The Centre’s mobile app, Aarogya Setu, developed for tracking COVID-19 patients, has become the world’s fastest app to reach 50 million downloads in just 13 days, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on April 14 appealed to people to download the app.

Also read: SoI maps add heft to Arogya Setu app

“Telephone took 75 years to reach 50 million users, radio 38 yrs, television 13 yrs, Internet 4 yrs, Facebook 19 months, Pokemon Go 19 days. AarogyaSetu, India’s app to fight COVID-19 has reached 50 mn users in just 13 days-fastest ever globally for an App,” Mr. Kant said in his tweet.

The application alerts people if any known or person in their vicinity has tested positive.

District administration has been asking all educational institutions, departments etc to encourage downloading of the app.

The app was developed under a committee set up by the Prime Minister’s Office with active involvement of NITI Aayg and Ministry of Electronics and IT.

According to sources, Tata Consultancy Services is working on testing and some of the other aspects, while Tech Mahindra and the Mahindra group is working with the committee on the next version of this application and leveraging next generation technologies like AI, machine learning, data science.

Tech Mahindra is also working on expanding the reach of Aarogya Setu on all types of phones.

The current version of Aarogya Setu app is fit for use on smartphones only.