The top-level domain (TLD) you mentioned, “XN—H2BRJ9C,” is an internationalized country code (ccTLD) which is dedicated for India. It stands for “.भारत,” which is the Devanagari script country code TLD (ccTLD) for India. Devanagari is a script used to write several Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and Sanskrit. The prefix “XN—” is part of the encoding system used for internationalized domain names, otherwise known as Punycode, which allows non-Latin scripts to be used in web addresses.
An example of a website using this TLD is “http://परिषद.भारत/” by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which was registered on 27th August 2014. The creation of this ccTLD provides an opportunity for people in India to navigate and use the internet entirely in their own language, which can help to increase internet accessibility and usage in different language-speaking communities.
This TLD conforms to the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) system, which is a mechanism approved by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for handling domain names containing non-ASCII characters. Speaking of IDNA, RFC 3490 provides a detailed overview – it allows non-ASCII domain labels to be represented in ASCII-compatible encoding during transmission between system entities, while the actual domain name stored in DNS zone files and presented to users remains in Unicode (source: RFC 3490).
The implementation of TLDs like “.भारत” is overseen by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), which is a non-profit organization oriented to promoting the internet in India. According to NIXI’s Policy Document on ‘.भारत’, the TLD aims to encourage Indian communities online by providing a localized internet environment that is more accessible and user-friendly for non-English speakers (source: NIXI).
Using local scripts in TLDs can support multilingualism and localization on the internet, which helps to preserve languages and cultures in the digital age. Besides, it is key to narrowing the digital divide, since there are significant communities of internet users to whom English (which has been the predominant online language) is not the foremost language. This initiative contributes to the increased overall usability of the internet, especially in a multilingual and multicultural country like India.
For reliable sources, metainformation is mainly from authenticated and well-recognized places such as ICANN, the IETF, and NIXI, which have been directly involved in the creation, implementation, and management of TLDs globally.
References:
1. ICANN, “Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) – Making the Internet Multilingual.”
2. IETF, “RFC 3490 – Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).“
3. National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), “Policy Document on ‘.भारत’ (Dot Bharat).”
