It was developed through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, the government said

The Aarogya Setu App was developed in a transparent manner through a collaboration between Indian industry, academia, and government, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

There should be no doubt with regard to the AarogyaSetu App and its role in helping contain the COVID19 Pandemic in India, it said.

The ministry was reacting to media reports about orders passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) regarding a Right To Information (RTI) query. The query had sought details about the development of AarogyaSetu, the COVID-19 contact tracing app developed by India.

The ministry, which said it was taking steps to comply with the CIC orders, released a detailed statement providing information about how the Aarogya Setu App was developed and its succcess in checking the pandemic's spread.

The app was launched by the Government of India in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode to bring the people together in the country's fight against COVID19, it said.

"The AarogyaSetu App was developed in a record time of around 21 days, to respond to the exigencies of the Pandemic with Lockdown restrictions only for the objective of building a Made in India Contact Tracing App with the best of Indian minds from Industry, Academia and Government, working round the clock to build a robust, scalable and secure App," the statement said.

Since April 2, regular press releases and updates have been issued on AarogyaSetu App including making the source code available in open domain on May 26. The names of all those associated with the development of the App and management of the App ecosystem at various stages was shared when the code was released in Open/Public Domain and the same was shared widely in media also, the ministry pointed out.

The ministry said that it has been clearly mentioned that the AarogyaSetu App has been "developed by NIC in collaboration with volunteers from Industry and Academia" in a transparent manner. In this context, it added that all details and documents including Privacy Policy and AarogyaSetu Data Access & Knowledge Sharing Protocols issued on May 11 have been uploaded on the AarogyaSetu Portal – aarogyasetu.gov.in.

The portal has all details about the App including those regarding How the App works, COVID updates and Why one should use AarogyaSetu. Regular updates about AarogyaSetu App have been shared on all Social media platforms as also Government portals. Several TV shows and media briefings also have shared complete details about the App, its development and how it is assisting the fight against COVID19.

The App, developed in a collaborative effort of the government and the private sector, has been downloaded by more than 16.23 crore (162.3 million) users. It had "greatly augmented the efforts of front line health workers in the fight against COVID19," the statement pointed out.

According to the ministry, the app has helped identify Bluetooth contacts of COVID 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 extent of exposure to COVID19 positive user.

"Amongst those who have been advised testing, almost 25% have tested positive. This is much higher compared to the overall positivity rate of 7-8%. Thus, the efficiency of testing has gone up with AarogyaSetu," the statement pointed out.

In addition, AarogyaSetu ITIHAS interface with location data has helped identify emerging hotspots where proactive steps have been taken.

Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has appreciated the role of AarogyaSetu in containing the pandemic in India.