Aarogya Setu developed by ‘best of minds’ from government, private, academia; NIC part of it, Centre clarifies

The Aarogya Setu app was developed by the government in collaboration with private enterprises, the Centre has clarified after the Chief Information Commission sought explanation from the National Informatics Centre for claiming that it did not have any data regarding who made the contact-tracing app.

In a two-page clarification tweeted from the official handle of the application, the Centre said Aarogya Setu has been downloaded by more than 16.23 crore users and it has been strengthening India’s fight against Covid-19.

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“It has helped identify bluetooth contacts of Covid-19 positive users and issued alerts for helping people to stay safe. These bluetooth contacts have been advised for caution, quarantine or testing depending on the ectent of the exposure to Covid-19 positive user,” it said.

About 25 per cent of those who have been alerted tested positive, the clarification said. “This is much higher compared to the overall positivity rate of 7 to 8 per cent. Thus the efficiency of testing has gone up with Aarogya Setu,” it added.

Dousing the controversy that was fuelled after the National Informatics Centre denied having any knowledge about the app, the Centre said there should be no doubt over this app.

Giving details of how the app was developed, the Centre said the app was developed in a record time of around 21 days. It was a ‘Make in India’ effort for which the best of Indian minds from industry, academia and government worked round the clock. NIC has developed the app in collaboration with volunteers from industry and academia, it said.

The Centre also mentioned how the World Health Organization praised the app for helping the state health departments identify Covid-19 clusters. “Aarogya Setu app from India has been downloaded by 150 million users and helped city public health departments to identify areas where clusters could be anticipated and expand testing in a targeted way,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus had earlier said.