PM Modi to address CoWIN Global Conclave on July 5 as nations show keenness to adopt tech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the CoWIN Global Conclave on July 4 as India is prepared to render CoWIN as a digital public good to the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Health Authority (NHA) informed. This update comes after more than 50 countries had shown interest in having a CoWIN-similar apparatus to execute their vaccination drive. 

Apparently, PM Modi has directed officials to create an open-source version of the platform and give it free of cost to any country that was keen; this will be addressed at the CoWIN Global Conclave.

The digitalisation of COVID vaccine registration via CoWIN application outnumbered other platforms providing COVID-19 vaccination slots and was acclaimed by governments across the world. The homegrown app recorded more than 300 million registrations in a span of 5 months. 

"We're having a CoWIN Global Conclave on July 5 where we're telling the world as to how this system works, how this system has been developed & how we'll be ready to share an open-source version with any country. There is huge interest starting from Canada, Mexico and others," CoWin Chief, Dr RS Sharma had said.

Dr. Sharma informed about the application's popularity and demand, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla also spoke at UNSC about India's plan to share the homegrown digital COVID vaccine registration portal with partner countries. The application was constituted as a part of the COVID-19 vaccination drive itself.

It can be customized and scaled up for health interventions across the globe, said Harsh Vardhan Shringla. He described CoWIN app as "scalable, inclusive and open technological". 

Earlier this month, the Centre had also informed that it would hold a CoWIN Global Conclave for other interested countries. 

On June 26, the Central government even allowed the users to link their COVID-19 vaccination certificate to passports on the CoWIN portal. This decision came as a big relief to all the people who intend to travel abroad. Official handle Aarogya Setu App tweeted, giving all the details on how to link the passport details to the vaccine certificate. To avoid errors, the Aarogya Setu app allows a one-time name change option to ensure that the name on the vaccine certificate and the passport is the same.