What will happen to .IN websites if Parliament drops India as official name of the nation?

The G20 Summit invitation cards that gave rise to speculations that the government is intending to drop 'India' as one of the official names of the world's largest democracy and replace it with just 'Bharat', have given rise to a crucial concern in the domain of internet identity.

Speculation about the Indian republic dropping one of its official names, 'Bharat', for India have been driven by recent instances like a G20 dinner invitation using "President of Bharat" and a state document naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of Bharat.

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Indian media reports citing unnamed sources claimed the upcoming special session of parliament will address the potential name change row.

Such a shift could pose challenges, particularly concerning domain names and internet identity.

Concern about .IN domain

The .IN domain, like India's +91 dialing code, represents the country's online presence.

It's managed by INRegistry, associated with the National Internet Exchange of India. Specific subdomains like 'gov.in' and 'mil.in' serve distinct purposes for government and military respectively with added levels of online security.

Top Level Domains (TLDs) might not be crucial today. But historically, TLDs with two letters identified a website's origin. For example .US for the United States, .IN for Indiaand .UK for the United Kingdom.

If India becomes Bharat, a new TLD might be needed, but many options are already allocated to other countries. Diplomacy could help secure these TLDs, but success isn't guaranteed.

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Alternatively, India could create new TLDs like .BHARAT or .BHRT to establish a distinct online identity.

However, careful planning and coordination would be essential to avoid domain naming conflicts in case ofsuch a transition.

Article 1 of the India's Constitution declares that 'India, that is Bharat' is a 'Union of States'. Thereby, the name India and Bharat are used rather interchangeably without any perception of imprecision.

The inaugural article of India's constitution further defines India's territory as well as its nomenclature-related aspects.

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