IDN will be more and more importanted. IDN domain names cover huge markets that are yet tobe tapped. Most domainers raise their eyebrows when it comes to IDN domain names but there is good money to be made. The investment is pretty steep also since there is a huge learning curve.

To invest in IDN you must have knowledge of the IDN market you are investing in. Perhaps the below workshop does can help out .

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) organized an Awareness Raising National Workshop on Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) for Indian languages with special emphasis on Kannada at The Capitol Hotel, Bengaluru today.

Tulika Pandey, Additional Director, E-Infrastructure Division, DIT was the Guest of Honor and delivered a talk on the initiatives undertaken by the DIT for IDNs.

The workshop is a result of the joint efforts of the ICANN and the Government of India to enable the availability of domain names in Indian languages. In the past, IDNs were available only in Latin characters and having your domain name in an Indian script was impossible. But today with this new initiative, having your domain name in an Indian language like www. will soon be a reality.

However underlying this development are several issues that need to be resolved, arising out of the complexity of Indian scripts. Over the past three years C-DAC, Pune in close association with the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and with contributions from C-DAC, Kolkata and Thiruvanathapuram has evolved a policy document for Internationalized Domain Names in Indian Languages. A certain number of scripts and languages have also been identified and the requirements for each have been detailed out in the course of meetings: Devanagari (Marathi, Hindi, Konkani, Sanskrit and Nepali), Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Assamese, and Bangla to name the major languages have been handled. With the maturity of the policy, it was time to involve the implementers of the project: the Registrars, Sub-Registrars and Industry at large and make them aware of the major issues underlying the allocation of Internationalized Domain Names in Indian Languages.

Addressing the media, Ms. Tulika Pandey added that the “workshop is a crucial factor that will determine the success of the IDN initiative for Indian languages. Although there is no doubt that it signals a positive time for the acceptance of Indian languages on the World Wide Web, there will be a number of issues that will require deliberation for its smooth implementation, security and confidentiality being some of the key elements within that framework. Both stakeholders and the industry have to come forward to iron out the underlying issues and set the standards towards raising the confidence level of the user community, and thereby its wide acceptance.”

This workshop sought to discuss and raise awareness about the safeguards and issues among stakeholders, before the policy comes into effect. It is hoped that this workshop shall serve the purpose of providing a platform to all major players in this initiative to be aware of the problems and perspectives of IDN and collate useful feedback for finalizing the policy.

Throwing light on the initiatives undertaken by the DIT for IDNs, Ms. Tulika Pandey highlighted the role of the DIT in “creating the ecosystem for the implementation of Indian languages on the Internet. Surpassing geographical boundaries, the Internet has brought forth the new dynamics of access, dependability and communication. Of these, language has probably been one of the key issues due to its direct effect on communication and its subsequent reach. The DIT has proactively recognized this aspect and tried to address the challenges by partnering with the best RD organizations to seek relevant solutions.”

Given the complexity of Indian writing systems, safeguards will be of primary importance to ensure that the common man is secure as far as possible from pharming and spoofing attacks. The syllabic structure of Indian languages, variant tables, restriction rules are some of the major focal areas of IDN, which will be thrown open to the major players for their comments.

Talking about the implementation of the Kannada script in IDNs, Dr Sarat C Babu Executive Director, Bangalore said that the move “will strategically impact the penetration of the Internet at the grassroots level. The script and language of any community is an emotional connect, and the Government of India has pulled off a miracle of sorts by taking cognizance of this aspect to introduce Indian languages on the internet. The first step has been taken and it is up to us to determine the rest of its journey”.

Commenting on the workshop, Shri M D Kulkarni, Associate Director Head, GIST, C-DAC, Pune said that the workshop ‘heralds a new era for domain names in Indian languages. The GIST group has been the pioneer of Indian language computing in the country and to be associated with the IDN initiative has broadened its perspective on the web front. We have come a long way to bring the policy document to the stakeholders for their feedback. The key aspect here is to reach a consensus on the mode of implementation so that the user community can benefit at the earliest. I certainly hope to see a spurt in domain name registrations once the policy document is finalized”.

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