Empowering Online Identity: ICANN's New gTLD Initiative

ICANN's second round of generic top-level domain names aims to help businesses and communities globally create distinct online identities. Collaborating with NIXI and MeitY, ICANN's initiative supports Indian organizations in this domain expansion. Applications for new gTLDs cost around Rs 1.9 crore, starting in mid-2026.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is embarking on its second phase of issuing generic top-level domain names, a move aimed at assisting entities worldwide in establishing unique online identities. This initiative is expected to significantly bolster the local presence of businesses and communities on the internet.

During a roundtable discussion, Devesh Tyagi, CEO of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), underscored the collaboration with ICANN and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The New gTLD Programme is targeted at empowering local organizations to more effectively represent themselves digitally.

Applications for these new domain extensions, which are an alternative to traditional ones like .com, .net, and .org, will cost prospective applicants approximately Rs 1.9 crore per gTLD. The allocation process is slated to commence by mid-2026.

(With inputs from agencies.)