India follows China's lead to widen use of coronavirus tracing app

A man uses the Aarogya Setu app on his mobile phone in New Delhi, India, on May 7. The app is seen as a key tool by India's government in fighting the deadly coronavirus. — Altaf Qadri/AP

NEW DELHI: India is aggressively pushing a state-backed contact tracing app to fight the spread of Covid-19, raising fears that the world's second-most populous nation is on its way to Chinese-style methods of high tech social control.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has touted its app, Aarogya Setu, or "Health Bridge," as a key tool in fighting the deadly coronavirus. With more than 70,000 people already infected in India, and the number of cases is expected to exceed China, the origin of the outbreak, within a week.