CoWin to be repurposed into platform for universal immunisation, blood donation: R S Sharma
Jul 06, 2022
New Delhi [India], July 6 : COVID-19 vaccination platform Co-WIN will be repurposed as a platform for universal immunisation, blood donation and later it will be used for organ donation, said CoWIN chief and CEO of the National Health Authority, Dr RS Sharma on Tuesday.
"CoWin is now repurposed to become a platform for universal immunization, for blood donation and probably a little later for organ donation platform also. So I think we will slowly work towards ensuring these things, but you must appreciate that technology is only an enabler, ultimately the legal system, the ecosystem and other kinds of systems. It has to work within those systems," Sharma told ANI.
Talking about the interest of other countries in using CoWin app, Sharma, who is also a Chairman of the Empowered Group of Vaccine Administration (EGVAC) said "We had the digital CoWin global conclave last year. I think there were 140 plus countries who participated there and after the conclave, many countries started discussing it with us."
Sharma also said that Guyana with which India signed a Memorandum of Understanding is poised to use the CoWin platform for their vaccination program.
Discussing digital public infrastructure (DPI) in India, he said, "We have done about 71 billion authentications in nine years. Similarly, the payment infrastructure we created which was also done on a large scale. Rs 6 billion transactions took place last month. Similarly, there are multiple products on top of Aadhaar which is the Digital Locker, for example, electronic consent e-sign, and electronic KYC, these things are happening and now recently, last August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced e-Rupi, which is basically a prepaid voucher which is given for a purpose."
However, Sharma said that the adoption of the DPIs by the ecosystem partners is a little challenging.
"Adoption of the DPIs by the ecosystem partners is a little challenge, and it takes slow to start. But I think the slowness is also because of multiple other factors like the development of software and systems. So that could be one of the reasons, but adoption is usually a challenge. For example, digital health mission or Ayushman Bharat Digital health mission," NHA CEO added.
