Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul><li>Three departments of the Indian government have been issued a show-cause notice to explain the development of India’s contact tracing app — <keyword id="8995296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="aarogya-setu">Aarogya Setu</keyword>. </li><li>The <keyword id="6373306" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-informatics-centre">National Informatics Centre</keyword> (NIC), the <keyword id="3428254" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ministry-of-electronics-and-information-technology">Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology</keyword> (MeitY), and the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) have been asked to appear before the bench on November 24 by the Central Information Commission (CIC).</li><li>The NIC, in particular, as the app’s developer needs to explain how Aarogya Setu was created. </li></ul> India’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu, which boasts of over 162 million downloads, is caught in the crosshairs of controversy again — this time over its origin story. A petition was filed by Saurav Das with the Central Information Commission (CIC) when three bodies within the government refused to answer Right to Information (RTI) requests asking about the creation of Aarogya Setu. “It is surprising that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) doesn’t have any information about Aarogya Setu since it is the app’s developer,” said the petition. The CIC, India’s transparency watchdog, has now served a show-cause notice to the three bodies — NIC, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) — to explain their role in the development of Aarogya Setu within the next two months. NIC, in particular, needs to explain how the <keyword id="8995298" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="aarogya-setu-app">Aarogya Setu app</keyword> was created. "None of the CPIOs were able to explain anything regarding who created the App, where are the files — and the same is extremely preposterous", said the CIC interim order. Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) of the departments have also been asked to appear before the bench on November 24 to explain why they should not be penalised under Section 20 of the RTI Act for obstruction of information. A copy of any and all supporting documents that may be relevant to the hearing should be submitted five days prior to the hearing. The government has issued a clarification stating, "Aarogya Setu was developed in a transparent manner in collaboration with industry and academia." <div type="twitter" handle="SetuAarogya" handlename="Aarogya Setu" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1246377580594266113/wMJonS1Z_normal.jpg" favoritecount="149" retweetcount="37" status="Clarification issued on Aarogya Setu App. Aarogya Setu App is a product of Government of India built in collaborati… https://t.co/8YUSBVAnSd" createdat="1603891530000" id="1321442970424410112"></div> Other troubling signs around Aarogya Setu French security researcher Robert Baptiste, who goes by Elliot Alderson on Twitter, first claimed that the Aarogya Setu app showed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/these-are-the-privacy-issues-in-aarogya-setu-indias-covid-19-tracker-app-alleged-by-french-hacker-elliot-alderson/articleshow/75592800.cms">security flaws</a> back in May. At the time, the government thanked him for his concern but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/aarogya-setu-claims-its-app-is-secure-denies-privacy-breach/articleshow/75569270.cms">dismissed the accusations</a>. They asserted that tracking the location of users is a documented feature of the app, not a flaw. As the reins around the app tightened, former Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna called the government’s move to make Aarogya Setu <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/covid-19-smartphone-without-aarogya-setu-app-will-draw-punishment-for-user-in-gautam-buddh-nagar/articleshow/75540878.cms">mandatory</a> for all citizens ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/experts-explain-the-legal-and-moral-pitfalls-in-aarogya-setu-app-despite-the-governments-insistence-that-a-protocol-has-been-put-in-place/articleshow/75690239.cms">utterly illegal</a>.’ Another analysis by the renowned <a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/270520/after-mit-tech-review-downgrades-aarogya-setu-rating-source-code-for.html">MIT Technology Review</a> gave Aargoya Setu only 2 out of 5 stars in its analysis of 25 contact tracing apps around the world. It highlighted that India is the only democracy that is making such an app mandatory. The rating was later <a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/270520/after-mit-tech-review-downgrades-aarogya-setu-rating-source-code-for.html">further chopped</a> to just one star when the researchers discovered that the app was collecting more information than it needed to function. It was only after the review that MietY <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/amid-privacy-concerns-centre-makes-aarogya-setu-app-open-source/articleshow/76011848.cms">released Aarogya Setu’s source code</a> on GitHub and initiated a ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/hacking-aarogya-setu-can-win-you-1-lakh-to-3-lakh-through-the-indian-governments-bug-bounty-programme/articleshow/76030048.cms">bug bounty program</a>’ for anyone who could find an issue with the app. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/building-blocks-of-life-discovered-in-titans-atmosphere-nasa-discovers-a-weird-molecule-on-saturns-largest-moon/articleshow/78909286.cms">Building blocks of life discovered in Titan’s atmosphere — NASA discovers a ‘weird’ molecule on Saturn’s largest moon</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/ajay-piramal-believes-that-if-banks-wont-lend-to-long-term-projects-india-will-need-to-revive-the-likes-of-idbi-and-ifci/articleshow/78906135.cms">EXCLUSIVE: Ajay Piramal believes that if banks won't lend to long-term projects, India will need to revive the likes of IDBI and IFCI</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/apophis-the-god-of-chaos-asteroid-is-speeding-up-increasing-the-likelihood-of-it-hitting-earth-in-2068/articleshow/78895818.cms">Apophis, the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid is speeding up — increasing the likelihood of it hitting Earth in 2068</a>

