Nixi permits Net4India domain name customers to shift to other registrars

National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi) on Tuesday said it has allowed migration of websites with ".in" extension from the servers of insolvency-bound Net4India to other registrars to avoid disruption in online activities of portal owners.

Around 73,000 websites with ".in" extension were facing uncertainty following closure of Net4India, a website name and hosting service seller.

Nixi has allowed continuation of service of the impacted website till December 2020 even if they are unable to pay renewal fee for their domain name. The non profit organisation, managed by IT ministry, facilitates exchange of domestic Internet traffic between the peering internet service providers members.

"Nixi has started permitting end users of ".IN" Domain to migrate to other registrars (other than Net 4 India). Nixi has executed 64 such requests successfully," Nixi said in a statement.

Net4India services are on the verge of closure as it is undergoing a liquidation process.

"In recent days, Nixi was informed that Net 4 India, who is one of the registrar of NIXI for Country code domain .IN is closing. Nixi has decided not to discontinue the .IN Services for those .IN domain end users whose renewal is due till December, 2020," Nixi said.

Every country has been assigned a specific website extension called country code top level domain (ccTLD) which matches their name which in case of India is ".in". Entities having interest in a country get a choice to book their website name with ccTLD associated with it.

Government delegated management of the ".in" website extension to Nixi in 2004. The internet exchange appoints registrar to sell and market ".in" domain against some charges.

Every website owner needs to renew it annually for the continuity of the website by paying a fee determined by the registrar. In case of Net4India, Nixi has deferred renewal fee payment till the end of this year.

"As the Net4 insolvency case is referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Nixi is closely watching the outcome," Nixi said.