Internet with local languages must for Digital India success, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

The Government of India under the Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is reportedly working hard to link the Internet with local languages via ICANN. This is being done to increase the user base of Digital India.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for electronics and information technology has appealed to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to take adequate steps to process web addresses in local language scripts.

Prasad said that the language if the Internet cannot be only English. The web should have strong bonds with the local languages to ensure that the benefits reach all users in both urban and rural India.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad appeals to ICANN

Speaking on the side lines of the ICANN public meeting in Hyderabad, Prasad appealed to the ICANN community to make local languages available for additional internet users. Moreover, the local languages should be easily accessible on the web.

According to the statistics report released by the Internet World, English tops online language content. None of the Indian languages appears in the list of top 10.

ICANN took over by a multi-stakeholder community

Recently, a multi-stakeholder community has taken complete control of ICANN from the US government. The group is meeting for the first time after this change. The community comprises of academic personalities, civil society, the technical community, and international governments.

Over 3000 professionals attending ICANN meeting in Hyderabad

The ICANN public meeting currently undergoing in Hyderabad has been attended by over 3000 professionals. Out of the total attendance, over 1300 are from India. In August 2014, the dot bharat domain was launched in India. You will be able to type addresses in Devnagri script and link to web addresses.

The currently available domain names available in non-Roman scripts are referred to within the ICANN as Internationalised Domain Names. Meanwhile, the ICANN has formed a steering group, which is working on so-called universal acceptance.

The group is gearing up to launch a new system in such a way to make various compatible IDNs. Moreover, the group is also working on to develop an email system, which can accept and process a task in any script.