Recent developments include:
-
Surpassing 4.1 million .IN registrations (targeting 5 million) and entering the top-10 global ccTLDs by zone count
-
Launching IDN ccTLDs in all 22 scheduled Indian languages, making India the only ccTLD offering 15 localized scripts
-
Rolling out festive promotional offers for accredited registrars and free personalized .IN email services (10 GB storage) to users
-
Expanding Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) from four major nodes to 77 nationwide, improving local traffic routing, reducing latency, and lowering bandwidth costs for ISPs
-
Operating IRINN to allocate IPv4/IPv6 addresses (now > 80% IPv6 coverage) and planning “second-tier” NIXI hubs in partnership with state governments to serve smaller ISPs
-
Collaborating with CCA on NIXI SSL CA to issue domestically trusted SSL/Digital Signature certificates and reduce reliance on foreign providers
Through these measures, India’s .IN ccTLD has evolved from a restricted, bureaucratic registry into a dynamic, market-oriented namespace that underpins national digital identity, fosters multilingual inclusion, and reinforces digital sovereignty under NIXI’s governance.
Currently NIXI generates large surplus and its recent financial performance indicates that in FY 2022-23, it created a surplus of Rs 85.73 crores. The secretary MeitY is the Chairman of NIXI and the Board of Directors mainly consist of joint secretaries of MeitY. The CERT-In Director General is also a Co-opted Director.
The entire management therefore is Government owned and hence NIXI is a Government owned Company and is subject to the jurisdiction of CVC, CAG and RTI.
Domain Name Acquisitions
According to the NIXI website, under the clause 12(2) of the terms of registration,
“The .IN Registry reserves the right to instruct its Registry Services Provider to deny, cancel, transfer or otherwise make unavailable any registration that it deems necessary or place any domain name(s) on registry lock and/or put a domain name on hold in its discretion :
(1) to protect the integrity and stability of .IN Registry;
(2) to comply with any applicable laws, Indian government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement, in compliance with any dispute resolution process;
(3) to avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of the .IN Registry, as well as its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, representatives and employees;
(4) for violations of this Agreement; or
(5) to correct mistakes made by Registry or any Registrar in connection with a domain name registration. The Registry also reserves the right to freeze a domain name during resolution of a dispute pending before arbitrator(s) appointed under Registry’s Domain Name Resolution Policy and/or a court of competent jurisdiction”.
According to a document on Anti-Abuse on the NIXI website the type of domains acquired by NIXI forcefully include the following:
Dit.in
Mit.in
DeitY.in
Mygov.in
Newindia.in
Govts.in
iaf.in
G20.in
nseindia.in
nse.in
bank.in
fin.in
school.in
alumani.in
Kpkb.in
It is not clear under what “Abuse” reasons these were acquired by NIXI. There has to be a documented reason for each of these acquisitions preceded by a request, inquiry and a decision.
However, the recent notice issued in respect of dpdpa.in owned by Ujvala Consultants Pvt Ltd, of which Naavi is the Managing Director indicates that there is no system in place for such acquisitions to be conducted in a legally approved manner.
With the DPDPA 2023 passed as an act where Personal Data is provided an option to be “Nominated”, there is a legal recognition that “Data” is “Property”. In respect of domain names, though the right is created out of a contractual agreement, a “Domain Name” is considered as a “Trademark type of property”. The registrant therefore has ownership rights and builds a legal activity around the domain name. It may be a commercial activity under .in .
When .in domain name was launched, naavi quickly adopted to the use of .in domain names for his activities and promoted the use of .in instead of .com wherever feasible. The current move of NIXI to start acquiring .in properties without justification and refusing to use .gov.in domains for the Government will erode the confidence of business on .in domain names. It has now become necessary for Indian business to keep a back up of .com for every .in domain name they register since NIXI may pounce on them at any point of time. Probably instead of registering both domains, they would prefer to use .com domain name itself and build a brand since .com domain names are better reflected in search engines.