India's contact tracing app Aarogya Setu comes under the scanner again — three departments fail to explain their role in its development

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Police in Noida, <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>, a city outside of New Delhi, ordered all residents to download <keyword id="8995296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="aarogya-setu">Aarogya Setu</keyword>, a COVID-19 contact tracing app developed by the Indian government.</li><li>City residents found without the application face a fine of around $13 USD and up to six months in jail, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/india-coronavirus-aarogya-setu-noida-contact-tracing">BuzzFeed News</a> reported.</li><li>Police did not say what would happen if a person did not own a smartphone, which less than half of Indian citizens do.</li><li>There have been privacy concerns over the state-created application, which requires a user to give constant access to their location.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Police in a city outside of New Delhi, India, ordered residents to download a COVID-19 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-contact-tracing-works-to-stop-coronavirus-spread-2020-4">contact tracing</a> application to their smartphones or risk a fine or jail time for violating the city's lockdown order.According to a <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/india-coronavirus-aarogya-setu-noida-contact-tracing">BuzzFeed News</a> report, residents of Noida, India, who are found to have not downloaded the contact tracing app are subject to up to six months in jail and a fine of about $13 USD.Police told local media they will conduct random checks of residents to ensure they've downloaded the app, though as BuzzFeed <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">News</keyword> reported, it's not entirely clear what police would do should a person not own a smartphone capable of downloading the app, or be traveling without out their device.Approximately 400 million Indian citizens are projected to own a smartphone, according to an analysis by <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/467163/forecast-of-smartphone-users-in-india/">Statista</a> — that's a fraction of the country's <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/population/index.html">nearly 1.4 billion population</a>.The app, Aarogya Setu, was created by the Indian government and has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/covid-19-pm-modi-urges-people-to-download-arogya-setu-app/articleshow/75068393.cms">pushed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</a> Over 90 million people have downloaded the app in the country in less than one month, according to BuzzFeed News.The app allows users to record their travel history, symptoms, and also requires constant access to Bluetooth and the device's location data. Using these factors, the app offers users designations of green, yellow, or orange "pages" to illustrate a user's risk of having COVID-19.There have been at least 52,559 cases and 1,768 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> in India, according to data from <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">Johns Hopkins University</a>.According to the BuzzFeed report, there have been concerns over privacy due mostly do the state-created app's constant access to a user's location data. Some have even compared the city's mandate of the app to the existence of a police state. In addition to being mandated by the city of Noida, the application was mandated among all employees of the federal government, BuzzFeed reported.Pharmacies also reportedly denied services to people who did not have the application installed, BuzzFeed reported, and Zomato, the largest food and grocery delivery service in India, <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/tech/zomato-mandates-all-delivery-partners-to-use-aarogya-setu/story-aYe4FFRbPxlCnT0xkhgN0O.html">required all of its delivery partners to install the application</a> on their phones. It requested its customers to do the same."We are aware of the alleged privacy concerns that some of us have against using the app. But even if these concerns were well-founded, it is a small cost to pay for the sake of the collective long term," the April 22 announcement from the company read.According to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/05/aarogya-setu-app-security-privacy-concerns-india-response/">Tech Crunch</a>, the Indian government has dismissed privacy concerns of the app and argued the app's constant location tracking is part of intended features — not flaws. A similar contract-tracing effort <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-google-covid-19-contact-tracing-smartphone-screenshots-2020-5">in development by Google and Apple</a> notably does not request users' location data to operate.Cities in the US are trying to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-apply-contact-tracer-and-make-57000-with-benefits-2020-4">ramp up their contract tracing efforts</a>, which US experts have argued are essential in the path toward safely reopening shuttered businesses and minimizing the risk of a future COVID-19 outbreak.Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indian-city-ordered-residents-to-download-contact-tracing-app-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

A city in India is ordering all of its residents to download the government's controversial COVID-19 contact tracing app or face jail time

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.<ol><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-announces-first-members-oversight-board-instagram-2020-5?op=1&amp;r=US&amp;IR=Tamp;IR=T">Facebook has announced the first 20 members of its oversight board that will decide what controversial content is allowed on Facebook and Instagram</a>. The "supreme court"-style body will make rulings over what controversial content will be allowed on the social network.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-preparing-to-restart-operations-despite-stay-home-orders-report-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Tesla is reportedly preparing to restart operations at its California factory in possible violation of local shelter-in-place orders</a>. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become increasingly vocal in his opposition to coronavirus lockdowns, calling them "fascist" during a call with investors.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-vp-responds-engineer-tim-bray-quit-over-fired-whistleblowers-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">An Amazon VP hit back at former colleague Tim Bray, who quit in protest after the company fired workers who raised safety concerns</a>. Brad Porter, a vice president and engineer at Amazon, responded to Tim Bray's criticism, calling it "deeply offensive to the core." </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-cannot-expense-food-and-other-perks-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Google employees have been told they can't expense food and other perks while working from home, as they're made to forego the company's usual free meals</a>. Employees also won't be able to put their unused budgets towards any of these expenses, nor can they put the surplus cash towards a charity. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-tiktok-tinder-venmo-other-apps-down-some-users-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">An issue in Facebook's code broke a ton of popular apps on iOS including Spotify, TikTok, Venmo, and Tinder</a>. The issue was identified and resolved following the update to the social network's software developer kit. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cuomo-taps-ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-chair-reimagining-commission-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">New York Gov. Cuomo tapped former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to help invent a more tech-focused future for the state post-pandemic</a>. Cuomo announced during his daily briefing Wednesday that Schmidt would chair a 15-member group to help New York "use technology in the economy of tomorrow."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-schools-reverse-zoom-ban-online-learning-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">The NYC Department of Education is reversing its ban on Zoom after the company addresses its security and privacy concerns</a>. Zoom made several fixes to address the NYC Department of Education's concerns about privacy and security for students and teachers using the tool. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indian-city-ordered-residents-to-download-contact-tracing-app-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">A city in India is ordering all of its residents to download the government's controversial COVID-19 contact tracing app or face jail time</a>. Police in Noida, a city outside of New Delhi, ordered all residents to download Aarogya Setu, a COVID-19 contact tracing app developed by the Indian government.</li><li><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-07/virgin-media-o2-will-combine-to-create-u-k-telecom-heavyweight?srnd=technology-vp">Two of the UK's largest telecom companies Virgin Media and O2 have combined</a>. The deal between Liberty Global and Telefónica creates the UK's largest phone and internet operator with the new company valued at £31 billion ($38 billion), per Bloomberg.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/77-phone-masts-fire-coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">77 cell phone towers have been set on fire so far due to the continued spread of a weird coronavirus 5G conspiracy theory</a>. Philip Jansen, CEO of British telecoms company BT, also said that one engineer had been violently assaulted while out maintaining network infrastructure.