Context: 

After an alleged data leak of COVID vaccination beneficiaries, the Union Health Ministry said that the CoWIN portal was completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy.

About CoWIN:

• It is a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in India.
• It has utilities for every level of user — from civil servants in national and state capitals to public health system managers, vaccinators and, at a later stage, potential beneficiaries.
• Co-WIN Protected APIs allow any third-party application to access certain restricted information.
• All third-party applications that wish to integrate with Co-WIN using Protected APIs should undertake a prescribed integration and testing process with the Co-WIN APIs.

What is an API?

• API stands for Application Programming Interface. 
• APIs are mechanisms that enable two software components to communicate with each other using a set of definitions and protocols. 
• For example, the weather bureau’s software system contains daily weather data. The weather app on the phone “talks” to this system via APIs and shows daily weather updates on the phone.

API Setu

• It is an API platform of Government of India to enable swift, transparent, safe and reliable information sharing across applications and to promote innovation.

News Source: The Indian Express