AMN / NEW DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that the CoWin platform was being made open source and available to any and all countries. In line with India’s philosophy of considering the whole world as one family, the Prime Minister said CoWin is being prepared to be made open source. Mr Modi was addressing the CoWin Global Conclave as India presented the indigenously developed platform to the world at the virtual global meet of representatives from 142 countries.
The Global Conclave was jointly organized by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and National Health Authority with an objective to extend the Co-WIN platform as a digital public good to the world. Underlining India’s commitment for sharing experiences, expertise and resources with the global community, the Prime Minister also expressed India’s eagerness to learn from global practices.
Emphasizing the importance of technology in the fight against pandemic, Mr Modi said that software is one area in which there are no resource constraints. That is why India made its COVID tracking and tracing App open source as soon as it was technically feasible. He pointed out that with nearly 200 million users, the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app is a readily available package for developers. Having been used in India, the Prime Minister told the global audience that they can be sure that it has been tested in the real world for speed and scale.
The Prime Minister said that given the importance of vaccination, India decided to adopt a completely digital approach while planning its vaccination strategy. This helps people in proving that they have been vaccinated, expediting the normalcy in the post pandemic globalized world. Digital approach also helps in tracking the usage of vaccination and minimizes the wastage.
Mr Modi stressed that today’s conclave is the first step to introduce this platform to the global audience. The Prime Minister informed that through CoWin, India has administered 350 million doses of COVID vaccines, including nine million people in one day, few days ago. The Prime Minister also highlighted the customizability to the software as per the local requirements of the interested countries. He concluded with the hope that guided by the approach of ‘One Earth, One Health’, humanity will certainly overcome this pandemic.