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Earlier this year, a video by a popular travel content creator complaining about the limited power of the Indian passport gained massive traction on social media.

He mentioned although nearby nations like Sri Lanka and Bhutan offered easier access to travelers from India, securing travel permits for visiting many nations in Europe and the West continued to be difficult.

This dissatisfaction regarding the limited global access of Indian passports found confirmation in the latest global passport ranking, ranking the country in the 85th spot among 199 countries, a decline of five positions than last year.

Officials in India has not commented regarding these findings yet.

Countries like Rwanda, Ghana and Azerbaijan despite smaller economic size compared to India – which is the fifth-largest economy globally – hold better positions in the ranking at the 78th, 74th and 72nd spots, in that order.

In fact, the country's position over the last ten years has hovered around the eighties, even dipping to ninetieth place two years ago. Such standings are dismal compared to Asian nations like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, all maintaining top positions.

Global Passport Power Measures

Passport strength reflects a country's global influence and global influence. This leads to better mobility for its citizens, improving commercial and educational prospects. Limited passport power means additional documentation, increased visa expenses, reduced travel benefits and extended processing periods for travel.

But despite the drop in position, the number of countries offering visa-free access to Indians has grown in the past decade or so.

As an instance, eight years ago – the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power – 52 countries provided visa-free access to Indians with the passport ranked 76th in the ranking.

The following year, it tumbled to eighty-fifth place, then improved to eightieth in 2023 and 2024, declining once more to the eighty-fifth spot currently. At the same time, countries allowing visa-free travel to Indian citizens increased from 52 in 2015 to 60 in 2023 and sixty-two this year.

The Competitive Global Mobility Landscape

The number of nations allowing visa-free entry this year (fifty-seven) is higher than what it was in 2015 (fifty-two), but India's rank for both these years remains at eighty-fifth. So, why is that?

Analysts note that a major reason is the increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility – meaning countries are forming additional travel agreements to benefit their citizens and economic growth. As per recent analysis, the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free has almost doubled from fifty-eight nineteen years ago to one hundred nine currently.

As an illustration, The Chinese passport has increased its count of visa-free countries its citizens can travel to from 50 to 82 over the last ten years. As a result, its position in the ranking has enhanced from ninety-fourth to sixtieth in that same duration.

In comparison, The Indian passport – which was ranked 77th on the index in July – fell to eighty-fifth place this autumn after losing access of two nations.

Additional Factors Affecting Passport Strength

An ex-diplomat from India says there are other factors influencing the strength of a country's passport, like its economic and political stability plus its receptiveness to accepting travelers from abroad.

For example, the American passport has fallen from the top ten currently holding the 12th position – its lowest ever – due to its increasingly insular stance in world politics.

The diplomat mentioned how in the 1970s, Indian citizens had visa-free access to numerous European and Western nations, but that changed following Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s. Subsequent political upheavals have continued to damage the country's reputation as a stable, democratic country.

"Numerous nations are growing more cautious of immigrants," he stated. "India has a large quantity of citizens emigrating overseas or overstaying their visas and that interferes with the country's reputation."

Factors such as how secure a country's passport is and immigration processes also contribute in gaining visa-free entry to other countries.

Enhanced Security Measures

India's passport faces ongoing security threats. In 2024, authorities arrested over two hundred individuals for alleged visa and passport fraud. The country also has complex immigration processes with lengthy timelines for visa approvals.

The diplomat says that technological advances, like India's recently-launched digital passport or e-passport, may enhance safety and streamline immigration. The e-passport contains a microchip holding biometric data, increasing difficulty to forge or tamper with the passport.

However, increased diplomatic efforts and travel partnerships continue essential for enhancing the global mobility for Indian citizens and, by extension, India's passport ranking.