Aarogya Setu App clocks 50 million users in 13 days; DST integrates GIS for better tracing

India's very own COVID-19 contact tracing App - Aarogya Setu - has broken several App download records. Beating even Pokemon Go's download records the App has witnessed downloads from 50 million users in just 13 days of its launch.

With this, the Arogya Setu App became the world’s fastest-growing mobile App. Teams from IIT Madras say that all security and vulnerability aspects of the App were reviewed by the institute and a global tech-audit firm to ensure protecting personal information while the App collects user information.

The purpose of the app is to track the spread of COVID-19 by using the smartphone's GPS system and Bluetooth and provide information that will help in determining if the user is near a COVID-19 infected person or not.

Further to the App's capabilities, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has created an Integrated Geospatial Platform out of available geospatial datasets, standards-based services, and analytic tools to help decision making during the current COVID-19 outbreak and aid devising area-specific strategies to handle the socio-economic impact in the recovery phase.

The platform is initially expected to strengthen the public health delivery system of the State and Central Governments and subsequently provide the necessary geospatial information support to citizens and agencies dealing with the challenges related to health, socio-economic distress, and livelihood challenges.

The mobile application SAHYOG, as well as the web portal (https://indiamaps.gov.in/soiapp/) prepared & managed by the Survey of India (SoI), has been customized to collect COVID-19 specific geospatial datasets through community engagement to augment the response activities by Government of India to the pandemic. Information parameters required as per the Govt of India strategy and containment plan for large outbreaks have been incorporated in the SAHYOG application.

This mobile application will complement the Aarogya Setu App launched by the Government of India for Contact tracing, Public awareness, and Self-assessment objectives. State Spatial Data Infrastructure (SSDI) in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir have been providing collateral standards-based geospatial data services to the State and District Level Authorities in the respective States through State Geoportals for integration with related health data sets towards combating COVID-19 pandemic.

This integrated geospatial platform is expected to strengthen the Nation’s health emergency management due to the COVID-19 outbreak and support the socio-economic recovery process through the seamless provision of spatial data, information, and linkage between human, medical, technological, infrastructural and natural resources.

"Integration of demographic information with geospatial data is essential for decision making, governance, and development. In the context of COVID-19 spread, this effort will be a special digital enabler for the platforms such as Aarogya Setu,” said Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST.