India to focus on IDNS in ICANN international meet

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) India will focus on introduction of IDNS for Indian languages in the first international meeting of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a body charged with overseeing Internets addressing system.

The '31st International Public Meeting' will be held here between February 11-15.

''The meeting of ICANN is scheduled to discuss the mid-term review of ICANN's Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the US Government and its goal of continued transition of its role to the private sector, an official statement said.

ICANN, a multi-stakeholder body, consists of Government Advisory Committee (GAC) as one of the component.

It advises ICANN on various public policy issues relating to internet.

The body was created through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN, a public private partnership, to transition management of the Domain Names System (DNS) from the US government to the global community.

The last JPA was signed between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN in October, 2006, a pact for three years extending the US Department of Commerce over sight of the body while leaving the possibility open of the Group becoming independent as early as April this year.

Another issue which is likely to figure prominently in the New Delhi meeting is a workshop on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in the Indian languages and scripts.

IDNs is one of the critical factors for democratisation and universalisation of the Internet.

Already 13 languages test names have been introduced by ICANN which includes Devnagari and Tamil scripts.

With 22 official languages, India is pushing for more language names at the top level so that internet becomes accessible and available to those sections which do not understand English.

''India believes that multi-lingual internet will increase local interests in internet contents and increase the possibilities for all language groups to share and access information in their own language,'' the statement said.

UNI MP AK DB2117