The government has made a significant move to promote Indian languages online. Many government websites can now be accessed using Hindi web addresses, which means the reliance on English is set to diminish. By implementing Hindi web addresses, the government aims to create a more user-friendly Internet experience. In the years ahead, Indian languages, particularly Hindi, will gain widespread acceptance. This development will enable people who aren't proficient in English to access any website simply by typing in Hindi. With the introduction of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) as part of the Universal Acceptance Initiative, users can now create web addresses and email IDs in a variety of Indian languages. For instance, the URL for India's Home Ministry is now available in Hindi. Users can access this website by entering either mha.gov.in or गृहमंत्रालय.सरकार.भारत, as it is accessible in both English and Hindi.
Reports indicate that the country code .in used in domain addresses has been replaced with .Bharat. In addition to Hindi, this change will soon be extended to other Indian languages, such as Tamil and Telugu. Historically, the Domain Name System (DNS) has only supported English characters due to its foundational coding standards being based on ASCII, which limited support to the English alphabet. This created a barrier to building websites or email addresses in languages other than English.
A technical challenge that has persisted since the 1980s is being addressed, as researchers have long been working to support non-English languages. Today, web browsers can translate the codes of various languages, allowing users to view web addresses in their preferred language. However, many Hindi and regional language websites in India still rely on English web addresses. To foster the use of local languages, the Government of India has begun transitioning numerous government websites to Hindi web addresses, using the .bharat domain.
Besides the Home Ministry, the websites for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) are also now available in Hindi. The Bhashanet program is being implemented to encourage further government agencies to adopt IDNs in local languages.
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