Public will notice that this action against “dpdpa.in” is exclusive to .in domain name and not extend to any other domain names such as dpdpa.com . This is not to suggest that it should be done, but to indicate the development of a perception that if you are in .com you are safer from domain name acquisition risk.
NIXI is therefore killing the .in domain name movement from which it has created a profit of Rs 85 crores last year.
The “Acquisition” therefore has to be considered as acquisition of property of a private citizen by the Government falling under the rights of “Article 300A” of the constitution. The domain name also represents a means of “Expression” and hence acquisition of domain names is a direct curtailment of the freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.
Acquisition of domain names has to be considered as an infringement of fundamental rights protected under the Constitution and amenable for being questioned in Supreme Court of India under Article 32 of the constitution. It can also be questioned under Article 226 of the Constitution in an appropriate High Court.
If the “Acquisition” is held arbitrary and not proportional to any “abuse”, the Government has to rescind the acquisition and also pay adequate compensation for the infringement. The officials responsible for such infringement may be liable to be punished for “Breach of Trust” or for other similar reasons.
In the case of dpdpa.in, NIXI sent a undigitally signed e-mail to the Registrant and the Registrar placing the domain name under “Server lock” and also indicating that after 5 days it would initiate transfer. There was no “Show Cause” notice a document showing a “Reason” for exercising this extraordinary powers.
It merely stated that “This is to inform you that Govt. of India desires to get the domain dpdpa.in registered for itself. ” It quoted the clause 12(2) of the terms and conditions for registrants and declared
“Should you need any clarification on this matter, please feel free to contact us within 05 working days and .IN Registry shall initiate the transfer of the domain dpdpa.in to Govt. of India thereafter.”
In other words, there has been no explanation on why this action is being initiated and whether there was any illegal activity traced to dpdpa.in . No copy of the instruction from the Government of India expressing its “Desire” was furnished.
Even if the Government of India “Desires” the decision cannot be based on “desires” and it is an “Emergency” mindset which seriously erodes the democratic nature of the Modi Government.
I therefore have raised an objection and issued a digitally signed e-mail notice to NIXI under copy to other departments of the Government including Meity and PMO.
Since I have not so far received any reply from NIXI except a phone call from one Mr Rajiv requesting avoiding of social media posts in this regard, I am with lot of regret initiating action to escalate the dispute to a Court of Law since the notice of NIXI was dated 1st August and the 5 working days may end on 7th August which is two days from now.
Naavi has been a Netizen activist from 1998, was the first to help the law enforcement in bringing the historically first conviction under ITA 2000,(2004) first civil order from Adjudication against a Bank in a phishing transaction, (2008-2022) submit the first Section 65B certificate to a Court of law (2004)and is recognized as a pioneer in the Cyber Law scenario in India. Of late Naavi has been focussing more on Data Protection and DPDPA compliance, his pioneering work continues in the good interests of the country. Naavi has demonstrated his patriotic credentials much more than any private individuals and his war against Cyber Pornography, War against Digital Corruption through Bit coins is well documented.
Naavi had earlier launched “Cyber Law Awareness Movement” to spread the awareness and knowledge about ITA 2000 and is presently spreading the awareness and knowledge on DPDPA highlighting the need for compliance in the industries.
It now appears that Naavi has to launch a new initiative on “NIXI Dadagiri” and raise a slogan “Nahi Chalega, Nahi Chalega, NIXI Dadagiri”.
Right from my student days, I have been known to oppose strikes and such negative slogans but at my age, NIXI is forcing me to give up my productive activities and start an “Andolan” against the emergency mindset of NIXI.
I request professionals to support me in this initiative and start an email campaign by sending an email to ceo@nixi.in or to the Chairman of NIXI or Any of the Directors opposing “Acquisition of Private .in domain names in an arbitrary fashion like what they have exhibited in the case of dpdpa.in”
Please send such an email with the headline: We oppose NIXI Dadagiri with the content
“I object to the arbitrary domain name acquisition of dpdpa.in and any other .in domain name by the Government without a proper justification”.
This campaign may run till NIXI rescinds its notice.
Naavi
