Indian resume templates inherited a personal-details block from an older hiring era: photo, father's name, date of birth, marital status, nationality, passport number. Most of it now costs you space and, occasionally, an interview.
Photo — usually no
Skip it for corporate, IT, finance and startup roles. It takes space, it triggers bias you can't control, and several ATS platforms handle images badly.
Include it when the employer asks (many PSUs, banks and government applications do), for customer-facing hospitality and aviation roles, and for some academic and school applications. If you include one, use a plain professional headshot — not a cropped wedding photo.
Date of birth — no, with exceptions
Private-sector employers don't need it and age filtering is a real risk. Include it only where a form or an age-eligibility rule requires it: government jobs, PSUs, defence, and some overseas applications.
Marital status, father's name, religion, caste — remove
None of these belong on a modern resume. They add nothing to your candidacy and create bias exposure for both you and the employer. Where the government process genuinely requires them, they belong on the application form, not the resume.
What replaces the personal details block
- City and state — 'Pune, Maharashtra'; enough for location filtering without your full address
- Work authorisation — only if relevant: 'US H1-B', 'EU work permit'
- Languages — genuinely useful for support, sales and regional roles
- Notice period — useful in the Indian market, where it's asked in every first call
Full postal address
Drop it. City and state cover the recruiter's actual question — can you reach the office — and publishing your full address on a document you email to strangers and upload to portals is a privacy risk with no upside.
Common questions
Why do so many Indian resume templates still include these fields?
They descend from the pre-2000s biodata format, which many free templates never updated. Its persistence is inertia, not a current requirement.
Put this into practice
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Use a modern Indian template