How powerful is an Indian passport? Not very, 166 out of 199 countries are better off

International travel is always at odds with the ‘Indian citizen’ tag. The endless barrage of documents and restrictions is quite commonplace for a person of Indian origin. But when it comes to hard facts, how powerful, or otherwise, is an Indian passport? [caption id=“attachment_3207992” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Passports from around the world
Image: passportindex.org[/caption] Arton Capital’s  Passport Index, a real-time web service that provides global ranking of the world’s passports has the answer for you. The site has over 11 years of data to compare documents from around the globe. According to the service, 166 out of the total 199 passport-holding countries have it better than a person who has an Indian passport. To be precise, India’s individual rank or it’s visa characteristics and other aspects give it this dismal score. In terms of India’s visa-free score ie the number of countries the passport holder can visit without a visa, India’s score is 46. According to Hindustan Times, this figure includes 21 countries where an Indian can travel visa-free and 25 countries where the citizen can utilise the visa-on-arrival option. Another interesting rank for India from this data is that the country ranks quite high in terms of being one of the most welcoming countries. India provides visa on arrival services for over 145 countries. As to which country is the most powerful, no it isn’t the United States. In fact, it’s Germany. According to CNN, German visa holders can enter 177 out of 218 countries and territories without a visa.  It has a visa-free score of 157. Singapore comes a close second with a visa-free score of 156. In an increasingly negative rhetoric against migrants and refugees, openness and the freedom of mobility have never been more pertinent. As the CEO of Arton Capital, to John Hanafin asserts, “The desire to improve one’s opportunity and security for their family transcends borders. As such, having a second citizenship has never been more relevant.” Here’s a map that indicates the most powerful passports in the world: