India's Covid-19 Response
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In 2020, India Dealt with the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic With
PREFACE n 2020, India dealt with the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic with collective measures, Iscientific approach, and awareness. Undoubtedly the second wave of the pandemic is testing our patience and the extent to which we can all tolerate its fangs. The impact of the second wave has seen shortage of medical oxygen across the nation. But, the intelligent use of technology and well-planned resource allocation to tackle the new wave of the pandemic has been dealt with at a war-footing. The current edition, COVID 2021: Nation’s S&T Efforts Against COVID-19, has been compiled to inform our readers and strengthen the usefulness of any published information. This edition contains compilation and coverage of information related to the capacity enhancement of medical oxygen, start-up spotlights, research contributions, and so on. To bridge the gap among scientific contributions, leadership and administrative efforts, and the perspective of the general public, Vigyan Prasar is continuously reaching out to its audiences in the shape of a regular e-newsletter, taking its mandate of science communication, popularisation and extension to the next level. Our effort is firmly based on the fact that “Science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom”. The steady increase in the number of recoveries and the significant and continuous decrease in positivity rate provide us the much-needed assurance that this may be the outcome of improving the health infrastructure and making health the cornerstone at the policy level. We wish an engaging reading to our audiences across all strata of the society and look forward to suggestions and feedback at [email protected]. -
Lok Sabha Secretariat (LARRDIS) New Delhi
Lok Sabha Secretariat (LARRDIS) New Delhi BACKGROUND NOTE on “Status of COVID - 19 Vaccine production in India” (For the use of the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers) October 2020 ____________________________________________________________________________ The brief note is intended to serve only as a background aid to the Standing Committee on Chemical and Fertilisers. It is for restricted circulation and not for publication in any form. [Prepared by the Educational & Scientific Affairs Wing of the R&I Division. Officers associated with the preparation - Babulal Naik, Additional Director;Ms. Namita Kumari, RO; supervised by Shri Pradosh Panda, Director. Feedback is welcome and may be sent to [email protected]] Status of COVID - 19 vaccine production in India LARRDIS October 2020 Introduction India has the world's second largest coronavirus cases after the United States. However, after 8 months since the pandemic hit the country, the rising per day COVID cases curve has started to decline, especially at a time when a possible launch of coronavirus vaccine is being hoped by many by early 2021. COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. The COVID-19 is the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Since December 2019, cases have been identified in a growing number of countries. The Indian government and private firms have stepped up efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of COVID-19 which has claimed over 118,567 lives till 25th October 2020 in the country1. Source : Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dated 27 th Oct 2020 The whole world is waiting eagerly for an effective vaccine to fight the coronavirus pandemic. -
Overview of Aarogya Setu Application Shweta Devidas Kedare1
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 07 Issue: 06 | June 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 Overview of Aarogya Setu Application Shweta Devidas Kedare1 1Shweta Devidas Kedare, Department of Master of Computer Application, ASM IMCOST, Maharashtra, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - The app - Aarogya Setu, which means "bridge to health" in Sanskrit -It is an Indian app which was launched on April 2nd 2020, by Indian government. It is designed as a Coronavirus, or COVID-19 contact tracing app that uses the Bluetooth and location technology in phones to note when you are near another user who also uses the Aarogya Setu app. In case someone you have come in close proximity to is confirmed infected, you are alerted. The app alerts are produced by instructions on how to self-isolate and what to do in case you develop symptoms. Basically this app gives basic information about Covid-19, including hygiene and social distancing protocols. It also has details of how one could donate to the prime minister’s coronavirus-specific relief fund, PM-Cares. India has made it mandatory for government and private sector employees to download it But users and experts in India and around the world say the app raises huge data security concerns. KeyWords: security, data, private, information, COVID-19, technology, location, bluetooth, proximity, etc. 1. INTRODUCTION Since the risk of COVID-19 started increasing in India so, The government of India decided to launch the application, name Aarogya Setu, which was intended to monitor the ratio of COVID-19 patients in India .This app is an updated version of an earlier app called Corona Kavach (now discontinued) which was released earlier by the Government of India. -
