Pune: Moving away from Latin characters, international domain names (IDN) or the address that internet users type in the URL can soon be typed in your own language. As result of the initiative by the department of information technology (DIT) and city-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), by June 2010, typing domain name, like www.timesofindia.com', in any Indian language will be a reality. An awareness workshop on the subject was conducted jointly by the DIT and the C-DAC in the city on Thursday.

"So far, IDN's were available only in Latin characters and therefore, having your own domain name in Indian language or script was impossible. A policy document has been evolved by the C-DAC, Pune, along with Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram centres, for IDNs in 22 Indian languages. A certain number of scripts and languages have also been identified and the requirements for each have been detailed out," Mahesh Kulkarni, programme co-ordinator, graphics and intelligence-based script technology (GIST), C-DAC, said during this workshop.

The policy document was released on the occasion at the hands of Tulika Pandey, additional director, e-infrastructure and internet governance division, DIT, and Rajan Joseph, director general, C-DAC.

Pandey said, "Even as we try and introduce IDNs in Indian languages, there are several issues that need to be resolved, especially issues arising out of the complexity of Indian scripts. For example, once we roll out Indian language IDNs, there will be occasions when it will not be possible to make out the difference between Hindi and Marathi, or for matter any languages in Devanagari scripts."

The policy document has been sent to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for approval which will be conveyed in the next couple of days. Kulkarni said: "Once the formal approval from ICANN is sought, users can start applying for registration after three months and by June, the IDNs will roll out."

Initially, it will be available for only new websites with .in' IDNs. The creators have, however, reserved a few domain names such as pradhanmantri.in' or bharat.in' so as to not make it available for common public as it may create confusion, these being government domains. A keyboard and font has also been developed by C-DAC for the purpose and will be available to users.