New Delhi: India may finally have domain names in its own script — beginning with the Devanagari script of Hindi — from next month.
“Domain (website) name booking in Devanagri script is proposed to be launched from August 15 subject to approval from higher authorities,” said National Internet Exchange of India chief executive officer Govind.
Devanagri script is used to write Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Nepali languages.
Though there are many websites that use exclusively Hindi, the domain names were still alloted in the Latin script that is used by English.
He also added that “each domain name will cost Rs 350 and the top level domain will be .bharat.”
The name would have ‘.bharat’ in Devanagri script as its extension instead of commonly top level domains such as .com, .net or .in.
He said that companies involved in booking of domain names can facilitate booking of website name in Devanagri script as well.
“First two months, we will open it for companies having trademark or copyright on names like brands, government organisations, reputed commercial firms. After two months, the service will be opened for all,” Mr Govind said.
He said that people will be able to book sub-domain name for Rs 250 each. At present, people can book name of websites using English’s Roman script or letters.
The government is of the view that websites in Hindi will give push to the creation of website content in local language as well.
