Earlier this year, a video by an Indian travel influencer complaining about India's weak passport went viral on social media.
He said that while neighbouring countries like Bhutan and Sri Lanka were more welcoming of Indian tourists, getting visas to travel to most Western and European countries remained a challenge.
His dissatisfaction with India's poor passport strength was reflected in the latest Henley Passport Index - a ranking system of the world's passports based on visa-free travel - which placed India in the 85th spot out of 199 countries, five spots lower than last year.
The Indian government has not commented on the report yet. The BBC has reached out to the ministry of external affairs.
Countries like Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan with much smaller economies than India - which is the fifth-largest economy globally - are ranked higher on the index at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, respectively.
In fact, India's rank in the past decade has hovered in the 80s, even dipping to the 90th spot in 2021. These rankings are dismal compared to Asian nations like Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which have consistently held top positions.
This year, like the last, Singapore topped the index with visa-free travel to 193 countries. South Korea came in second with 190 visa-free destinations and Japan ranked third with 189 countries.
Meanwhile, Indian passport holders have visa-free entry to 57 countries, just like the citizens of the African country Mauritania, which shares the 85th rank with India.
Getty Images Passengers in the departure area of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, operated by Adani Group, in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.Getty Images
Indian passport holders have visa-free entry to 57 countries
Passport strength reflects a nation's soft power and global influence. It also translates into better mobility for its citizens, boosting business and learning opportunities. A weak passport means more paperwork, higher visa costs, fewer travel privileges and longer waiting times for travel.
But despite the decline in the rank, the number of countries offering visa-free access to Indians has actually increased in the past decade or so.
For example, in 2014 - the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power - 52 countries offered visa-free travel to Indians and its passport ranked 76th on the index.
A year later, it tumbled to the 85th position, then rose to 80th in 2023 and 2024, dropping again to the 85th position this year. Meanwhile, visa-free destinations for Indians increased from 52 in 2015 to 60 in 2023 and 62 in 2024.
The number of visa-free destinations in 2025 (57) is higher than what it was in 2015 (52), yet India's rank for both these years is 85. So, why is that?
Experts say that a major reason is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility - meaning countries are entering into more travel partnerships to benefit their citizens and their economies. According to a 2025 report by Henley & Partners, the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2025.
For example, China has increased the number of visa-free destinations its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 in the past decade. Consequently, its rank on the index has improved from 94th to 60th during the same time period.
Meanwhile, India - which was ranked 77th on the index in July (the Henley Passport Index is updated quarterly to reflect changes in global visa policies) as it enjoyed visa-free access to 59 countries - dropped to the 85th position in October after losing access to two countries.
Getty Images In airport: hand on luggage trolley, holding Singapore passport, boarding pass, face mask, and map. Getty Images
Singapore's passport is the most powerful in the world
Achal Malhotra, former Indian ambassador to Armenia, says there are other factors that affect the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability as well as its openness to welcoming citizens from other countries.
For example, the US passport has dropped out of the top 10 and now occupies the 12th position - a historic low - because of its increasingly insular stance in world politics, the report says.
Mr Malhotra recalls how in the 1970s, Indians enjoyed visa-free travel to many Western and European countries, but that changed after the Khalistan movement in the 1980s, which called for an independent homeland for Sikhs in India and caused internal turmoil. Subsequent political upheavals have further chipped away at India's image as a stable, democratic country.
"Many countries are also becoming increasingly wary of immigrants," Mr Malhotra says. "India has a high number of people migrating to other countries or overstaying their visas and that interferes with the country's reputation."
Factors such as how secure a country's passport is and its immigration procedures also play a role in gaining visa-free access to other countries, Mr Malhotra says.
India's passport remains vulnerable to security threats. In 2024, the Delhi police arrested 203 people for alleged visa and passport fraud. India is also known for having cumbersome immigration procedures and a slow pace of visa processing.
Mr Malhotra says that technological advances, like India's recently-launched electronic passport or e-passport, can improve security and ease the immigration process. The e-passport includes a small chip that stores biometric information, making it harder to forge or tamper with the document.
But more diplomatic outreach and travel agreements remain key to boosting the global mobility of Indians and, by extension, India's passport ranking.
Australian authorities are investigating after an 80-year-old woman who was left behind on a Great Barrier Reef island by a cruise ship was found dead.
The woman had been hiking on Lizard Island, 250 km (155 miles) north of Cairns, with fellow passengers from the Coral Adventurer cruise ship on Saturday but is believed to have broken off from the group to have a rest.
The ship left the island around sunset but returned several hours later after the crew realised the woman was missing. A major search operation found the woman's body on Sunday morning.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it is investigating and will meet the ship's crew when it docks in Darwin later this week.
A spokesperson for AMSA said it was first alerted to the missing woman at around 21:00 local time on Saturday (05:00 GMT on Friday) by the ship's captain.
The authority said it would work with other relevant agencies to investigate the case and that it takes the safety of passengers and crew onboard commercial vessels seriously.
Coral Expeditions chief executive Mark Fifield said staff have contacted the woman's family and were offering support over the "tragic death".
"While investigations into the incident are continuing, we are deeply sorry that this has occurred and are offering our full support to the woman's family," Fifield said.
The elderly Australian woman is understood to have joined a group hike to the island's highest peak, Cook's Look, before she decided she needed to rest, according to the Courier Mail.
Traci Ayris was sailing near the island last weekend and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that she saw a helicopter using a spotlight to search a walking trail on the island at around midnight on Saturday.
She said about seven people with torches went to the island to search but it was called off at around 03:00 local time with a helicopter returning on Sunday morning when the body was found.
"We knew she was dead because they called everyone back from the search immediately," she told the ABC.
"And no-one went to the spot that the chopper was hovering over until later that day when the police arrived."
Ayris said the incident was clearly distressing for crew and passengers.
"It was very sad in this paradise to have this tragedy occur. It should have been a happy time for that lovely lady."
It is understood the woman was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, with tickets costing in the tens of thousands of dollars for the journey.
The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company's website. It was purpose built to access remote areas of Australia's coast and is equipped with "tenders" - small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.
Queensland police said a report will be prepared for the coroner in the "sudden and non-suspicious death" of the woman.
Direct flights between India and China have resumed as relations between the countries appear to be thawing.
IndiGo flight 6E 1703 from Kolkata landed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Monday, carrying about 180 passengers.
Flights between the two countries were first suspended during the Covid pandemic in early 2020 and did not restart after a deadly clash in a disputed Himalayan border area escalated tensions.
But the two countries have been steadily rebuilding relations, and last year they reached a landmark agreement on border patrols.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi visited China in August for the first time in seven years. That same month Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited India.
The Indian government said the resumption of flights would "facilitate people-to-people contact" and help "the gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges".
India also resumed the issuance of visas for Chinese tourists.
At the Kolkata airport on Sunday evening, airline staff lit brass oil lamps to mark the resumption of the direct flights as IndiGo passengers checked in.
A senior Chinese consular official, Qin Yong, told reporters at the airport that it was a "very important day for the India-China relationship".
One passenger said the direct connection would improve logistics and transit time.
China Eastern Airlines is set to launch a flight connecting Shanghai and Delhi in November.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
