NIC releases Arogya Setu Android version source code to developers

India's COVID-19 contact tracing App, Aarogya Setu, which has attained tremendous popularity for helping augment the efforts of limiting the spread of the pandemic, has now opened up its source code to the developer community.

The App works on the principle of Bluetooth technology for contact tracing, mapping of likely hotspots, and dissemination of relevant information about COVID19.

The App has over 114 million users as on 26th May, which is more than any other Contact Tracing App in the world. The App is available in 12 languages and on Android, iOS, and KaiOS platforms.

National Informatics Centre (NIC), while announcing this development, has said that the source code for the Android version of the application is available for review and collaboration at https://github.com/nic-delhi/AarogyaSetu_Android.git.

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. Almost 98% of Aarogya Setu Users are on Android platform.

The statement released by NIC says, "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. It is also a product of the hard work of the talented young technological experts of our country who have worked day in and out to make this world class product. With the release of the source code in the public domain, we are looking to expanding collaboration and to leverage the expertise of top technical brains amongst the talented youth and citizens of our nation and to collectively build a robust and secure technology solution to help support the work of frontline health workers in fighting this pandemic together."

Releasing the source code of a rapidly evolving product that is being regularly used by more than 114 million users, is challenging. Developing and maintaining the source code is a huge responsibility, both for Team Aarogya Setu and the developer community. The repository now being shared is the actual production environment. All subsequent product updates will also be made available through this repository, indicates NIC.

The process of supporting the open source development will be managed by 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. Any reuse of the source code with changes to the code requires the developer to carry a notice of the change.

While making the code Open Source, the Government of India has also sought help from the developer community to help identify any vulnerabilities or code improvement in order to make Aarogya Setu more robust and secure.

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

The Government of India, by opening the product design and code, has also demonstrated its strong commitment to contributing to the global good. India is keen to share learnings from our approach to technology to fight COVID-19 and make the benefits of the solution available to the rest of the world and any government can use it for fighting the pandemic. Together we can, and we continue supporting the doctors and frontline health work in helping fight this pandemic.

In a detailed explanation of the achievements of the App, NIC said that the App offers a comprehensive suite of interventions against COVID-19 and has registered several firsts in the eight weeks since its launch. 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.

Of the more than 114 million registered users, two-thirds have taken the self-assessment test to evaluate their risk of exposure to COVID-19. The App has helped identify about 500,000 Bluetooth contacts. Those who are identified as Bluetooth contacts of COVID-19 positive cases or are classified as needing assistance based on their self-assessment are contacted by National Health Authority, said NIC.

So far, the platform has reached out to more than 900,000 users and helped advise them for Quarantine, caution or testing. Amongst those who were recommended for testing for COVID-19, it has been found that almost 24% of them have been found COVID-19 positive. Compare this to the overall COVID-19 positive rate of around 4.65% - 145380 COVID-19 positive from a total of 3126119 tests done as on 26th May 2020.

Analytics of Bluetooth contacts and location data has also helped identify potential hotspots with a higher probability of COVID cases allowing State Governments and District Administration and Health authorities to take necessary steps for containment of the pandemic, early, which is critical for controlling the spread of the pandemic.

This approach of syndromic mapping, a novel approach of combining principles of path tracing and movement patterns of COVID-19 positive people, population-level epidemiology modeling and the prevalence of COVID-19 in different regions of the country, the Aarogya Setu team has identified more than 3,500 hotspots across the country at sub-post office level.

"The Aarogya Setu data fused with historic data has shown enormous potential in predicting emerging hotspots at sub post office level and today around 1264 emerging hotspots have been identified across India that might otherwise have been missed. Several of these predicted hotspots have been subsequently verified as actual hotspots in the next 17 to 25 days. As an example, a district with 3 cases on a particular date when the Aarogya Setu engine predicted it as a hotspot registered 82 cases in the next 15 days. The precision achieved by this unique combination of Bluetooth-based contact tracing and identification of hotspots may hold the key to effectively breaking the chain of infection, flattening the curve, and saving lives," reads the press statement released by PIB.