If you are an Indian citizen there’s some good news for you. Holding an Indian passport can get you visa-free or visa-on-arrival in over 190 countries. Woohoo! Not.
Sorry to burst your bubble but that’s not true. It’s countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea that have topped the list of the world’s most powerful passports for 2023. Japanese citizens can travel freely to 193 countries while the other two countries’ citizens getting access to 192 countries.
This data is from the Henley Passport Index, which used data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch the list of the most powerful passports for 2023.
Where does India rank on this list, you ask? Well, India has ranked 85th, with Indian passport holders getting visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 59 countries including Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Egypt. India shares the rank with countries like Mauritania and Uzbekistan.
Japan has topped the list for five years in a row now with citizens enjoying access to 85% of the world. Afghanistan is at the bottom of the list with its citizens getting access to 27 countries, followed by Iraq, 29 countries, and Syria, 20 countries, making them the worst passport to hold respectively.
A positive point is that the index put three Asian countries ahead of Europe and the US in terms of global travel freedom. India still has a long way to go to give its citizens easy access to most countries of the world.
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