On Monday, over 45 days after the country went under lockdown amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Indian Railways has allowed bookings to resume.
Passenger train bookings are slated to resume from 4 pm for a total of 15 trains for different destinations that will leave New Delhi on Tuesday.
According to a CNN News18 report, air travel too many soon become possible. The publication quoted government sources to add that flight operations might resume in a phased manner at the end of this week. However, there may be many precautions alongside social distancing that will have to be taken. According to reports, officials from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Directorate General of Civil Aviation have also visited airports in anticipation of flight resumptions.
Reports suggest that fliers may have to compulsorily download and install the Aarogya Setu app on their phones before they can travel. A Business Standard report adds that if the app is not "green" travellers will not be allowed inside the airport terminals. Additionally, people above the age of 80 may also be restricted from travelling, the publication quoted a draft note by the government to say. According to the reports, a proposal to not provide in-flight catering for journeys shorter than two hours has also surfaced.
In recent times, the Aarogya Setu app had faced criticism. Last week, a French hacker and Android applications developer who uses the pseudonym Elliot Alderson had raised concerns about the Modi government's app.
According to Alderson who made his findings public through a detailed article where he called Aarogya Setu a "failure". He contended that if a potential hacker was so inclined, they could easily access information about the number of infected or unwell people or even those who had been declared bluetooth positive. Additionally, they could obtain information about the number of people who were using the app around the hacker's area, or how many self assessments had been made in the locality.
"Thanks to this endpoint an attacker can know who is infected anywhere in India, in the area of his choice. I can know if my neighbour is sick for example. Sounds like a privacy issue for me," he had written.
