Ministry of External Affairs awards Passport Seva Project to Tata Consultancy Services

· Passports to be delivered after 3 working days post police-verification

New Delhi, India, October 13, 2008: Tata Consultancy Services, (TCS) (BSE: TCS.BO, NSE: TCS.NS), a leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm, announced it has a signed a deal with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, for the Passport Seva Project (PSP), the largest mission-critical E-governance project valued at over Rs 1,000 crore. After implementation of the Project which will be managed end-to-end by TCS, the Ministry expects that the process of issuing a new passport will be completed in 3 working days while passports issued under the Tatkal scheme will be dispatched on the same day, subject to address and police verification of applicants. The Master Service Agreement was signed between representatives of TCS and the MEA in New Delhi today.

The project cost is valued over Rs. 1,000 crore and the project will be implemented within a Buy-Own-Operate-Transfer or BOOT framework with pilot projects operation within 19 months. The countrywide roll-out of the Passport Seva Project will take place within six years and the Government will open 77 Passport Filing Centers across the country in a phased manner. TCS will have end-to-end responsibility of implementing this project.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs said: “The Passport Seva Project, based on a public-private partnership model, aims to provide passport-related services to Indian citizens in a speedy, convenient and transparent manner. The sovereign and fiduciary function of granting and issuing passport remains with MEA and TCS will be our technology and operations partner in this project”

Mr. S Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director, TCS said, “We believe that this mission mode project of national importance will make delivery of passport services truly world class in nature. This project reiterates TCS’ commitment to help government deliver citizen services more efficiently through technology and process improvements and will transform passport service delivery to the citizens of India. ”Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice President, Global Government Business Group said: “After the successful implementation of the MCA-21 program, the Passport Seva Project will enable citizens to enjoy the benefits of a technology-led, service oriented approach to passports while ensuring that the proper security, safety and safeguards are maintained.

The Passport Seva Project would digitize the entire passport services lifestyle and allow online filing of applications. Applicants also have the alternative option of filling the Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)-enabled form which along with all relevant documents will be scanned and submitted at Passport Facilitation Centres (PFCs). The PFC will be the primary hubs that will support all activities like biometric capture, photograph, payment and verification and grant of passports in the presence of applicants for most cases. The Passports will be dispatched in three days in case no police verification or post-issue police verification is required based on passport issuance regulations. Complete tracking of process would be possible in the system. Police nodal offices will be facilitated by TCS personnel and the PP Forms will be downloaded there directly eliminating the logistic delay. A call centre would be established to help the applicants with information regarding passport procedures and the status of submitted requests. Grievances would be tracked and closed.

About Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 111,000 of the world’s best trained IT consultants in 50 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $5.7 billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2008 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com

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