KOCHI: Indianrailways is up for sale for $1 lakh, while a US citizen is the present owner of indiannavy!
To cap it all, governmentofindia is under the control of a person based in the US. This is the state of affairs in the world of domains where many domains are named after various countries, departments and political parties by those who do not have any connection with the organisations.
Besides the indianrailways.com and governmentofindia.com, the domains like, presidentofindia.com and primeministerofindia.com are owned by those hailing from foreign countries like the US.
BJP.in, owned by Luke Adams, is up for sale for Rs 7,62,864 while BJP.in is under the ownership of Christian missionaries.
The domains like indiannationalcongress.com owned by a US citizen and indiannationalcongress.org a virtual advertising agency can also be bought now. Like the indiannavy.com, the indianarmy.com is also owned by a foreign national.
Even great personalities and leaders of political parties are not spared by the domain dealers.
The domains like mahatmagandhi.com and mahatmagandhi.org are owned by domain dealers. The domain atalbiharivajpayee.com is owned by an advertisement agency.
There is little restriction on using the names of nations and political parties to create domain names.
The public domain registration started with the registration of Symbolics.com on March 15, 1985.
Now, domains related to the Government of India and eminent personalities are in the hands of various foreigners. Most of these sites do not have contents related to its domain name. If a person opens presidentofindia.com, he will be welcomed to the world of hospitality industry.
This is the case with the US as well. The domains like govtofamerica.com, govtofus.com and govtofusa.com are with a Keralite.
"Many of the domains created in Indian names are in the hands of foreigners. I think it is an issue related to the prestige of our country. That is why I created the domains like govtofamerica.com and govtofusa.com," says Eshaque Eswaramangalam, hailing from Kochi.
"We are ready to hand over the domains to the US Government free of cost provided they give us the domains having Indian names," he said.
"Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN), which regulates the registration of domains should amend the rules so that the registration of the domains that relate to any government in any way should be restricted and they should not be registered by individuals," he said.
Whether they hand over the primeministerofindia.com in exchange of govtofusa.com or not, there should be some regulations, Eshaque says.