COVID-19 contact tracing apps are frequently voluntary in those countries that have rolled them out so far, but India’s is effectively mandatory. The country’s home ministry will require that all workers, public or private, use its Aarogya Setu app starting May 4th. Company and government leaders will be responsible for enforcing adoption, officials said, and there will be “punishment” if there’s negligence.
The app has already been downloaded 80 million times, and the aim is to not only reach every smartphone user in the country (about 350 million) but reach basic phone users through an interactive voice system.