Info-tech

Aarogya Setu app is going open source

Our Burea New Delhi | Updated on May 26, 2020 Published on May 26, 2020

In line with India’s policy on Open Source Software, the source code of Aarogya Setu has now been made open source.

The source code for the Android version of the application is available for review and collaboration, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said on Tuesday.

The iOS version of the application will be released as open source within the next two weeks and the server code will be released subsequently, it said adding that almost 98 per cenr of Aarogya Setu users are on Android platform right now.

"Opening the source code to the developer community signifies our continuing commitment to the principles of transparency and collaboration. Aarogya Setu’s development has been a remarkable example of collaboration between government, industry and academia and citizens," Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secrtary, MeitY, said.

The App possibly has the most reach and impact when compared to all other Covid-19 contact tracing and self-assessment tools combined globally, while pioneering new data driven epidemiological flattening of the curve through syndromic mapping, he said.

There are around 11.50 crore people using this app now, he said adding that it has helped identify about five-lakh Bluetooth contacts. Those who are identified as Bluetooth contacts of Covid19 positive cases or classified as needing assistance based on their self-assessment, are contacted by National Health Authority.

“So far, the platform has reached out to more than nine-lakh users and helped advise them for quarantine, caution or testing. Amongst those who were recommended for testing for Covid19, almost 24 per cent of them have been found positive,” a MeitY statement said.

The process of supporting the open source development will be managed by National Informatics Centre (NIC). All code suggestions will be processed through pull request reviews. Aarogya Setu’s source code has been licensed under Apache License Version 2.0, and is available on “As-Is” basis, it said.

While making the code Open Source, the government also seeks the developer community to help identify any vulnerabilities or code improvement in order to make Aarogya Setu more robust and secure.

Towards this objective, government has also launched a Bug Bounty Programme with a goal to partner with security researchers and developer community to test the security effectiveness of Aarogya Setu and also to enhance its security and build user’s trust.

The government has also fixed some prizes amounting up to ₹1 lakh for the winners under this Bug Bounty Programme.

Published on May 26, 2020

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