Why in News?

• Recently, the Henley Passport Index 2023 was published by the consultancy firm named ‘Henley & Partners’.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• About Henley Passport Index (Objective, Criteria, 2023 Rankings, Openness Index, etc.)

About Henley Passport Index:

• Henley Passport Index is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom for their citizens.
• It started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index (HVRI).
• It is the ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
• The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.
  • The number of countries that a specific passport can access becomes its visa-free 'score'.
• In collaboration with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and based on official data from their global database, Henley & Partners analyses the visa regulations of all the countries and territories in the world.

Henley Passport Index 2023:

• As per the 2023 rankings, Japan has been replaced by Singapore, which is now officially the most powerful passport in the world.
  • Citizens of Singapore can visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.
• Germany, Italy, and Spain occupy the second place.
• Japan, which occupied the top position on the Henley Passport Index for five years, dropped to the third place.
• Alongside Japan at the third position are Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden.
• India –
  • 
  • India has climbed seven places on Henley Passport Index 2023 to 80^th rank from 87 last year.
    • Indian citizens can now enjoy visa-free access to 57 destinations.
  • In 2014, India ranked 76 with 52 countries allowing Indian passport holders visa free access but its performance has not been linear.
  • It ranked 88 in 2015 (visa free access to 51 countries), 85 in 2016, 87 in 2017, 81 in 2018, 82 in 2019 and 2020, and 81 in 2021.

‘Most Open’ Countries:

• Henley & Partners also conducted an exclusive new research resulting in the Henley Openness Index.
• This Index measures how many nations does a country allow visa-free access to.
• The Top 20 ‘most open’ countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia.
• There are 12 completely open countries that offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 passports in the world (not counting their own).
• Here, India was ranked 94 out of a total of 97 ranks for allowing only four countries visa-free access.
• At the bottom of the Index were four countries for scoring zero for not permitting visa-free access for any passport — namely, Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Turkmenistan.

 About International Air Transport Association (IATA):

• IATA is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945.
• Objective: To support airline activity and helps formulate industry policy and standards.
• Headquarters: Montreal, Canada