Information Society Watch

October 22, 2007, Harsimran Singh, Indiatimes Infotech

With initial registration beginning in early 2008, Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are opening up to the Indian market. The first domain names, available in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and Sanskrit, aim to promote diffusion and accessibility of the Internet to rural areas, by facilitating websites' use of local languages in domain names as well as content. However, the opening up of IDNs to India also faces many challenges. Since India has more languages and scripts than many other countries, the roll out of IDNs will be more complex, and the proliferation of these languages makes it more difficult for trademark owners to register each and every alternate identity. Furthermore, regional scripts can be visually created using a variety of codes, which may lead to a rise in phishing or spoofing of identities. At the moment, these Indian IDNs are still in the test phase and the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), the IT ministry and others are collaborating to draft the appropriate guidelines and preventative policies.

Read full text