Indian domain names should end with .in: Maran
Tuesday, 03 August 2004, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has some advice for patriotic Indian netizens -- use .in or .co.in at the end of domain names of websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world. With India emerging as a global destination for IT outsourcing/off-shoring, Indian organisations should change the domain names of their websites and e-mail IDs to sport .in at the end, just like other countries. "In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first visit to this hi-tech city as IT minister. "During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?" Maran asked in an interview with IANS. So, he has been prevailing upon Indian netizens, captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to using .in to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India. "I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. "They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran stated. "Though we not are making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," Maran disclosed. The Harvard-educated minister said the government would soon be introducing legislative measures to enact data security laws to cash in on the second wave of IT represented by the business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT-enabled services (ITES) sectors. "The ministry is committed to nurturing and facilitating the growth of the BPO and the ITES sectors of the industry. We are preparing the draft to address the perceived problem of inadequacy in data protection. "We are also working with industry bodies like Nasscom to hone and harness the skill sets required to sustain the growth in these two booming sectors, as they have emerged as major source of employment for our educated youth even in the secondary and tertiary cities," Maran affirmed. Listing out his ministry's immediate priorities, Maran said the focus would be on the penetration of personal computers (PCs) and increasing use of the Internet through broadband. "The telecom revolution has demonstrated the potential of this country in embracing the information and communication technologies (ICT). Against a target of four per 1,000 tele-density, we have achieved eight per 1000. In some cities, the phenomenal growth of mobile usage has surpassed that of the landline. "With broadband coming into play from this year-end and tariffs dropping, we will see an exponential growth in the use of PCs and the Internet across the country. Government organisations, including utility services, will graduate to the ICT platform to improve the quality and efficiency of their delivery," Maran asserted.
Source: IANS
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