Passport Ranking: The list of world's most and least powerful passport for the year 2023 has been released. As per the latest Henley Passport Index, Pakistan is the fourth worst country in the world with its passport ranking below the African country of Somalia.
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are the three other countries that rank below Pakistan, the index published by the London-based immigration consultancy shows.
Which countries rank best
Japanese citizens are now able to visit an astonishing 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, while South Koreans and Singaporeans, whose countries are tied in second place on the index, enjoy a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192.
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Germany and Spain are joint third, with visa-free access to 190 destinations worldwide. The UK and the US remain in sixth and seventh places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively, and it appears increasingly unlikely that either country will ever regain the top spot on the index which they jointly held nearly a decade ago in 2014.
Where does India rank
According to the index, Indian passport ranks 85th in the list of powerful passports with free Visa access to 59 countries. People having India passport can travel to countries 59 nations like Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Kenya, Mauritius, Maldives, Cambodia, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Qatar and others.
The total number of Indian passport holders will cross the 10 crore mark soon, a senior official said recently, adding that issuance of e-passports will be fully operational by 2023,
"Now 9.6 crore people have valid passports in India and the figure would cross the 10 crore mark very soon," Regional Passport Officer Ashish Middha said at an interactive session with the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
"By 2023, issuance of e-passports is expected to get fully operational and currently e-passports are on a trial run," Middha was quoted as saying by the industry chamber in a statement.