</li></ol>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear <keyword id="9070519" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="10-things-in-tech">10 Things in Tech</keyword> each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.You can also <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/free">subscribe to this newsletter</a> here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-in-tech-you-need-to-know-today-may-7-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<ul><li>As TV viewership grows by 40% on the back of return of mythological shows, advertisers jump on the trend and buy ad spots for <keyword id="6373819" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ramayan">Ramayan</keyword> and <keyword id="6366669" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="mahabharat">Mahabharat</keyword>. </li><li>Classics gave a 43% push to overall <keyword id="874299" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindi-GEC">Hindi GEC</keyword>’s performance. </li></ul>As the mythological shows continue to drive TV veiwerhsip’s growth, <keyword id="2801660" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="BARC-India">BARC India</keyword> and <keyword id="6456080" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="nielsen">Nielsen</keyword>’s latest report reveals that advertisers are also jumping on the bandwagon. Ramayan and Mahabharat attracted more advertisers in the week starting from March 28 to 16 April. Ramayan continues to be advertisers’ favourite as it sees a 14X increase, followed by Mahabharat that saw a 12X increase in week 15. <div type="image" title="ramayan attracts advertisers" msid="75314453" hostid="261"></div> The report further revealed that the return of mythological shows have become the main source of entertainment among Hindi GEC’s. It contributed 43% to overall Hindi’s GEC viewership growth, garnered 109 million viewing minutes and was watched by 353 viewers. <div type="image" title="mythological shows" msid="75314465" hostid="261"></div> Week 15 recorded a 40% growth over the pre-COVID period, standing at 1.24 trillion minutes. Individuals watching TV for all 7 days in the week increased by 48%. <div type="image" title="growth in tv viewership; barc" msid="75314485" hostid="261"></div> Some of the Key Highlights of TV and Smartphone consumption during the fifth week of Lockdown are as follows: - Considerations: <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#ffff00;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"> </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;background-color:#ffff00;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">BARC </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;background-color:#ffff00;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Nielsen Smartphone Panel </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Coverage </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">All India (Urban + Rural) </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">All India (Urban 1 Lakh plus) </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">TG </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">ALL NCCS 2+ years </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"><ol><li>NCCS ABC 15-44 years </li><li>Android Smartphone Users </li></ol></td></tr><tr></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Time Period </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:middle;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">PRE COVID - 11th Jan 2020- 31st Jan 2020 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:middle;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">PRE COVID - 13th Jan 2020 - 2nd Feb 2020 </td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">COVID DISRUPTION Week 4 – 4thMarch 2020 to 10th April 2020 Week 5 – 11th April 2020 to 17th April 2020 </td></tr></tbody></table> <ol><li>'CORONA Virus' continues to be most searched among Top 100 Google searches. </li><li>1 in 5 smartphone consumers use the Aarogya Setu app now - an 80% + increase v/s the launch week. </li><li>TV consumption continues to show a growth of 40% over pre-COVID period now at 1.24 Trillion minutes - the increase led by both Reach and Average Time Spent. </li><li>The new normal of 3 hrs, 40 minutes+ a day on Smartphone continues - 10% increase over pre Covid times. </li><li>TV Viewership Growth led by News and Movies - the Movies growth coming more from the PAY platform. </li><li>News franchise on Smartphone continued to be nearly 50% of all smartphone audience, Views grow by 40%. </li><li>Hindi GEC in HSM at an all-time high with 8.5 BN impressions with Mythological shows leading the way. HSM Urban is all time high for 3rd week in row. </li><li>Strong double-digit growth seen across various segments of OTTs (movies, originals, etc.) while Audio streaming apps show a decline possibly on account of commuting going down. </li><li>FCT on TV recovers a bit after a huge fall last week - most advertisers using the COVID19 theme; Essentials category sees a growth across genres; while on Digital Video Advertising spends drop across most categories.</li></ol>

Ramayan and Mahabharat attracts more advertisers; sees a 14X and 12X increase in advertiser count respectively

