptly. In the event you get an opportunity, I would request you to extend my thankfullness to them. I will share my entire experience, which is really laudable, of working with Pune Passport Office in some suitable forum for the benefit of common citizens. Lastly, my sincere gratitude to you to for listening to my concern, taking it up and guiding me to handle this rightfully to closure. You people are doing a great job to the nation and society. Thanks again and with warm Regards, Subrata Maity Pune

(Vinita Deshmukh is the consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)