It’s been close to two years since the first Covid-induced lockdown in India. The first vaccination program, launched back in early January, came as a ray of hope for all of us in difficult times. With more and more people getting vaccinated each month, and things starting to return to normal, this marks an important moment for industries in their recovery phase.
In the new normal, a vaccination certification is all set to become an identity maker, especially with government-mandated ties to national identification such as AADHAR and passport. While linking vaccination status to daily activities for safety of all can enable an atmosphere of trust, there is also an increased threat of forgery, fake certifications as well as data security and privacy. At AuthBridge, we are preempting and addressing these issues with our Vaccination Verification Solution, an agile innovation tailored to suit individual needs
Our Product
Our solution is built on the pretext that proof of vaccination is going to be the biggest enabler for an organisation to continue business as usual. A verified vaccination status assures customers and clients that their service providers are vaccinated, allowing businesses to start rebuilding their trust and user base.
Our solution allows you to instantly validate the vaccination status of an individual via CoWin API integration. This mobile-friendly solution requires the users’ Name, Registered Mobile number and the Unique ID and can provide access to authentic vaccine certificates with details like vaccination date, doses administered, vaccination certificate number etc. It also comes with the option to either send D.I.Y links to your users or integrate our APIs directly with your platform.
How will this solution help various Industries
Aviation and Travel
Owing to COVID-19-related restrictions on flights, domestic and international passenger traffic declined at a CAGR of -9.02% and -28.64% respectively from FY16 to FY21, as stated in a report by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). However, according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), FDI inflow in India’s air transport sector reached US$ 2.95 billion between April 2000 and March 2021. The authority projects that India can even overtake the United Kingdom and become the third-largest aviation market in the world in terms of air passengers by 2024.
The Airport Authority of India and aviation companies should collectively move towards achieving the goal of helping the industry bounce back by building trust with their customers. This can be done by providing proof of their employees being vaccinated and encouraging travellers to allow the airlines to conduct vaccination verification checks before confirming their tickets. This will not only help increase the safety of the passengers but also encourage people to get their vaccinations.
Hospitality
Owing to a nation-wide lockdown and strict social distancing norms, the Hospitality sector faced severe roadblocks and experienced heavy losses. People getting vaccinated has emerged as a ray of hope for many in the industry, as 15.8% of India’s population has been fully vaccinated and approximately 45.5% have taken the first dose of the vaccine. With the number of ‘fully vaccinated’ people on the rise, the hospitality sector should ensure strict sanitation rules and make sure that the entire staff is completely vaccinated. During an interview with Times of India, Ajay Bali, managing director of BCD Travel, Mumbai said that the number of booking are seeing a rise, people are frustrated with the current situation and want to travel. Vaccination and proof of vaccination is the key to move ahead and I see things becoming much better for the industry by 2022.
However, players in the hospitality industry will have to go the extra-mile to make their guests feel safe. Guests paying high prices for a leisure experience would want complete transparency when it comes to the staff being vaccinated. Even with emerging trends like Staycation, Bizcation and Workcation, where people come together to live/work in close contact, it is essential that the industry builds a reputation of trust and safety.
Gig-Economy
A study by the Boston Consulting Group and Dell Foundation reveals that the gig economy has the potential to create approximately 90 million jobs and transact over $250 billion in volume of work in the long term. 4-5 million traditional jobs could become gig jobs over the next three to four years, as per a report by AT Kearney.
The Gig-economy is showing immense growth potential even during a global pandemic. Players in the on-demand economy should pull every string to reach new highs. This can be done by laying emphasis on providing proof of vaccination of their blue-collared employees. Delivery and Home-Service providing giants like Zomato, Swiggy and Urban Company have made it a norm to have transparency and inform their clients about their service providers being ‘fully vaccinated’ as well as their temperature during the time of delivery. This practice is slowly setting the bar for other players in the market. With tremendous growth potential in the sector, companies should remember that the safety and security of their clients is top-priority and the most efficient way to win their trust is by verifying the vaccination status of their employees and making it public.
Entertainment, Media & Fitness
The Indian Media and Entertainment sector is expected to grow by 25%, to reach INR 1.73 trillion in 2021 and INR 2.23 trillion by 2023, as suggested by a recent report collaborated by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young. The overall fitness industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 27 percent and touch the 32-billion-dollar mark by 2022, of which fitness services (like gyms, slimming services, and formats like Zumba, Aerobics, CrossFit, etc.) will contribute around 6.6 billion dollars as stated by recent reports by FICCI, E&Y, Redseer Consulting, Global Wellness Institute, and IHRSA & Fitternity.
Although in the first half of July, majority of the state governments in India announced that gyms, theatres, and yoga centres could re-open with 50% capacity, we could see people still being hesitant to visit these places. One of the major reasons behind this is the ambiguity in knowing if the people present in the same space are vaccinated or not. Gyms and theatres have slowly started providing proof of their employees being vaccinated and have started restricting entry to those individuals who are fully vaccinated and are comfortable with providing proof for the same.
Corporate Hiring
The IT industry is witnessing an end to the work from home model, most of the tech-giants are asking their vaccinated employees to return to office either full-time or on hybrid basis. As per a report by GoFloaters, Wipro has announced the end of work from home and has nearly 2 lakh employees to return to office whereas Infosys has called back 2.6 lakh employees.
Many corporates had to evacuate their office spaces either during or after the initial lockdown in March 2020. Going forward, a large number of these organisations have decided to drive their hybrid model of work from the comfort of co-working spaces available. Organisations will only be able to access these spaces if they are able to provide proof of vaccinations for their employees which would ensure the safety and security of all the people sharing the space. Vaccination verification is no doubt one of the most important enablers to return to the new normal, many industry leaders including some of AuthBridge’s futuristic clients, have already realized that and are working towards it.
If your organisation is looking for vaccination status verification for your employees, we can put you in touch with our solutions expert at sales@authBridge.com
