Meaningful .INdian domain names registered by foreigners

Have you ever taken interest and looked into domain availability of the .in domains? A great number of interesting and meaningful domain names have been grabbed and registered by non-Indians. Majority of these non-Indians have nothing to do with India, they have no Indian contacts, they only wanted a meaningful name, so they booked it, since the Indian government has made .IN domain names available to any any citizen of any country worldwide. As a result, many Indians have missed the opportunity to register these domains; despite being Indians, the Indians are not the sole rightholders to register .in domain names.

But, have a look into the eastern and western neighbours of India. Pakistan and Bangladesh also have their own country extensions namely .pk and .bd and those are not available for citizens of other countries. But India’s own policy restricts the fellow Indians. Thus, foreigners from any country have registered many valuable nice and meaningful domain names of .in extension.

Just try a WHOIS on these domains:-

1. rush.in – registered by a German national (rushing.in is available as on 1st Jul 2009)
2. rushed.in – registered by an US national
3. peep.in – registered by a German national
4. peeping.in – registered by a US national
5. step.in – registered by an Indian national
6. stepping.in – registered by a US national
7. move.in – registered by a German national
8. walk.in – registered by a Norway national
9. walking.in – registered by an US national
10. slip.in – registered by an Indian national
11. run.in – registered by an Indian national
12. smell.in – registered by an US national
13. awaken.in – registered by a Chinese national

Guys, you’ll burst into laughter, even the fuck.in domain name is also registered! By a German national. You may try all other unfair word domains, all of those are also registered, by foreign nationals. Anyway, I have given over a dozen examples out of which 3 belongs to Indians, rest 9 to foreigners. Like I have taken a word, you may try other forms of the word as well, you’ll find majority belongs to foreigners. Example, as I tried rush/rushing/rushed… try like that, with all forms of a word.

It’s terrible. I mean, simply not acceptable. First rightholders of .in domain names should be Indians, or at least non-resident Indians. Somehow should be Indians. But Indian government’s wide open holes are giving .in domain booking rights more to the world than to the Indians.

If, by RTI act, we get hold of the .INregistry database, I am sure, the stats will be shocking. More foreigners have .in domain names than Indians have. But see Bangladesh? Go and try to book a .bd domain name and see the rules! You must submit attested copy of Bangladeshi passport to obtain a .bd domain name. Yes, that’s how their government secured their citizen’s rights of having .bd domains. Alas, India has no such rule.

So, go and get your desired .in domain name before any other country’s national rips it from you! Run!!