Govt to offer free '.bharat' domain name with '.in' buy

To create an ecosystem for various modes of communication like e-mail and website addresses in Indian scripts, the government will provide complimentary '.bharat' domain name available for one year on purchase of '.in'.

"We have written to registrar for providing one year complimentary web address with '.bharat' (available in Devanagari and other Indian scripts) when a person registers a '.in' website," National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) CEO Rajiv Bansal told PTI.

The web address with '.in' domain name is being sold across country at starting price of Rs 199 for first year, which can be renewed thereafter for prices starting at around Rs 550.

The domain '.bharat' (in Devanagari script) is being sold by only a few companies registered with NIXI.

"Most of the next billion that will be impacted by Internet or connect with it will not be English-speaking people. We have to create local language content and develop ecosystem so that non-English citizens can communicate online in their native language," Bansal said.

The Department of Electronics and IT had convened meeting of e-mail service providers to make provision for e-mail addresses in Hindi and other Indian languages. The companies, however, said they can provide e-mail address in Indian languages only when there is demand.

Google supports transaction from e-mail addresses in Japanese, Mandarin and some other scripts.

DeitY officials have also discussed providing search support when a text is typed in an Indian language script, but companies do not see business case for doing so at present.

"We have to work on creating e-mail services, online search to enable non-English speaking people conveniently use Internet. We hope that by giving '.bharat' as complimentary Web address, it may encourage entities to experiment and develop content in local languages, including e-mail addresses," Bansal said.