Nixi launches AI portal for '.in' domains

The National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi) has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) powered platform to help enhance domain name security and strengthen the detection of suspicious .in websites.

The WHOIS portal will be the official search platform used to look up registration details, ownership, creation and expiration dates, the sponsoring registrar, and the availability of .in and .bharat domain names.

Nixi issued a direction that registrations for .in and .bharat domains would need to satisfy know your customer (KYC) norms. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, electronic and information technology secretary S Krishnan said the move was driven by enlightened self interest.


"We have to ensure the safety of all users who use the internet. Our banking, health data is stored and transferred on it," he said.

Nixi also launched a series of portals including the IX Portal, myIRINN Portal, and the .IN Auction Portal. The portals are aimed to enhance user experience, improve operational efficiency, bring transparency and strengthen monitoring and verification processes across India's internet ecosystem, it said.

Responsible for India's core internet infrastructure, Nixi is currently managing over 3.9 million ‘.in’ domain names. It also continues to drive IPv6 adoption, which has reached approximately 78.34% across India making it one of the global leaders in IPv6 adoption.

Nixi operates 79 Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) across the country and supports domain registrations in 22 Indian languages.

Krishnan said India is also continuing to speak to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to locate a root server in India.

An internet root server is a critical directory translating website names into IP addresses to route web traffic. India is pushing ICANN to host local clusters of these servers to strengthen cyber resilience against global disruptions and malicious threats like malware or proxy-based hoax emails. This move is crucial because it ensures domestic web traffic can be managed locally by Indian service providers and law enforcement during external crises.