You can soon get Internet domain names in Indian languages
Getting an Internet domain name in English is a pass, now get ready to have it in your own regional language. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit corporation responsible for Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) management worldwide, has been on the job to support domain names in numerous languages spoken in India, including 22 scheduled languages. Here's more.
Work is on for nine Indian scripts: ICANN India Head
"Work is on for nine Indian scripts viz Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu. These scripts are expected to cover many different local languages," ICANN India Head Samiran Gupta said.
People with no knowledge of English to access websites
ICANN has been working towards building the rules for the secure and stable definition of the top-level domains for scripts used globally so that people with no knowledge of English are able to go online and access the websites with the domain names completely in their languages. For example, one can enter the domain in Hindi to get Hindi content.
About 52% of world population has access to Internet: Gupta
About 52% of the world population has access to the Internet now and ICANN is contributing towards bridging the digital divide, Gupta said. "Many of the remaining 48% are non-English speaking people and those who don't have the ability to type in English. The work will allow domain names to be available for these people in their languages," the ICANN India Head said.
Google allows you to search content in regional languages
When asked that searching content in regional languages is already possible in Google, Gupta said the current effort is focused on enabling the domain names in regional languages, which in turn would enable the system to publish local language content being searched.
Dedicated community-based panel works for defining rules for domain names
"This work for defining rules for the domain names for languages spoken in India is underway with a dedicated community-based panel," the ICANN said. The Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel, as it is called, consists of more than 60 technical experts and linguists from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Singapore, where these languages and scripts are used, Gupta said.
Proposals for six scripts already released for public comment: Gupta
The proposals for six scripts viz Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Oriya, and Telugu, are already released for public comment. "One can review these proposals and provide comments by visiting www.icann.org/idn," Gupta said.
