The Parliament was told on Friday that up to 26 countries allow Indian passport holders to enter without a visa, 40 offer visa-on-arrival services, and 58 offer e-visa services.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh declined to comment in a written response to the Lok Sabha on the recent Henley Passport Index 2025, which showed that the Indian passport had dropped five spots to 85th place.
In an inquiry about the global passport index, TDP member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy asked if the government had noticed that the Indian passport had dropped from the 71st spot in 2006 to the 80th spot in 2024.

"Some private institutions publish such ratings based on parameters decided by them," stated MoS Kirti Vardhan Singh. However, in the absence of acceptable criteria to rank passports, there isn't a globally recognized ranking system that can be used as a standard.

He said the Government has been continuously making efforts to increase the number of countries that may provide visa free travel, visa-on-arrival and e-visa facilities to Indians for ease of travelling around the world.

“As on date, 26 countries provide visa-free entry, 40 countries provide visa-on-arrival facility and 58 countries provide e-visa facility to Indian passport holders, details of the same are updated from time to time by this Ministry on its website, which can be accessed on the following link: https://www.mea.gov.in/VFFIN.htm,” he said in a written reply.

Reddy also sought to know if any remedial measures were likely to be taken by the government to push up the said ranking of Indian passport.

The MoS said, “The formulation of policies with respect to the issuance of visas is a sovereign matter of the respective country and the matter regarding providing visa-free entry/visa-on-arrival facility also depends on various factors including bilateral relations and the principle of reciprocity.”

In his query, Reddy cited the Henley Passport Index 2025 and claimed that a as result of the lower ranking of the Indian passport an Indian traveller can travel visa-free to only 57 countries as against 195 out of 227 countries for Singapore visa holders.