Indian Government is gearing up to associate with smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the Aarogya Setu app on new devices. A source from the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) and another from a smartphone maker has confirmed the news.
The Aarogya Setu app with Bluetooth and realtime GPS tracking was recently released to help track Covid-19 patients in order to help contain the spread of coronavirus across the country.
Authorities have been zealously encouraging citizens to download and set up accounts to make the app effective at what it does. In a recent video-meet with Chief Ministers of different states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them to popularize the app. He took examples of Singapore and South Korea who have successfully tracked down the infected cases using similar apps.
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“Based on those experiences, India has made its own effort through the app which will be an essential tool in India’s fight against the pandemic. He also referred to the possibility of the app being an e-pass which could subsequently facilitate travel from one place to another,” read an official statement.
The concerned Ministry has earlier showed its gratitude to the industry for aiding the Aarogya Setu app which has now been installed over 50 million times from Google Play Store.
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In other news, the Indian Government is evidently developing an Aarogya Setu like app for feature phones. Ravishankar Prasad, IT Minister, in a tweet has confirmed that the app will launch soon.
India still has a considerable pool of feature phone users. It will be interesting to see how the developers manage to make it as effective for feature phones that lack Bluetooth, GPS, and internet connectivity.
