• Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar inaugurated two new Internet Exchange Points (IXP) of NIXI at Durgapur and Bardhman in West Bengal.

• An IXP is a point where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) meet to exchange IP traffic. The main goal of an IXP is to become a convergent point for Internet players.

• The first Internet Exchange of the state at Kolkata is also run by NIXI. . 

• Internet exchange improves Internet performance and speed for consumers. It ensures better resilience, stability, efficiency and quality of the Internet at a lower cost.

• IXPs are expected to contribute to the enhancement and improvement of Internet and broadband services in West Bengal and neighbouring regions. 

• The ISPs connecting at these points will benefit as their broadband services to their end users will improve, bringing about a change in the lives of the people of the region. 

• Opening of these new IXPs will benefit every sector of the state ranging from health, education, agriculture, startup, MSMEs and other business verticals. Accessibility and convenience will increase for citizens in terms of availing government benefits and improving quality of life.

• In order to improve the overall Indian internet ecosystem and give internet users access to it at a low cost with improved speed, NIXI plans to install such internet exchanges in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in the near future. 

What is the purpose of NIXI?

NIXI is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2003, for peering of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) among themselves and routing the domestic traffic within the country, with seed funding from the department of information technology.

NIXI is performing the following three activities:

1) Internet Exchange

The Internet Exchange Nodes have been successful in ensuring peering of ISPs among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking abroad, thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on international bandwidth.

2) .IN Registry and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs):

Since 2005, NIXI has managed the .in registry (www.registry.in). As many as 153 registrars have been accredited to offer .in domain name registration worldwide to customers. This has helped proliferation of web hosting in the country and promotion of Indian language content on the Internet. .in is India’s top-level domain on the Internet. Like .com, .in can be used for email, websites, and other applications. Over 29 lakh .in domain names have been registered till November 2021. IDNs in all 22 official languages are launched and over 14,529 IDNs domain names have been registered till date. 

3) National Internet Registry (NIR):

Since March 2012, NIXI has been running the National Internet Registry (NIR) as Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN). IRINN is responsible for allocation of IP addresses and AS Numbers within the country. As on November 30, 2021 over 3,556 affiliates have joined IRINN.

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