The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a public organization representing the interests of domain investors and participants in the domain business, has sharply criticized the plans of the NIXI registry, which manages India's ccTLD .IN. Over the past year and a half, the actions of this registry have caused serious bewilderment and concern of the domain community. In December 2021, it was announced that citizens have the right to register no more than two names in the .IN national domain. Registration of more names requires approval from NIXI management.
The decision was explained by the interests of national security, but how the registration of three domain names at once in the .IN zone could threaten the security of India remained a mystery.
Registrars were then banned from creating a portfolio of domain names, auctioning them, and generally drop catch or selling of the .IN domain names at a exceptionally higher price than the published MRP. Now NIXI Registry intends to extend these prohibitions to registrants as well. In fact, this means a ban on the domain business in the national domain of India.
ICA General Counsel Zak Muscovitch said that NIXI is at risk of experiencing a sharp decline in revenue. “The purported policy change as affected registrants will be compelled to drop their domain names and thereby not remit any renewal fees or fees for new registrations […] You would be well advised to conduct a study to determine the volume of affected registrations prior to making such a monumental decision. After changing the policy, you will likely no longer be “one of the Fastest Growing Domain in the Asia Pacific”, but rather the opposite,” Muscovitch said.
Domain Incite, reporting this piece news, recalls that the number of registrations in the.IN exceeds 3 million. This makes the domain truly large, especially by the standards of national domain zones. However, if you remember that the population of India is 1.4 billion people, the figure immediately ceases to look so large. There are about 20 million registered domain names in the national domain of China, a country with a comparable population.
