NITI Aayog’s Covid-19 tracking app, Aarogya Setu, which recently hit the 9 crore user milestone, might be reaching to more than 11 crore Indians soon, HT Digital has learnt. The government is planning to make this happen by developing a different version of Aarogya Setu specifically for Jio phone users, confirmed MyGov India’s CEO Abhishek Singh in a video call. This comes over and above the recent announcement by the Union Health Ministry of making Aarogya Setu available to feature phones via IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System).

In a video call interview with HT Digital, Singh confirmed that the government is already working on a version of Aarogya Setu for KaiOS, the operating system that runs on Reliance Jio phones.

 

“…we know that in India the number of smartphones is around 45 to 50 crores and there is a large number of people who use feature phones. And then there is again around 11 crore people who use Jio phones. So, for the Jio phones which use the KaiOS operating system, we are developing a version of Aarogya Setu which will work on KaiOS and the Jio phone so that around 11 crore more people will be covered with that version of the app,” said Singh in the video call.

He however, did not reveal at what stage has the app development reached and when the final version will be rolling out.

In case you don’t have a smartphone, you can still use the Aarogya Setu Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) toll-free number. You can give a missed call to ‘1921’ and they will get a call back requesting for inputs regarding their health. The inputs provided by the individual will add to the Aarogya Setu database and the details will be processed to send alerts to people on the action.