India rejects global passport rankings, questions methodology

India has pushed back against global passport rankings that place its travel document well behind those of many smaller economies, saying there is no universally accepted system for measuring passport strength and that rankings published by private organizations cannot be treated as a global standard.

The government made the argument in a written response to the Lok Sabha on 31 July after lawmakers Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan and Manish Tewari sought details about India’s position in global passport mobility rankings and the relatively limited number of countries Indians can enter without obtaining a visa in advance.

“Government is aware of some such ratings which are published by certain private institutions based on parameters unilaterally decided by them,” minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said.

“In the absence of universally acceptable criteria to rank passports, there is no ranking system for passports at global level that can be taken as a standard,” the government said.

The response comes after India’s position in several passport rankings drew renewed attention this year.

Global Citizen Solutions, a residency and citizenship advisory company, placed India 125th among 197 countries in its 2026 Global Passport Index.

India’s composite score nevertheless rose to 45.1, its highest in five years, even as the country remained near the lower third of the table.

But that ranking measures substantially more than the ability to cross borders without a visa. Global Citizen Solutions gives 50% weight to an “Enhanced Mobility Index” and also factors in investment opportunities and quality of life. Its methodology therefore attempts to measure the broader value of holding a nationality rather than travel access alone.

The much more widely cited Henley Passport Index uses a narrower measure. It ranks 199 passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without obtaining a visa beforehand, using International Air Transport Association data supplemented by Henley’s research. The index covers 227 destinations and is updated monthly.

India has moved considerably within the Henley ranking during 2026. It climbed as high as 75th in February before slipping to 81st in the July edition, with Indian citizens able to access about 55 destinations without securing a conventional visa before travel.

A third ranking, Arton Capital’s Passport Index, currently places India around the low 70s based on a mobility score that counts visa-free, visa-on-arrival and other forms of facilitated access. Its live rankings can change as countries alter entry requirements.

The gulf between those rankings helps explain part of the government’s objection. A passport can occupy very different positions depending on whether an index measures only border access or also adds factors such as investment conditions and living standards.

It does not, however, eliminate the underlying constraint facing Indian travelers.

The foreign ministry told Parliament that just 27 countries currently provide visa-free entry to Indian passport holders, while 47 offer visa-on-arrival facilities and 66 provide e-visas. The ministry’s travel database, updated on 3 August, separately lists the facilities available to ordinary Indian passport holders.

Some indices count visa-on-arrival and electronic travel authorizations alongside visa-free travel, while others distinguish them or assign them different weights. An e-visa that requires government approval before departure, for instance, is not treated as visa-free access under Henley’s methodology.

The government said visa policy ultimately remains the sovereign decision of individual countries and is influenced by bilateral relations, reciprocity, immigration concerns and passport security.

India is pursuing expanded access through consular talks, official visits and other bilateral negotiations, Singh said, covering issues ranging from visa-free travel and mobility arrangements to visa overstays and immigration procedures.

Delhi has also sought to strengthen the passport itself. The government told Parliament that newer electronic travel documents incorporate security features designed to comply with International Civil Aviation Organization standards.

The debate over India’s ranking was further muddied this year by political claims that its passport had fallen from 76th in 2014 to 125th in 2026.

That comparison is misleading because the two numbers come from different indices. The 76th-place figure was from the Henley index, while the 125th-place ranking is from Global Citizen Solutions, which did not begin operating until 2017 and uses a different methodology.