Government want Indian Companies to go .in

In order to boost registrations of Indian specific domains on the web, Indian government has decided to open the .in domain names for unlimited registration. From January 2005, companies would be free to register unlimited number of .in based domains. Current estimates put the number of current websites using .in domains at a measly 7000, which is nothing compared to usage of country specific domains around the world.

This move is being planned to promote local registration and hosting of websites, which would result in faster and cheaper access. The prices of registration of domain has also been dropped to between INR250 to INR750 depending upon the type of domain chosen by the customer. The government in partnership with the Internet Service Providers Association is forming the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

Most of Indian corporate chose to go the global way of choosing their web identities with the highest number opting for .com domain name. This move will encourage them to shift to their own country specific domain for proper identification. Government also plans to take initiatives to increase the online user base to around 40 millions by 2010 from the current 25 million users. Let us hope they apply the broadband policy soon so that we the consumers are no longer exploited by bloated rates and poor services of ISPs in India.