A Review of India's Contact-Tracing App, Aarogya Setu
Doc Title A Review of India’s Contact-Tracing App, Aarogya Setu A - Front Page two line title ARTICLE A Review of India’s Contact-tracing App, Aarogya Setu The Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) agency launched Aarogya Setu, a contact-tracing mobile application. Aarogya Setu has been created by the National Informatic Centre (NIC) in response to the COVID-19 crisis, as a way to collect and understand public health-related data.1 The application uses mobile phones to perform a cross reference of individuals’ data with the database held by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), “On various online discussion which was specially created as part of ongoing COVID-19 testing infrastructure. forums, there is significant The purpose of Aarogya Setu is to notify users whether they have been exposed interest in the workings of this to COVID-19, by checking their proximity to known patients. In the event of a government- managed app match, the application will warn other users in the area that an infected person and its use of personal and is in their proximity. According to the press release dated May 26, 2020 available sensitive user data..”123 on mygov.in website, roughly 114 million users have adopted the app.2 Aarogya Setu also collects some sensitive personal information including gender and recent travel information. This has raised privacy and security questions. This whitepaper evaluates the functionality and data privacy aspects of the application. About Aarogya Setu Aarogya Setu app is a self-assessment disease monitoring app launched by the Indian government. -
Covid-19 Tracing Contacts Apps: Technical and Privacy Issues
Int. J. Advance Soft Compu. Appl, Vol. 12, No. 3, November 2020 ISSN 2074-8523; Copyright © ICSRS Publication, 2020 www.i-csrs.org Covid-19 Tracing Contacts Apps: Technical and Privacy Issues Salaheddin J. Juneidi Computer Engineering Department, Palestine Technical University Khadoorei1, Hebron, West Bank Palestine. e-mail: [email protected] Received 20 July 2020; Accepted 5 October 2020 Abstract Since the start of the year 2020 the world is facing an outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, technical specialists all over the universe have been scrambling to develop services, apps, and system’s protocols for contactors tracing, with the objective to identify and to notify everyone that gets close with an individual carrier. Some of these apps are lightweight and temporary, while others are diffuse and aggressive. Some of tracing services are developed locally by small interested programmers, while others are large-scale international operations. To date, we have recognized more than 25 large automated contact tracing efforts around the globe, included with details about what they were, how they worked, and the procedures and conditions that were put in place around them. This paper will deal with general data of the most prominent applications in terms of technical approaches used in the world and compare them with regard to the efficiency of tracking covid-19 and compare them with concerning of the people’s privacy who use these apps. Keywords: Covid-19, GPS location, Blue trace, Google/Apple, DP-3T, Apps, Privacy. 1. Introduction Many applications, services and systems have been proposed and launched [1] with an aim to track and identify infected people with objective to reduce or even to prevent physical contact with other people, some of these tracking 1 Special thanks to Palestine Technical University -Khadoorei for continuous support of research efforts Salaheddin J. -
White Paper on the Management of COVID-19 by the Government of India
White Paper on the Management of COVID-19 by the Government of India JUNE 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary…………………………………………... (i) 2. The Need for a White Paper on the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic………………………………….. 1 3. Early Inaction Against COVID-19………………………….. 5 4. Policy Response to the First Wave………………………… 10 5. Hubris and Political Avarice………………………………… 18 6. Ignoring the Signs and the Science………………………... 27 7. Unforgivable Negligence…………………………..…………. 41 8. Vaccine Mismanagement..……………………………...…… 51 9. Wider Impact of Policy Failures…………………………….. 82 10. The Way Ahead……………………………………………….. 