The Geopolitical and Technological Context of ICANN85
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 85th Public Meeting (Community Forum) ICANN85 was held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, India, from March 7 to 12, 2026. This represents a critical juncture in the trajectory of global internet governance. It brought global Internet stakeholders to Mumbai to discuss how to support an open, secure, inclusive, and resilient Internet across the global Internet ecosystem.
Hosted in collaboration with the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) under the auspices of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), this Community Forum marks ICANN’s historic return to India exactly a decade after ICANN57, which was held in Hyderabad. The strategic selection of Mumbai underscores the shifting center of gravity in the global digital economy. With around 1,500 in-person attendees—including 332 first-time attendees and 876 representatives from the Asia Pacific (APAC) region alone—and an additional 678 virtual participants from 112 countries, ICANN85 served as a microcosm of the modern, interconnected world. The next meeting ICANN86 will be held in Seville, Spain followed by ICANN87 in Muscat, Oman.
The ICANN85 forum in Mumbai occurred against the backdrop of significant global geopolitical complexity, rapid technological evolution, and escalating cross-border cyber threats. It was the first ICANN Public Meeting following the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the WSIS+20 Outcomes Document in December 2025. This document’s reaffirmation of the multistakeholder model and the permanence of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) set a decisive tone for the Mumbai proceedings. For India, a nation undergoing an unprecedented digital transformation, ICANN85 provided a vital platform to transition from being a primary consumer of internet infrastructure to a principal architect of its future governance.
The structural integrity of the global internet relies on continuous, coordinated policy development regarding the Domain Name System (DNS) and unique identifiers. The discussions were designed to generate concrete progress on these fronts, addressing vulnerabilities, expanding inclusivity, and preparing the technical infrastructure for the next generation of internet users.
The Phenomenal Expansion of India’s Internet Ecosystem
The relevance of ICANN85 to India cannot be decoupled from the nation’s staggering digital metrics. India is currently one of the fastest-growing digital economies globally, characterized by an aggressive push toward a $1 trillion digital economy target by 2025 to 2030. The foundational layer of this economic ambition is raw connectivity, which has expanded at a phenomenal rate over the past decade.
Statistical Dimensions of India’s Connectivity
While public Internet was launched as late as 15th August, 1995, it has seen a phenomenal growth trajectory. In just 30 years, as of April–June 2025, India reported a monumental billion (1,002.85 million) internet subscribers. This achievement is underscored by a profound shift in data consumption patterns.
The demographic breakdown reveals an accelerating narrowing of the digital divide. Data from the ICUBE survey indicates that the growth rate of rural internet users is currently twice that of urban users, and smartphone adoption in rural areas is growing at 1.5 times the urban rate. However, rural internet penetration still hovers around 46 subscribers per 100 population, presenting a residual coverage gap.
The Strategic Imperative for Indian Participation in Global Governance
The sheer volume of India’s digital footprint dictates that it can no longer afford to be a passive recipient of global internet policies. Decisions made at ICANN regarding the management of unique identifiers, the rules governing top-level domains, and the protocols for handling DNS abuse directly impact the security, privacy, and commercial viability of India’s digital infrastructure. So also IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and IAB (Internet Architecture Board).
If India is to secure its vision of “Digital Sovereignty”—a concept increasingly refined in policy circles into “Digital Agency,” which balances national security interests with global interoperability—it must assert its voice within the foundational layers of internet governance. By hosting ICANN85, India has signalled a strategic intent to transition from digital consumption to digital stewardship but still a lot more needs to be done.
Active participation allows Indian policymakers, technical communities, civil society, and commercial enterprises to embed their unique socio-economic contexts into the technical architecture of the global internet. These contexts include the requirement for profound linguistic diversity, the protection of its massive youth demographic from online harms, and the implementation of robust technical safeguards against cyber fraud particularly those who are new entrants and more vulnerable. Ensuring the operational stability of the internet’s naming and numbering systems is also an economic imperative.
