The Indian government has officially launched the National Internet Registry (NIR) which will oversee the allocation of Internet Protocol addresses to Internet service providers in the country. Following the launch, the government has named NIR as Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN), which will be a division under National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), which manages the allocation and registration of Internet resources like Internet Protocol addresses (IPv4 & IPv6) and Autonomous System numbers. This follows a soft launch of IRINN in November 2012, when it started issuing IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) Internet addresses in the country. National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) CEO Dr.Govind had then said that they had soft launched this initiative to test the compatibility of IPV6 addresses with the software and hardware needed to support IPv6, since IPv6 addresses were not backward compatible with IPv4 addresses. He had then mentioned that they plan to release industrial grade IPv6 addresses in the next few months. What Does This Mean? This launch essentially means that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can buy IP addresses from an NIR locally for a lower price, as compared to buying it from Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) earlier. While NIR has not disclosed any pricing details of these IP addresses, a The Hindu Businessline report suggests that NIR will be offering these IP addresses to ISPs at a 70% cheaper rate than the existing APNIC pricing. This is quite similar to what Govind had announced in November 2012, where he had said that they will be offering IP addresses for Rs 21,999, a 60% discount from Rs 66,000…