89 11. Annexure 1. Indian National Congress: Compendium of Statements, Letters and Resolutions on COVID-19 (March 2020 - June 2021)…………………………………… A1 Executive Summary The mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic has been independent India’s gravest governance failure. The Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not take adequate measures to prevent and contain the pandemic. Therefore, there is a Need for a White Paper (Chapter-1) that examines the government’s acts of omission and commission, its impact on India and suggests constructive measures to improve policy responses to the current and future waves of the pandemic. The Modi government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis began with its Early Inaction in January 2020 (detailed in Chapter-2). The government ignored early warnings from experts and political leaders from the Opposition. It failed to learn from the lessons and response models of other countries which had been hit by the pandemic. It did not scale up nationwide the lessons from Kerala’s experience in successfully suppressing a virus outbreak (the Nipah virus). -
Extend the Lockdown Till May 31, 2020
Press Information Bureau Government of India ***** Extension of Lockdown up to May 31, 2020 States to decide various Zones and Activities to be allowed in these Zones; Certain activities to remain prohibited throughout the Country National Directives for COVID-19 Management continue to be in force throughout the Country Night Curfew to continue to remain in force New Delhi, May 17, 2020 Lockdown measures in place since March 24, 2020 have helped considerably in containing the spread of COVID-19. It has therefore been decided to further extend the lockdown till May 31, 2020. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI) issued an order, today, under the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005, in this regard. The salient features of the new guidelines are as follows: States to decide various Zones Under the new guidelines, States and Union Territories (UTs) will now delineate Red, Green and Orange zones taking into consideration the parameters shared by the Health Ministry. The zones can be a district, or a municipal corporation/ municipality or even smaller administrative units such as sub-divisions, etc, as decided by States and UTs. Within the red and orange zones, containment and buffer zones will be demarcated by the local authorities, after taking into consideration the Health Ministry guidelines. Within the containment zones, only essential activities shall be allowed. Strict perimeter control shall be maintained, and no movement of persons would be allowed, except for medical emergencies and for maintaining supply of essential goods and services. Buffer zones are areas adjoining each containment zone, where new cases are more likely to appear. -
Privacy Framework for Aarogya Setu
Privacy Framework FOR the Aarogya Setu App Working Paper | Version 1.0 Privacy Framework for the Aarogya Setu App “Life is like the harp string, if it is strung too tight it won’t play, if it is too loose it hangs, the tension that produces the beautiful sound lies in the middle.” - Gautam Buddha Authors Pranav Bhaskar Tiwari1, Ayush Tripathi2, Harsh Bajpai3, Karthik Venkatesh4, Arya Tripathy5 & Kazim Rizvi6. 1 Policy Research Associate, The Dialogue 2 Policy Research Associate, The Dialogue 3 Research Scholar, Durham University 4 Strategic Engagement and Research Fellow, The Dialogue 5 Principal Associate, Priti Suri & Associates 6 Founding Director, The Dialogue © The Dialogue | 6.5.2020 1 Working Paper | Version 1.0 Index Executive Summary 3 Legal Challenges and Way Forward 3 Privacy Challenges and Way Forward 4 Recommendations 5 1. Background 6 1.1 COVID-19 Pandemic - A Socio-Economic Challenge 8 1.2 Technology as a resource to combat the outbreak 9 1.3 Citizen’s Participation Must - A Fundamental Duty to protect our Communities 10 1.4 Aarogya Setu 11 1.5 Right to Health and Right to Privacy to be harmonised 11 1.6 Proportionality at the heart of Reasonable Restrictions 12 2. Privacy Central to Mass Deployment of the App 14 2.1 Citizen Trust is Critical 14 2.2 Immediate Solution Vs. Preventing Future Harm? 16 2.3 Community Rights Vs. Individual Rights 17 3. The Privacy Framework 19 3.1 Legality 26 3.2 Transparency and Verifiability 20 3.3 Voluntariness 26 3.4 Data Minimisation 26 3.5 Anonymisation 26 3.6 Storage of Data 26 3.7 Grievance Redressal Mechanism & Accountability 26 3.8 Sunset Clause 27 3.9 Access to Data 28 3.10 Data Sharing 29 3.11 Integration of Data Sets 30 3.12 Scope/Function Creep 31 3.13 Auditing 31 3.14 Public Confidence 32 © The Dialogue | 6.5.2020 2 Working Paper | Version 1.0 Executive Summary Technology is one of the tools in the fight against the pandemic and Governments around the world have been deploying technological solutions to tackle the threat posed by COVID-19. -
Management of COVID-19 a Handbook for Family Physicians
Management of COVID-19 A Handbook for Family Physicians Dr. Alok Sharma, MS, Mch Dr. Hemangi Sane, MD, (Internal Medicine) Dr. Nandini Gokulchandran, MD Dr. Balaji Tuppekar, MD (Pulmonary Medicine) Dr. Prakash Gote, DA Ms. Pooja Kulkarni, M.Sc. Scientic and Editorial Co-ordinator Dr. Apeksha Kalvit, B.P.T., M.P.T. (Neuro-Paediatric) Physiotherapist NeuroGen DCH & KLS Wellness Institute Publication Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. www.neurogenbsi.com Management of COVID-19 1 Management of COVID-19 A Handbook for Family Physicians © 2021 by NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means, including photocopying, or utilized by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the copyright owner, except for the brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This book is basically a compilation of information / literature on the available on the topic, from various sources (which have been acknowledged duly). However, this is by no means an exhaustive resource, since the eld is evolving at a very rapid pace. Every effort is made to ensure accuracy of material, but the publisher, printer and author will not be held responsible for any inadvertent error(s). Published by NeuroGen DCH, Navi Mumbai, India Cover Page by John Julius Printed by Surekha Press, A-20, Shalimar Industrial Estate, Matunga Labour Camp, Mumbai 400 019. Tel.: 2409 3877, 2404 3877 2 Management of COVID-19 Management of COVID-19 3 CONTENTS Section (A) - About Covid 1. Introduction Chapter for Book Management of COVID for family physicians................................................................................................ -
DGN Paper 12 Draft 2.Cdr
November 2020 Working Paper 12 “I took Allah's name and stepped out”: Bodies, Data and Embodied Experiences of Surveillance and Control during COVID-19 in India Radhika Radhakrishnan Data Governance Network The Data Governance Network is developing a multi-disciplinary community of researchers tackling India's next policy frontiers: data-enabled policymaking and the digital economy. At DGN, we work to cultivate and communicate research stemming from diverse viewpoints on market regulation, information privacy and digital rights. Our hope is to generate balanced and networked perspectives on data governance — thereby helping governments make smart policy choices which advance the empowerment and protection of individuals in today's data-rich environment. About Us The Internet Democracy Project works towards realising feminist visions of the digital in society, by exploring and addressing power imbalances in the areas of norms, governance and infrastructure in India and beyond Disclaimer and Terms of Use The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the organization. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Design Cactus Communications Suggested Citation: Radhakrishnan, R. (2020). “I took Allah's name and stepped out”: Bodies, Data and Embodied Experiences of Surveillance and Control during COVID-19 in India. Data Governance Network Working Paper 12. Supported by a grant from Omidyar Network Abstract This paper presents a study of COVID-19 in India to illustrate how surveillance is increasing control over bodies of individuals, and how the dominant framework of data as a resource is facilitating this control. -
Applicability of Mobile Contact Tracing in Fighting Pandemic (COVID-19): Issues, Challenges and Solutions
Applicability of Mobile Contact Tracing in Fighting Pandemic (COVID-19): Issues, Challenges and Solutions Aaqib Bashir Dara, Auqib Hamid Loneb,∗, Saniya Zahoorb, Afshan Amin Khanb, Roohie Naazb aIndependent Researcher, Jammu and Kashmir,India,190015 bDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India,190006 Abstract Contact Tracing is considered as the first and the most effective step towards containing an outbreak, as resources for mass testing and large quantity of vaccines are highly un- likely available for immediate utilization. Effective contact tracing can allow societies to reopen from lock-down even before availability of vaccines. The objective of mobile contact tracing is to speed up the manual interview based contact tracing process for containing an outbreak efficiently and quickly. In this article, we throw light on some of the issues and challenges pertaining to the adoption of mobile contact tracing solu- tions for fighting COVID-19. In essence, we proposed an Evaluation framework for mobile contact tracing solutions to determine their usability, feasibility, scalability and effectiveness. We evaluate some of the already proposed contact tracing solutions in light of our proposed framework. Furthermore, we present possible attacks that can be launched against contact tracing solutions along with their necessary countermeasures to thwart any possibility of such attacks. Keywords: COVID-19, Contact Tracing, Security, Privacy, Scalability. 1. Introduction Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is an atypical pneumonia that is char- acterized by a high rate of transmission, which began in Guangdong Province, China, in November 2002 [1]. One of the largest SARS outbreaks to date began in Singapore in mid-March 2003 [1] and was traced to a traveler returning from Hong Kong.