The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Thursday launched the virtual NIXI Academy resource to further Indian networks' migration to IPv6. NIXI is the National Internet Exchange of India, which manages internet exchange points (IXPs) around the country to give content providers and ISPs a means to peer with each other. NIXI is also the official registry for the .in domain. IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocol, and it has been a priority of the government to increase its adoption, mainly because of the scarcity of IPv4 addresses (there aren't even as many IPv4 addresses as human beings), and technological improvements in the protocol, including better targeted blocking of content. IPv6 can theoretically support one undecillion possible addresses. "NIXI Academy is created to educate technical/non-technical people in India to learn and relearn technologies like IPv6 which is normally not taught in Educational Institutes," the government said in its press release. Right now, the Academy has a 14 hour virtual course for IPv6 design and deployment with a fee of Rs 100. Dhruv Dhody, President of the India Internet Engineering Society (IIESoc), an organization working towards increasing IPv6 deployment, told MediaNama that the move was very significant. He said, "It is heartening to see NIXI also working towards providing support with expert panels, training, and a portal. There is a lot of help to be provided in the area of learning IPv6 and its operational best practices. With the force of the government behind this initiative, we…
