Dot Bharat domain to roll out on 21 August
18 Aug 2014
Website addresses would soon go multilingual in India with users able to type in addresses in a web browser in the Devnagri script and 'dot bharat' standing in for 'dot in' domain.
The new service would be rolled-out on 21 August. The "sunrise period" of the roll-out would last for 90 days and people with registered trademarks would be able to register domain names in languages that use the Devnagri script, such as Hindi, Marathi, Boro, Dogri, etc. After the period, the service would be open to all internet users.
The initiative has been launched by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), an autonomous non-profit organisation, responsible for peering of ISPs and routing of domestic traffic within the country.
The NIXI in association with the government's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) had joined forces for setting up the country code top level domain (ccTLD) of dot bharat.
Once the sunrise period ran smoothly, languages using other scripts such as Bengali, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu etc would be introduced, Delhi Daily News quoted Mahesh Kulkarni, programme coordinator at the C-DAC, heading the language technology group as saying.
He added, there was no timeline set for it yet, but it was hoped there would be enough pressure with the adoption of the Devnagri domains to implement it soon, he added.
According to union minister of communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, some government websites would also be a part of the launch next week.
Senior director, department of IT, Delhi, Dr Govind, said, for instance, the pmindia dot gov dot in would be pradhanmantri dot sarkar dot bharat.
Meanwhile, IANS reports, while some quarters had welcomed the introduction of the new domain, others remained doubtful about the success of the initiative given the low internet penetration and low literacy rate in the country.
According to a June 2014 report from research firm eMarketer, India had the third largest online user-base globally after China and the US but had the lowest internet penetration growth in Asia Pacific at 17.4 per cent.
According to Osama Manzar, heading the Digital Empowerment Foundation, people and public institutions online needed to roll out local language domain names.
He added, it was not a bad move, but wondered whether it would encourage people to buy domain names in Indian languages. He added, it was important that the government encourage every department and village panchayat to get online with a website along with this.
