Bangla may be used in net domain name

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has agreed in principle to include Bangla as one of the languages to be used in top-level domain name, said a parliamentary committee yesterday.

"When I recently met Icann CEO Rod Beckstrom in Egypt he agreed in principle to include Bangla as one of the languages to be used for top-level domain names," Hasanul Haq Inu, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on telecommunications ministry, told The Daily Star after a meeting of the committee.

Inu said he asked Beckstrom why Bangla, which is spoken by about 40 crore people, will not be included for using in domain names while Russian and Arabic scripts are going to be incorporated in the domain name system.

"Beckstrom finally agreed in principle and advised me to apply formally from government level," said Inu.

"The parliamentary standing committee today asked the ministry concerned to apply to Icann to this end and inform Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about it," he added.

Inu expressed hope that Bangla will be one of the top-level domain name languages by the next International Mother Language Day.

Icann is a non-profit organisation that was created on September 18, 1998, in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks including assigning Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and managing generic and country code top-level domain name system.

The parliamentary standing committee meeting asked the telecommunications ministry to declare about 29 acres of land of Telephone and Shipa Sangstha as telecom and electronic machinery production zone.

It also asked the ministry not to apply the government purchase policy to purchase of machineries or equipment for the organisation.

"We have also set a timetable for Telephone and Shilpa Sangstha to turn the losing venture into a profitable one," Inu said.