On January 08, 2020 the Henley passport Index 2020 was released by Henley & Partners. As per the index based on the data obtained from International Air Transport Association (IATA), Indian passport ranked at the 84th spot among the world’s most powerful passports list, which is a drop by 2 places as it ranked 82nd in 2019. The list was topped by Japan.
Henley Passport Index 2020:
Report on India:
i.India ranks at 84th place which is tagged along with Mauritania and Tajikistan.
ii.India provides visa free access to 58 countries.
iii.Visa free visits: Some of the countries where Indian passport holders can visit without a prior visa include Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Macao, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Iran and Qatar tc
General Report:
i.Mobility scores: The index measures the strength of all the passports around the world, based on mobility scores which denotes the number of destinations that could be accessed by the passport-holders of a specific country, without a pre-departure visa. IATA covers 199 passports and 227 travel destinations.
ii.Japan provides visa-free access to 191 countries.
iii.Top 10 countries: The countries in the top 10 list and no of destinations that could be visited without a prior visa is listed below in brackets:
- Singapore ranks 2nd (190);Germany and South Korea at 3rd (189); Finland & Italy at 4th (188);
- Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain at 5th (187); France and Sweden at 6th (186);
- Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland at 7th (185); Belgium, Greece, Norway, United Kingdom(UK) and the United States of America (USA) at 8th (184);
- Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand at 9th (183); Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia ranked at 10th place (181).
iv.Worst passport: Afghanistan’s passport is the world’s worst passport with mobility score 26 while India’s neighbouring country Pakistan’s is the fourth worst with mobility score 32. Afghanistan was followed by Iraq (mobility score-28) and Syria (mobility score- 29) having World’s worst passport.
Rank:
| Rank | Most powerful passports | Worst passport index |
| 84th | India | – |
| 1 | Japan | Afghanistan |
| 2 | Singapore | Iraq |
| 3 | Germany and South Korea | Syria |
About Henley & Partners:
Headquarters- London, United Kingdom.
Founded- 1997
Chairman- Christian Kälin.
Chief Executive Officer(CEO)- Juerg Steffen.
