A widely shared post on X (formerly Twitter) and WhatsApp claims that India’s passport ranking has suffered a massive fall, from 85th in 2024 to 148th in 2025. Based on a “global passport index”, the post has stirred political reactions and public concern about India’s international standing.
The claim reads: “BJP propagandist Akshay Kumar ‘People look at India’s passport with a lot of respect now. They say you are from Modi’s country’. Meanwhile FACTS: India’s passport ranking 2014 : 76th; India’s passport ranking 2025 : 148th; This is how BJP fools Indians by showing these celebrities.” It also showed a video of actor Akshay Kumar praising the Indian passport in an interview in the past.
FACT-CHECK
Since the claim has sourced the figures from an index, we checked for the authenticity. We traced the origin of the figure to the Nomad Capitalist Passport Index. It had placed India at 147th in 2024, and in its latest 2025 report, India slipped marginally to 148th. This is a one-rank decline, not a sharp fall.
Secondly, the number 85 is from India’s earlier positioning in the Henley Passport Index, a separate ranking system. According to the Henley Passport Index, India ranks countries based on visa-free or visa-on-arrival access, at 80 in early 2024 and now stands at 82nd as of July 2025. This data contradicts the claim of an 85-to-148 plunge and confirms only a modest two-place dip. The Henley list is widely quoted in diplomatic and policy circles.
On the contrary, the Nomad Capitalist Passport Index evaluates passports based on multiple factors, not just travel freedom but also taxation policies, perception, dual citizenship possibilities, and personal freedom. India’s 2025 ranking of 148th out of 199 countries, with a score of 47.5, is consistent with its previous 2024 ranking of 147th.
Even the Government of India, in a reply to a parliamentary question in July 2024, stated that the Henley Passport Index had ranked India 85th in 2023 and clarified that such indices are not universally recognized benchmarks and are subject to periodic and methodological changes. Even the Ministry of External Affairs hasn’t issued any alert acknowledging a dramatic drop in global passport rankings.
Hence, the claim of a major drop is, therefore, factually incorrect as it seeks to merge both unrelated indices.
Claim: India’s passport ranking dropped significantly from 85th in 2024 to 148th in 2025.
Conclusion: Misleading. The rank 85th is taken from Henley Passport Index, while the 148th rank is from an unrelated Nomad Capitalist Passport Index.
Rating: Misleading — 