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s daily <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> cases have plummeted since September.</li><li>The nation is now reporting just 8 daily cases per one million people, among the lowest per-capita rates in the world.</li><li>Experts say the decline is puzzling. The difficulty of recording rural cases, combined with strict public-health measures, may offer some explanation.</li></ul>At the start of the pandemic, few countries were more ripe for a major coronavirus outbreak than India.Not only is India the world's second most populous country, it's also one of the densest, with around <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST?locations=IN">1,200 people per square mile</a>. Cases there climbed steadily from April through September, reaching a peak of nearly 100,000 daily cases on September 16.Then something unexpected happened: India's daily cases plummeted from mid-September until February, with average weekly cases dropping by roughly a third each month. The nation is now reporting fewer than 11,300 daily cases, on average - around 8 per 1 million people, among the lowest per-capita rates in the world.India's health ministry has attributed this success to a few factors, including a robust testing and contact-tracing effort. But infectious-disease experts say the quick turnaround is puzzling.India only began administering coronavirus vaccines in mid-January, so it's probably too soon for vaccinations to affect transmission. Some public-health experts say India's strict mask mandates may have helped lower cases, but masks have been required there since April, so that don't fully explain why cases dwindled so dramatically in the fall."There are a lot of questions and lessons to be learned, and I think that we need to do a deeper dive into what they've done well," Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, told Insider.Kuppalli's previous research focused on barriers to medical care among women with HIV in southern India."I know from having worked and lived in India that they have a lot of challenges in terms of dealing with large populations that are in close quarters, infection control issues, hygiene issues, ventilation issues - all the things that we are concerned about in terms of how this disease spreads," she said.Kuppalli added that it's worth studying whether India's population may have unique genetic or demographic characteristics that make people less susceptible to symptomatic COVID-19 infection. It's also possible, she added, that coronavirus cases are simply hard to record in rural areas.<h2>Penalties for not wearing masks </h2><div type="image" title="india mask school" height="3100" width="4650" msid="80678829" hostid="261"></div>Widespread adherence to public-health measures may partly explain why India has gotten its outbreak under control. Several large cities and states there began requiring masks in public places in April, two months before the World Health Organization recommended face coverings for the general public.Since then, the nation's largest city, Mumbai, has levied fines against those who violate the rule. By October, Mumbai had <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/since-april-bmc-fined-14207-people-for-not-wearing-masks-6618446/">collected a total of more than $70,000 in fines</a> from more than 14,000 people who'd failed to wear masks in public. By early December, Delhi had also issued around 500,000 mask fines, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-was-consuming-india-until-nearly-everyone-started-wearing-masks-11609329603">The Wall Street Journal reported</a>. For the most part, Indians have been supportive of mask requirements: In an <a href="https://qz.com/india/1909711/indians-support-high-penalties-for-not-wearing-coronavirus-masks/">October survey</a> from social media platform LocalCircles (which included more than 15,000 responses across roughly 200 districts in India), nearly 90% of respondents said they were in favor of a mask mandate. About 40% said they would support increased penalties for those who didn't comply.The US, by contrast, has struggled to convince large segments of the public that masks are an effective tool. "The United States very much failed from a lack of national leadership, miscommunication, and a lack of community engagement. I think we can really boil it down to those three things," Kuppalli said, adding, "we still have people who don't believe the pandemic is real in this country."<h2>A focus on 'test, trace, isolate'</h2><div type="image" title="india contact tracing" height="3280" width="4928" msid="80678833" hostid="261"></div>Epidemiologists typically rely on a three-step strategy to contain a virus: test, trace, isolate.Though India's testing got off to a slow start, it has ramped up considerably since the summer. By August, the nation had <a href="https://www.who.int/india/news/feature-stories/detail/how-india-scaled-up-its-laboratory-testing-capacity-for-covid19">nearly 1,600 testing labs</a>, up from just 14 in February 2020. India is administering nearly 486,000 daily tests. Only two other countries, the UK and the US, are testing more.India's large population also worked to its advantage when it came to enlisting contact tracers.From March through April, tens of thousands of health workers <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/691">traced