.in is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for India. It was introduced in May 1989. It is currently administered by the National Internet Exchange of India.

.in
Introduced8 May 1989; 35 years ago (8 May 1989)
TLD typeCountry code top-level domain
StatusActive
RegistryINRegistry
SponsorNational Internet Exchange of India
Intended useEntities connected with India
Actual useVery popular in India. Liberalisation of registration rules in 2005 led to a large increase in registrations including overseas registrations.
Registered domains3 million+ (May 2022)[1][2]
Registration restrictionsNo restrictions on who can register second-level domains or most third-level domains; various specific restrictions under some of those specialised subdomains.
StructureMay register at the second level or at the third level beneath generic-category 2nd-level domains
DocumentsPolicies
Dispute policies.IN Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (INDRP)
DNSSECYes
Registry websiteregistry.in
.भारत
Logo for .भारत, (romanized as .bhārat)
Introduced5 February 2011; 13 years ago (5 February 2011)[3]
TLD typeInternationalised (Devanagari) country code top-level domain
StatusActive
RegistryINRegistry
SponsorNational Internet Exchange of India
Intended useEntities connected with
 India
Actual useGetting popular in India.
Registration restrictionsDevanagari script.
Also comply with certain Devanagari Phonological rules; restrictions under some specialized subdomains like सरकार.भारत (≈ gov.in) and विद्या.भारत (≈ edu.in)
StructureMay register at the second level or at the third level beneath generic-category 2nd-level domains.
DNS namexn--h2brj9c
DNSSECYes
Registry websiteरजिस्ट्री.भारत (registry.bharat)

Registry operator

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The domain was originally managed by the National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) and its Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The Government of India issued an executive order in 2004 to transfer responsibility for managing .in domains to the newly created INRegistry under the authority of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). The National Informatics Centre (NIC), ERNET, and the Ministry of Defence were appointed as registrars for the gov.in, res.in and ac.in, and the mil.in domains respectively.[4][5]

In August 2018, NIXI appointed Neustar Data Infotech (India), a subsidiary of Neustar Inc, to be the country's new registry services provider. Neustar completed migration of existing .in domains to its registry infrastructure in March 2019. Neustar added the ability to register Indian-language domains in native script by enabling end-to-end web portal language support.[6]

Second-level domains

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As of 2005, liberalised policies for the .in domain allow unlimited second-level registrations under .in. Unlimited registrations under the previously structured existing zones are also allowed:[7]

  • .in (available to anyone; used by companies, individuals, and organisations in India)
  • .co.in (intended for banks, registered companies, and trademarks)
  • .com.in (available to anyone; used by companies, individuals, and organisations in India)
  • .firm.in (intended for shops, partnerships, liaison offices, sole proprietorships)
  • .net.in (intended for Internet service providers)
  • .org.in (intended for nonprofit organisations)
  • .gen.in (intended for general/miscellaneous use)
  • .ind.in (intended for individuals)

Zones reserved for use by qualified institutions in India:[7]

  • .ernet.in (Older, for both educational and research institutes)[8][9]
  • .ac.in (Academic institutions)
  • .edu.in (Educational institutions)
  • .res.in (Indian research institutes)
  • .gov.in (Indian government)
  • .mil.in (Indian military organisations)

The domain .nic.in is reserved for India's National Informatics Centre, but in practice most Indian government agencies have domains ending in .nic.in.

The .in registry launched following sub-domains on Oct 29, 2021 to benefit the growing market:[10]

  • .5g.in
  • .6g.in
  • .ai.in
  • .am.in
  • .bihar.in
  • .biz.in
  • .business.in
  • .ca.in
  • .cn.in
  • .com.in
  • .coop.in
  • .cs.in
  • .delhi.in
  • .dr.in
  • .er.in
  • .gujarat.in
  • .info.in
  • .int.in
  • .internet.in
  • .io.in
  • .me.in
  • .pg.in
  • .post.in
  • .pro.in
  • .travel.in
  • .tv.in
  • .uk.in
  • .up.in
  • .us.in

Before the introduction of liberalised registration policies for the .in domain, only 7000 names had been registered between 1992 and 2004. As of March 2010, the number had increased to over 610,000 domain names with 60% of registrations coming from India and the rest from overseas.[11] By October 2011, the number had surpassed 1 million domain names.[12] As of March 2016, the number has more than doubled to over 2 million domain names.[13]

Restrictions on use of .in domains

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As per the terms and conditions of the .in registry, domain privacy is not allowed.[14]

Recently updated EKYC guidelines were issued to all registrars to authenticate new registrants. Hence, the previous rule relating to bulk booking of .in domain names has been withdrawn. Now customers can book unlimited .in domain names as previously in line with promoting .in TLD on par with other popular TLDs like .com and others which also has no restrictions relating to bulk booking.[15]

Internationalised domain names and country codes

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India plans to introduce internationalised domain names in the 22 local languages used in the country. As of October 2016, fifteen of these internationalised domain names were accepted by ICANN:

  • .भारत (Devanagari), became available with the following zones:[16]
Devanagari string Transliterated string
भारत .bharat
कंपनी.भारत company.bharat
विद्या.भारत vidya.bharat
सरकार.भारत sarkar.bharat
  • .ভারত (Bengali), available as of 2017
  • .ਭਾਰਤ (Gurmukhī), only ਡਾਟਾਮੇਲ.ਭਾਰਤ as of August 2017
  • .ભારત (Gujarati), available as of 2017
  • .இந்தியா (Tamil), available as of 2015
  • .భారత్ (Telugu), available as of 2017
  • .بھارت (Urdu) only ڈاٹامیل.بھارت as of August 2017 (mainly right-to-left character order)

In 2016, an application for eight further domains was accepted. While the Indian government also applied for .বাংলা (Bengali), it was given to a competing applicant, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL).These domains were not available (as of October 2016):[17] But, they were later on made available and now are open for domain registration in India.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Registry.In | .IN is India's Country Code Top Level domain (ccTLD)". IN Registry. National Internet Exchange of India. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  2. ^ Agarwal, Surabhi; Alawadhi, Neha (27 July 2016). "IT Ministry plans ad campaign to promote .in domain name". The Economic Times. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  3. ^ ".भारत - TLDpedia".
  4. ^ "About the .IN Registry". Registry.In. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  5. ^ ".in Registry | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India". meity.gov.in.
  6. ^ "Neustar logs in for .IN Domain". The Economic Times. 2 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  7. ^ a b "IN Registry Policies". Registry.In. 1 January 2005. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  8. ^ "ERNET Domain Registration". ERNET. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  9. ^ "ERNET's registry". ERNET. Archived from the original on 21 February 2005. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  10. ^ our.in (29 October 2021). "IN Registry Launching New .IN Domain Extensions".
  11. ^ Chatterjee, Moumita Bakshi (13 March 2010). "'.in' domain registration crosses six-lakh mark". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  12. ^ ".IN Passes One Million Registrations And Looks To Future For Growth". Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  13. ^ "There are Over 2 Million .in (India) Registered Domains".
  14. ^ Registry.in. "Terms and Conditions for registrants" (PDF).
  15. ^ Registry.in. "EKYC" (PDF).
  16. ^ "Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)". www.registry.in.
  17. ^ Pai, Vivek (18 April 2016). "ICANN approves Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese & Oriya domain names".
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