Key Highlights of ICANN85
Leadership Perspectives: Shaping the Global Dialogue
Tripti Sinha, ICANN Board Chair: “The world grows more complex and, at times, more divided — which is precisely why the Internet’s stability and integrity matter more deeply now than ever before. Today, that original call rings louder and truer than ever. It asks us to be steady and disciplined in how we work, transparent and accountable in how we decide, and unwavering in our commitment to an Internet that is secure, stable, and reflective of the diverse humanity it serves.”
Kurtis Lindqvist, ICANN President and CEO: “My focus this week is practical. I want us to leave Mumbai with meaningful progress on the work the community has prioritized, and with momentum on the milestones that are coming next.”
“For those newer to ICANN, I will add one more thing. Do not underestimate the value of your perspective, and do not hesitate to contribute. This community works best when we combine deep experience with fresh eyes, and when we bring more people into the work, especially from regions that have not always been in the center of these conversations.”
S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY: “India’s digital transformation is anchored in an open, secure, inclusive and resilient Internet. Hosting ICANN85 reflects India’s commitment to the multistakeholder model of Internet governance and to advancing policy frameworks that support innovation, inclusion, and trust in the global Internet ecosystem.”
The ICANN85 Community Forum was structured around intensive policy development processes, cross-community interactions, and high-level governmental engagements. The agenda addressed the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the global digital ecosystem through more than 200 dedicated sessions.
The Five Key Topics of ICANN85
1. The New gTLD Program: 2026 Round
With the next application round scheduled to open on April 30, 2026, ICANN85 focused heavily on applicant preparation, Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), and the Applicant Support Program, which has already received 75 applications globally across all five ICANN regions. The program aims to radically expand the DNS with localized, geographic, and brand-specific top-level domains.
2. Advancing a Multilingual Internet (Universal Acceptance)
A major initiative aimed at ensuring that all domain names and email addresses—regardless of script, language, or character length—function seamlessly across all software applications. This included a landmark joint policy presentation with UNESCO to support Indigenous and under-resourced languages.
3. Mitigating DNS Abuse
Addressing the explosion of sophisticated cyber threats. The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) formally launched the Policy Development Process (PDP) on Associated Domain Checks, conducting four intensive working sessions to establish frameworks for disrupting malicious domain registrations used for phishing and malware.
4. Strengthening the Multistakeholder Model
In the wake of WSIS+20, ICANN85 emphasized the necessity of collaborative governance involving governments, the private sector, civil society, and technical experts to prevent internet fragmentation and maintain a single, interoperable global network.
5. Youth Integration and Capacity Building
A concerted effort to bring the next generation into the policy fold. The forum integrated the NextGen@ICANN and Fellowship programs, highlighting research presentations from young scholars.
Strengthening the Multistakeholder Model Post-WSIS+20
A central pillar of ICANN’s operational philosophy is the multistakeholder model of governance. Unlike traditional multilateral models, which are exclusively state-led and driven by geopolitical treaty negotiations, the multistakeholder model integrates governments, private sector entities, civil society organizations, the technical community, and end-users on a footing of consensus-driven policymaking. The concept of multistakeholderism faced rigorous stress-testing leading up to the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) in late 2025. There have been persistent global tensions between authoritarian models advocating for sovereign, fragmented internets (often termed “splinternets” or digital balkanization) and democratic models advocating for a single, globally interoperable network.
Historically, emerging economies have occasionally viewed multistakeholder models with skepticism, perceiving them as overly influenced by Western corporate interests and technical elites. However, India’s stance has evolved significantly. Indian policymakers now recognize that the agility required to govern rapidly advancing digital technologies cannot be achieved through slow-moving multilateral treaties alone.
Advancing a Multilingual Internet: Universal Acceptance and Indic Scripts
Perhaps no topic resonates more profoundly with India’s domestic realities than the push for a Multilingual Internet. India is a nation of staggering linguistic diversity, functioning as a true polyglot society. Yet, the foundational architecture of the internet was built upon the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), which inherently favored the Latin script and the English language. India recognises 22 official languages, with over 1,600 dialects.
