Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) concluded its meeting, attended by 726 participants from 76 countries in New Delhi today.

The weeklong meeting covered issues relating to domain names in the local languages, local scripts and issues with wide range to variants, being deliberated. Domain Names Security (DNS) issues also figured prominently. ICANN has already successfully concluded tests in local non-English languages including Devnagari and Tamil languages. (See: ICANN mulls technical feasibility of Indian language domain names).

The highlight of the ICANN meeting was the signing of memorandum of understanding between ICANN and the internet user groups who participated in the Asia Pacific region at-large organisation (APRALO) on its first general meeting in New Delhi as part of ICANN's 31st international public meeting.

The discussions focused issues that would affect internet users through out the region and the world. The internet user groups who are part of APRALO are incredibly diverse, and include users from India, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

The meeting in New Delhi enabled the participants to share their experiences with experts from C-DAC, Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and the National Internet Exchange of India (NiXi), on variants and spellings and how expert organisations are overcoming the security issues arising out of spelling variations.

There is need to proliferate IPv6 in the country as more and more devices are connected to the Net. In fact, India has been emphasizing the need of IPv4 and IPv6. (See: ICANN meeting begins in New Delhi with call for IPv4 - IPv6 interoperability). The Internet exchange of India (NiXi) which is the main registry of .in Domain Name held discussions with ICANN on issues relating to issues relating to India.