Source: magnific.com
Zlatan Vukić has spent eight years tracking how individual gambling markets are regulated across different jurisdictions, and when the Indian government announced that 27 countries currently offer visa-free entry to Indian passport holders, the figure caught his attention for a reason that goes beyond the ranking dispute itself. Clearing border access, he argues, is only the first checkbox travelers work through. The legal framework governing leisure activities at a destination, including how gambling is treated under national law, is the layer most travelers skip entirely, with consequences that differ sharply from one country to the next.
From his position as a compliance observer, Vukić points to Croatia’s regulated online-casino market as a concrete illustration of what a clearly defined national framework looks like. He tracks https://hrk.hr as a reference market precisely because the regulatory structure there is legible and documented, making it a useful external benchmark when comparing how differently host countries treat the same activities.
“Visa access tells you whether you can arrive. It says nothing about what legal framework you land inside. Gambling regulation alone can shift from a tightly licensed regime to a legal grey area within a few hundred kilometers, and most travelers never check until it matters.”
That broader travel-planning context sits behind a news development that has prompted an unusually direct response from India’s own government.
India’s Passport Rankings and the Government’s Formal Rejection of Both Indices
According to Livemint, the Indian passport holds two notably different positions depending on which index is consulted. The Global Passport Index 2026, published by residency and citizenship advisory firm Global Citizen Solutions on June 30, 2026, ranked the Indian passport 125th. The Henley Passport Index placed it at 80th, a position that itself represents a decline from 85th in 2025.
The government’s response, delivered by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, rejected both assessments on methodological grounds. Singh stated that “such ratings are published by certain private institutions based on parameters unilaterally decided by them.” The formal position went further, arguing that “in the absence of universally acceptable criteria to rank passports, there is no ranking system for passports at the global level that can be taken as a standard.” The objection is not to any single index but to the entire premise of private-institution ranking systems operating without internationally agreed criteria.
The Three-Tier Access Picture Presented to Parliament
Alongside that methodological rejection, Singh presented a structured breakdown of the access Indian passport holders actually hold. Twenty-seven countries offer visa-free entry. Forty-seven countries offer a visa-on-arrival facility. Sixty-six countries offer an e-Visa facility.
The visa-free category divides into two tiers in the published destination list. Six countries grant full free access with no day restriction: Bhutan, Jamaica, Macau, Nepal, Palestine, and Tunisia. A second group grants free access for a limited number of days, covering Angola, Barbados, Dominica, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gambia, Grenada, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago. The named destinations across both tiers number 25, while the government’s stated total is 27. The source does not reconcile those two figures, and the two unnamed countries remain unidentified.
Visa Issuance as a Sovereign Matter and India’s Bilateral Pursuit of Access
The government’s framing places the core issue firmly outside India’s unilateral control. Visa issuance is described as a sovereign matter for each country, dependent on bilateral relations and the principle of reciprocity. No country is obligated to offer access on any particular terms, and access agreements reflect the full weight of the relationship between two states, not a formula any index can capture.
India pursues expanded visa-free access through bilateral mechanisms. Consular Dialogues provide a structured channel for technical-level engagement on visa policy between foreign ministry officials. Official and High-Level visits create the political conditions under which those technical negotiations can advance. Together these mechanisms represent a diplomatic process rather than a one-time negotiation, involving continuous contact at multiple levels of government.
Passport Modernization and India’s Continued Engagement on Ease of Travel
The government’s case for the Indian passport’s standing rests partly on the document itself. India’s updated electronic passport security features comply with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines, placing the passport within internationally recognized technical standards for document security and verification.
That compliance forms the baseline. Singh stated that “the Government of India is engaged in continuous efforts with other countries to enhance ease of travel of Indian citizens around the world through visa-free travel, visa-on-arrival and e-Visa facilities.” The combined figure across all three access types covers a substantial number of destinations, with the 66 countries offering e-Visa access representing the largest single tier.
The government’s stated position is that dialogue on visa policy is ongoing and covers visa-free travel opportunities, mobility and travel facilitation, visa overstay concerns, passport security, and immigration procedures. For Indian travelers planning international trips, the practical picture is the one those numbers describe: 27 countries reachable without a visa, 47 more accessible on arrival, and 66 offering an electronic visa pathway before departure.
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