The original structural bias toward ASCII creates a significant barrier to digital inclusion. As internet penetration deepens into rural India, the next hundreds of millions of users will not be native English speakers and clearly not proficient in the language. Today, there are more than 5.3 billion internet users globally, and billions more are expected to come online. If these new users cannot navigate the internet, register domain names, or use email addresses in their native scripts (Indic scripts such as Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, or Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Russian), their digital participation remains fundamentally constrained.
At ICANN85, this issue was addressed through the lens of Universal Acceptance (UA). Universal Acceptance is a foundational technical requirement that ensures all valid domain names and email addresses—regardless of script, language, or character length—are accepted, validated, stored, processed, and displayed correctly by all internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.
A defining moment at ICANN85 was the presentation of a Joint Policy Brief developed by ICANN and UNESCO, titled “Advancing Universal Acceptance of All Domain Names and Email Addresses for a Multilingual Internet”. Guilherme Canela, Director for the Division of Digital Inclusion and Policies at UNESCO, presented the draft document, emphasizing that without UA, the digital language divide deepens, effectively marginalizing Indigenous and under-resourced languages from the digital economy.
For India, the operationalization of Universal Acceptance and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) is a matter of both economic enablement and cultural preservation. India holds the distinction of having the highest number of scripts (seven in total) representing its country name in the root zone, reflecting its national linguistic diversity.
The 2026 New gTLD Program: Expanding the Digital Frontier
The DNS underwent a massive expansion in 2012, moving beyond legacy extensions like.com,.org, and country codes like.in, to include hundreds of new generic terms, cities, and brand names. The 2026 round builds upon this legacy, offering businesses, regional governments, and communities the rare opportunity to acquire and manage their own top-level domains (e.g.,.brand,.mumbai,.ecommerce). A new Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Program, is scheduled for April 30, 2026.
For India’s booming corporate sector, the strategic acquisition of a.brand or community gTLD offers several distinct advantages:
Absolute Control Over Digital Identity
Enhanced Cybersecurity and Phishing Resistance
Expansion of IDN gTLDs
Confronting DNS Abuse
While the expansion of the DNS offers immense economic potential, it simultaneously expands the attack surface for malicious actors. Mitigating this ‘evil’—specifically DNS abuse—was arguably the most urgent operational topic at ICANN85, commanding 19 dedicated sessions across 6 days of policy work. This urgency is particularly acute for India, which is currently battling an unprecedented wave of sophisticated cyber extortion leading to ‘Digital Arrests’ amongst other crimes.
The Anatomy of the “Digital Fraud” Crisis
India is currently facing a localized, highly destructive form of cybercrime which is the Intersect of cyber fraud and DNS abuse. Scammers register fraudulent domain names that closely mimic official government law enforcement portals or financial institutions. These domains are used to host forged arrest warrants, capture personally identifiable information (PII) via phishing pages, and provide a veneer of technical legitimacy to the extortion attempt.
The ability of criminals to rapidly register, utilize, and discard malicious domain names through Domain Generating Algorithms (DGAs) and compromised registrars is a systemic vulnerability in the global internet infrastructure. In response to the crisis, a high-level Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) constituted by the Union Home Ministry in India directed platforms like WhatsApp to implement measures such as identifying and blocking device IDs involved in scams, introducing safety features and ensuring the retention of user data from deleted accounts for at least 180 days to support law enforcement investigations.
India is currently facing a localized, highly destructive form of cybercrime known as the “Digital Arrest” scam. The mechanics of a digital arrest represent a masterclass in social engineering, psychological coercion, and the weaponization of cognitive biases. Malicious actors impersonate high-ranking law enforcement officials and contact victims, falsely implicating them in severe crimes like money laundering, drug trafficking, or terror financing. Utilizing AI-generated deepfakes, forged judicial documents, and spoofed government backgrounds, scammers coerce victims until they transfer their life savings to fraudulent “investigative accounts”. The psychological toll is devastating.
