UPSC Articles
Open API Service in Aarogya Setu
Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Technology
In News:
- The government has announced a new feature ‘Open API Service’ for Aarogya Setu app.
Key takeaways
- Through the new feature, organizations can take informed decisions regarding the presence of employees in office and the need to explore work from home.
- Thus, risk of contracting is reduced.
- Entities which are registered in India and have more than 50 employees can avail this feature.
- No other personal data except the user’s name and status shall be provided through the API.
Important value additions
Application Programming Interface (API)
- It is an interface that can be used to program software that interacts with an existing application.
- Open Source API is made publicly available to software developers.
APIs Vs. Web Services
- Every web service is an API but not every API is a web service.
- While APIs can be online or offline, web services must use a network.
- While APIs can use any protocols or design styles, web services usually use specific protocols.
- Web services are less prone to hacking than API.
