CoWIN, India’s tech backbone for the Covid-19 vaccination drive, may soon go global as more than 12 countries have stepped in to the final stages of discussions to borrow the technology, News18 has learnt.
A South American country is among 12 nations where the Indian government has sent the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) awaiting the acceptance from their side. South America consists of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Majority of the other countries, which have shown interest, are from Africa and central Asia. The platform has proven to be successful in India where it has also handled 2.5 crore vaccinations in a day, with a load of over 800 vaccinations per second.
“The progress of the initiative as well as the talks are monitored by the Ministry of External Affairs. I am told that so far 12 countries have agreed to sign the MoUs,” Dr RS Sharma, chief executive officer at National Health Authority told News18.com.
Sharma, who is known for his stints dealing with information technology-related programmes, the most important being the creation of Aadhaar as the director general and mission director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), is credited for making CoWIN as well.
“We have signed an MoU with a country in South America and have sent the document for their acceptance. Once it will be done, we will make an announcement,” he said without divulging the name of the country.
The Modi government will be sharing CoWIN with other countries as a product “licensed by the central government”, which will be available to all “interested countries for free, until perpetuity”.
The only condition would be that the software should not be allowed to be used or repackaged as a platform for sale.
To demonstrate the capabilities of the software, the government had earlier held a virtual global conclave for health and technology experts from across the globe, on July 5.
Despite several questions over the capability of the platform to handle the load of humongous vaccination drive, CoWIN fared successfully.
According to the data shared by Sharma, who is also the chairperson of the Empowered Committee for the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine, CoWIN on an average handled more than 100 vaccinations per second.
“On September 17, when India posted record vaccination in a day by jabbing over 2.5 crore people, CoWIN handled a load of more than 800 vaccinations per second. In an hour, the tech handled more than 30 lakh vaccinations.”
He further said people had earlier shown doubt over the technology following the “initial glitches”. “They thought that it may not be able to take the load but CoWIN has proven to be a very strong platform assisting India’s vaccination drive in a seamless manner.”
Every time when India achieved more than 1 crore jabs in a day, the tech platform handled more than 400 vaccinations per second, he added.
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