E-pass has use cases beyond Covid-19: eGovernments Foundation CEO

Controlled movement of citizens and employees will be the new reality in the post-Covid world. Managing the movement of a billion people will require a technology solution to ensure an agile technology-based access system. Non-profit body eGovernments Foundation has developed an electronic pass , or e-pass, to help governments at various levels to manage people movement. eGovernments Foundation is funded by Tata Trusts, Omidyar Foundation and Nandan Nilekani Philanthropies. Pranjal Sharma discusses the importance of public digital infrastructure of electronic passes with eGovernments Foundation CEO Viraj Tyagi

How did the idea of an e-pass emerge? Has it been fully developed or is it still in pilot stage?

A lockdown is a new situation for both citizens and the government; it was evident on the first day of the lockout when we saw reports of difficulties essential service providers, such as doctors, faced while travelling to their place of work. When we distilled the problem, it came down to how authorities identify those travelling for essential-services versus those who are not.

This seemed like a class of problems eGovernments Foundation (eGov) had solved before and we put a small team together to work on this. Covid e-pass is a simple, easy to use pass management system that can aid state governments in efficiently enforcing lockdown while ensuring the essential services and industries can operate with minimum hindrance. It also reduces the burden on government officials. The first version of the product was ready within 72 hours and on March 30, the first state (Madhya Pradesh) went live. The Covid e-pass system is now operational in eight states — Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Delhi, Odisha, Telangana, Puducherry and Rajasthan. More than 200,000 journeys have been enabled on the e-pass system.

The creation of the national e-pass platform in less than a week is a beautiful moment. Firstly, it manifests how digital infrastructure like eGov’s DIGIT platform can be leveraged to create highly contextual solutions at scale and speed. It also brings out the power of co-creation that foundations like ours are uniquely placed to catalyse — we collaborated with volunteers from iSpirit, AragoyaSetu team at Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), state governments, AWS and consumer products companies to build this solution. And finally, this is a testament of the team that worked on this initiative — the team got together in an instant to respond to a real problem India faced. The team members put the mission ahead of themselves and put in an extreme amount of hard work, while going through the same stresses of managing groceries, worrying about their loved ones.

How does it work? Please explain the steps involved.

The Covid e-pass system is a trust-based application where the state nodal officers must approve one-time registration requests from the companies along with setting the daily quota of passes for each company. The designated authority from the company is then allowed to generate bulk passes for company employees/partners, within the set quota, on their own without having to reach out to the district administration inter-city movement. The pass is delivered to the user as a PDF document and an SMS with an instruction to carry a valid photo ID. Police on the road can verify the validity of the ePass by sending  the e-pass number via SMS verification service

The e-pass platform has also been integrated with AarogyaSetu, the government’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app which has now over 75 million registrations. The first phase of this integration will allow the ePass system to poll AarogyaSetu to check the health indicator of the individuals before generating the ePass. The copy of the ePass is also deposited in the individual’s AarogyaSetu app for easy access and verification.

Citizens can self register on mobile or PC browsers with mobile number and OTP. They can apply for the e-pass in a simple, two-step process. The application is then routed to the relevant authority for scrutiny.

Does the e-pass need a single coordinated body within the state or central government? 

The system is designed so that the issuing entity (coordinating body) can be at the city, district or state level. It can even be done by private entities (like hospitals) within relevant areas, provided they have approval from the authorities.

Is there a minimum or maximum limit of the number of users at any point?

The national e-pass system has been designed for population scale and is horizontally scalable for needed volumes. So, there are no limits to the numbers of users. These can be used for lockdown-related movement by the local bodies.

Can the e-pass work for migrant workers who may not have an ID or a smartphone?

The e-pass can work on feature phones also. Migrant workers can call helpline and submit their application. Alternatively, they can apply for assistance mode through someone who has a smartphone. Details of the pass are also sent as an SMS to the pass -holder. Similarly, for the on-ground verification by police, they can either use offline QR code verification or SMS lookup facility depending on the situation of verifier (no internet connection, no smart phone etc).

It seems that the e-pass has utility for both companies and governments. Will it have applicability beyond the Covid-19 crisis? 

In essence, the national e-pass enables controlled movement of people and vehicles within a certain geographical jurisdiction (state, district, city, ward, building). The parameters of control are number of people, time, purpose and route. For the authorities, it gives flexibility to manage the traffic of people (or vehicles) based on purpose and location characteristics (like level of risk, capacity). This system can be leveraged for numerous use-cases beyond Covid. For example, it can be used to issue e-Pass to attend big public events like the Kumbh Mela or temporary e-Passes to hawkers. Residents’ Welfare Association can also use it to give passes to visitors. 

What is the revenue model and cost of operation?

The national e-pass system has been built as a public digital good and is free for the states to use. We have also open sourced the code for this system for the ecosystem to leverage and extend the functionality.