Page 40 - NIS-English 16-31 May 2022

Towards Duty
Towards Duty
Path
Path
Years
Years

INDIA REFUSED TO JOIN RCEP IN

ITS BEST NATIONAL INTEREST

PASSPORT:

The reason for the changing image of India in global
relations is the continuous effort to enhance the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
credibility of the country, increase security as well is a free trade agreement adopted by 10 member states
as make the lives of the people of the country easier. of ASEAN and five countries namely Australia, China,
An example of this is the passport and visa facilities. Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. But without
coming under the pressure of the world, Prime Minister
More than 300 new passport centers have also been Modi emphatically put forward India's point of view for
established in the country in the last few years. The not joining RCEP. He said that we work in the spirit of
Prime Minister says, The power of India's passport mutual cooperation, but cannot sacrifice our interests.
has increased, any citizen going to another country, India has firmly stated that our trade deficit with RCEP
when he shows his Indian passport, then he is seen countries has increased and the loss was $ 7 billion
with pride. Before the year 2014, there were only 77 in 2004 which increased to $ 78 billion in 2014. By
rejecting RCEP, PM Modi gave priority to the interests
Passport Seva Kendras operational in the country, of the poor, farmers, dairies, and MSMEs.
now there are 521 Passport Seva Kendras with 424
Post Office Passport Services. Portal for the online
application called 'Passport Seva'has been started. ISOLATED PAKISTAN ON
Till 2014, it usually took an average of 16 days to
get a passport, now the passport is issued in 5 days. TERRORISM
7,68,04,991 passports have been issued from 2014
to March 2022. Citizens of India do not need a visa
to visit 16 countries of the world. An Indian passport n Took steps to get Pakistan blacklisted in
FATF. Asia Pacific Sub Group also blacklisted
is enough to allow entry to these countries. Pakistan.

The International Court of Justice ruled in favor
n
of India in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and
forced Pakistan to grant consular access.
countries in the world including Iran, Indonesia,
59 and Myanmar have given visa-on-arrival n Due to the lack of even minimum support at the
UN Human Rights Commission, Pakistan did
facilities to Indian passport holders. Under this
facility, citizens of India have to get visas from not get a chance to raise the Kashmir issue.
airport immigration after reaching that country.
n It is a result of India's growing clout that after
HENLEY PASSPORT INDEX the cowardly terrorist attack in Pulwama and
the subsequent airstrikes by India, all major
The Indian passport has climbed 7 places to 83rd global leaders stood in solidarity with India.
position in the 2021 Henley Passport Index from the
90th spot in the year 2020.

38 New India Samachar May 16-31, 2022