The top-level domain (TLD) “XN—45BR5CYL” is an internationalized country code TLD (ccTLD). This string of characters corresponds to “.भारत” in Devanagari script used by several languages in India, including Hindi, Sindhi, Marathi, and Nepali, among others. This part of the Internet domain naming system was introduced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is part of the efforts to support and promote the use of non-Latin scripts on the internet.
The purpose of an internationalized TLD is to allow web addresses to be written in different languages from across the world, thereby not restricting domain names to the Latin script only. This is crucial in multilingual countries like India, where more than 120 languages are spoken and the online presence of the Indian script progressively grows.
The creation of internationalized TLDs seeks to facilitate web navigation for speakers of languages that use non-Latin scripts. Such initiatives are a nod towards language diversity and a step in the direction of reducing language-related digital divides globally.
The ICANN, which was founded in 1998, is an international organization that overlooks all names and numbers used on the internet. For this reason, ICANN played a key role in the creation and implementation of Internationalized TLDs.
One of the first domain names registered using the .भारत TLD belongs to the office of the Prime Minister of India. The web address पीएमओ.भारत, leads to the Prime Minister Office’s Hindi website. Furthermore, the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), a not-for-profit organization under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, enabled .भारत (.Bharat) domain in any Indian language.
The launch of नमस्ते.भारत’ (namaste.bharat) marked ICANN’s commitment to promoting culture and language diversity on the internet. In fact, ICANN approved the proposal for four domain names in different scripts — Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Urdu — all of which are intended for use by relevant linguistic communities.
Sources used:
1. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. (ICANN). Retrieved from https://icann.org
2. National Internet Exchange of India – .IN Registry. Retrieved from https://www.registry.in/
3. Office of the Prime Minister of India. Retrieved from https://pmo.gov.in
4. The Launch of ‘नमस्ते.भारत’ in Devanagari script by ICANN, as reported by Business Standard. Retrieved from https://www.business-standard.com/
