India has ranked 87th on the Henley Passport Index – a global passport ranking chart that uses data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) to rank 'strongest' and 'weakest' among 199 passports. India has 'visa-on-arrival' access to 60 nations around the world.
In comparison, Japan, which topped the chart, has visa-free access to 193 nations, followed by Singapore and South Korea – both second with access to 192 nations.
India fell two places in the third quarter but rose three from the corresponding period last year. India ranked 90th in Q3 and Q4 in 2021. The passport index states the strength of diplomatic relations of any one country with others; essentially, the more one country has “ease of access” to others, the higher its ranking.
Though, with global travel yet to fully recover from Covid restrictions, the index offers only a notional snapshot of the best documents to hold as of this quarter. Countries to which Indians have 'visa-on-arrival' access include Asian destinations like Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka. There are also 21 countries in Africa that provide visa-on-arrival services to Indian citizens. There are only two European countries to do the same.