the contacts of more than 435,000 infected people</a> across two southern states, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The workers reached more than 3 million contacts, around 575,000 of whom had available COVID-19 test results.These efforts were made easier by a longstanding disease surveillance network that began monitoring <keyword id="8785701" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="COVID-19-cases">COVID-19 cases</keyword> in late January 2020.As of April, Indian residents could download the nation's contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, to find out if they had been been within 6 feet of an infected person. Indian residents are asked to download the app if isolating due to a positive COVID-19 test and report any symptoms to a local surveillance officer.<h2>Possible immunity to new pathogens</h2><div type="image" title="India covid" height="3626" width="5439" msid="80678837" hostid="261"></div>India has indeed seen fewer COVID-19 deaths per million than many developed nations. As of Wednesday, 113 out of every million people in India had died of COVID-19, compared to nearly 1,500 out of every million in the US and 1,755 per million in the UK.India is now recording fewer than one daily death per million people.Kuppalli said India's rapidly falling cases raises another important question: "Are there things about this particular population, this ethnicity, that puts them at decreased risk?" An <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7444648/">August study</a> suggested that populations with a higher exposure to diverse types of bacteria - predominantly due to poor sanitation - might see fewer COVID-19 deaths per million, perhaps because of an acquired or innate immunity to new pathogens. This line of thinking isn't new: A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1472979206000278">2006 study</a> found that developing countries may have a different "immunological experience" with tuberculosis than the US and Europe."Look at the average Indian: He or she has probably had malaria at some point in his life or typhoid or dengue," Sayli Udas-Mankikar, an urban policy expert at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai, recently <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/01/962821038/the-mystery-of-indias-plummeting-covid-19-cases">told NPR</a>. "You end up with basic immunity toward grave diseases."The idea remains a theory for now, however.<h2>Rural populations are harder to surveil </h2><div type="image" title="rural india coronavirus" height="3456" width="5184" msid="80678845" hostid="261"></div>The coronavirus spreads best in dense, crowded environments. That means countries like the US, where more than 80% of residents live in urban areas, face an uphill battle to contain the virus' spread.India, on the other hand, is less urbanized: Around 65% of Indian residents live in rural areas. Though the virus has undoubtedly reached India's rural population, the nation's cities have been particularly hard-hit. By May, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hpm.3047">nearly 80% of India's total COVID-19 cases</a> hailed from just 30 cities. A <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news">January survey</a> found that 56% out 28,000 people sampled in Delhi tested positive for coronavirus antibodies.But Kuppalli said health trends among India's rural population are difficult to track.For one thing, rural areas are larger and more spread out. Many Indians living in these communities also lack internet access, which prevents them from plugging into the nation's surveillance network.Kuppalli also noted that it's difficult for patients who are sick in rural places to get to large urban hospitals because of transportation or financial issues. A <a href="https://www.smilefoundationindia.org/Media/rural-healthcare.html">2018 report</a> found that only one state-run hospital is available for every 90,000 people in India's rural communities. That could mean that India simply isn't recording as many rural cases.That too, is just a possibility, though. For now, Kuppalli said, "it's great that they've had this turnaround.""It's an opportunity for us to study this population," she added. "There are lots of things to think about and try to understand."This article was originally published on February 3. It has been updated to reflect the latest data on India's coronavirus cases.

India's sudden drop in coronavirus cases has puzzled disease experts. Strict public-health measures and difficulty recording rural cases may have factored in.

You Searched For "aarogya setu origin" and got 5 results

India's contact tracing app Aarogya Setu comes under the scanner again — three departments fail to explain their role in its development

Prabhjote Gill

A city in India is ordering all of its residents to download the government's controversial COVID-19 contact tracing app or face jail time

Connor Perrett

10 things in tech you need to know today

Callum Burroughs

Ramayan and Mahabharat attracts more advertisers; sees a 14X and 12X increase in advertiser count respectively

BI India Partner

India's sudden drop in coronavirus cases has puzzled disease experts. Strict public-health measures and difficulty recording rural cases may have factored in.

Aria Bendix

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides