Aarogya Setu app: Centre plans to partner with Airtel, Jio, Vodafone Idea to reach more people

New Delhi: The government will soon call nearly 900 million people to check if they have symptoms of the Covid-19 infection, as it steps up its contact tracing efforts through the Aarogya Setu app.

The Aarogya Setu app, developed by the government, will be expanded to all feature phone users, with the Centre planning to partner with telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea, who will enable calls to their subscribers, a top official told ET. There are around 550 million feature phone users in the country.

The voice calls, which will be in all Indian languages, will use an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) from a central helpline number – 1921.