BANGALORE: Vernacular domain names may soon be a reality, according to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). C-DAC organised an awareness raising national workshop on Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) for Indian languages with special emphasis on Kannada in the city on Monday.The workshop, was a result of combined efforts of ICANN and the Government of India to enable the availability of domain names in Indian languages. Tulika Pandey, additional director, e-infrastructure division, Department of Information Technology (DIT) stated that in the past, IDNs were available only in Latin characters and having domain name in an Indian script was impossible. But today, having a domain name in an Indian language like would soon be a reality.However, underlying this development are several issues that need to be resolved, arising out of the complexity of Indian scripts, she said. Over the past three years C-DAC, Pune, in close association with the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and with contributions from C-DAC, Kolkata and Thiruvanathapuram, has developed a policy document for IDN in Indian languages. A certain number of scripts and languages have also been identified and the requirements for each have been detailed out in the course of the meetings: Devanagari (Marathi, Hindi, Konkani, Sanskrit and Nepali), Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Assamese, and Bangla to name the major languages, that have been handled, she pointed out.With the maturity of the policy, it was time to involve the implementers of the project: the Registrars, Sub-Registrars and Industry at large and make them aware of the major issues underlying the allocation of IDN in Indian languages, she said during her address.Tulika Pandey added, “The workshop is a crucial factor to determine the success of the IDN initiative in Indian languages. Although there is no doubt that it signals at a positive time for the acceptance of Indian languages on the World Wide Web, there will be a number of issues that will require deliberation for its smooth implementation, security and confidentiality, within that framework. Both stakeholders and the industry have to come forward to iron out the underlying issues and set the standards towards raising the confidence level of the user community, and thereby its wide acceptance.”Talking about the implementation of the Kannada script in IDNs, Sarat C Babu executive director, Bangalore said that the move will strategically impact the penetration of the Internet at the grass-roots level. The script and language of any community is an emotional connect, and the Government of India has pulled off a miracle of sorts by taking cognizance of this aspect to introduce Indian languages on the Internet. The first step has been taken and it is up to us to determine the rest of its journey. We are waiting for this initiative to become a reality soon.”
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