Empowering the Next Generation: Youth Participation and Capacity Building
As India marches toward its 2047 vision of becoming a developed nation (Viksit Bharat), its demographic dividend—a youth population exceeding 700 million—is its most potent asset. However, integrating this demographic into the highly technical, often opaque world of global internet governance requires structured pathways. ICANN85 placed a significant emphasis on youth integration, operating under the premise that the future stability of the internet relies on transitioning young digital consumers into informed digital policymakers.
NextGen@ICANN and Fellowship Programs – Strategic Value of Youth Engagement
Dr. George Sadowsky of ISOC and past ICANN Board member had pioneered a transformative workshop model that helped bring the Internet to developing countries through ‘Network Training Workshops’ as part of Internet Society (ISOC) which trained over 2,500 people from roughly 50 countries in network design and deployment. At that time, building the Internet was crucial, now running, governance and planning for future is key and the youth of today are the best investment for this.
Why should Indian youth invest time in platforms like ICANN? The nature of work and the digital economy is shifting rapidly due to digital transformation, automation, and AI. Young people are increasingly demanding a role in co-creating the systems that will govern their economic futures, seeking not just employment but purpose-driven influence.
Furthermore, youth as a stakeholder group have historically been invisible in internet governance due to complex, overlapping affiliations (e.g., as students, interns, or fellows). However, following rigorous advocacy, youth were successfully recognized as a distinct stakeholder group in the WSIS+20 text. By participating in the multistakeholder model early in their careers, they achieve “digital agency”—the capacity to influence decisions at the highest levels of global architecture.
As ICANN CEO Kurtis Lindqvist aptly noted to newcomers in Mumbai, the community requires the combination of “deep experience with fresh eyes” to innovate effectively. By absorbing the intricacies of consensus-driven policymaking, Indian youth are building the capacity necessary to defend India’s digital interests in the decades to come, ensuring the nation retains a pipeline of sophisticated policy experts capable of navigating complex international technical forums.
Conclusion: Securing India’s Digital Destiny
The ICANN85 Community Forum in Mumbai highlighted the intricate interdependencies between global technical infrastructure and local socio-economic realities. The exhaustive discussions yielded several critical imperatives that must guide policy and commercial strategies moving forward.
First, India must take a far more active role within the multistakeholder model. The reaffirmation of this model at WSIS+20 and the active participation of the Indian government at ICANN85 demonstrate that collaborative governance is the most effective shield against digital fragmentation. India’s digital agency is best protected not by isolation, but by embedding its security requirements directly into global DNS policies in collaboration with all stake holders.
Second, commercial entities must rapidly evaluate their positioning for the April 2026 New gTLD Round. The acquisition of custom, script-specific top-level domains represents a paradigm shift in brand protection and consumer trust. Indian enterprises that fail to secure their digital perimeters through gTLDs risk falling behind.
Third, the fight against cybercrime, requires a hybrid approach. While local law enforcement must continue public awareness campaigns and mandate platform accountability, the ultimate disruption of these syndicates necessitates the systemic dismantling of their technical infrastructure. India must leverage its position in the GAC to ensure that the ICANN policy timeline for Associated Domain Checks and rapid WHOIS access is accelerated and strictly enforced by registrars.
Finally, the continuous integration of youth and the prioritization of Universal Acceptance are non-negotiable for inclusive growth. To achieve a $1 trillion digital economy, the internet must be accessible in native Indic scripts, and the policies governing it must be shaped by the demographic that will inherit it. ICANN85 proved that when linguistic diversity and youth engagement are prioritized, the internet moves closer to fulfilling its foundational promise: a single, secure, and interoperable network for all.
For this to turn into reality a much more active role and strong participation is required by all stake holders. If we don’t participate in the framing of the standards, technical protocols and governance then we will be left at the mercy of those who decide to do it. If we aren’t at the table when the rules are written, we’re at the mercy of those who are and then there is no point in complaining. So it is imperative to take an active participation in governance and technical standards which is essential to avoid being side-lined by the decisions of others as the global Internet is evolving.
— Suchit Nanda (www.suchitnanda.com) is a pioneering figure in the history of the Internet and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) in India and has consulted many International organisations like IDRC, ORBICOM, UNDP-APDIP, UNESCO etc. He has been associated with Express Computer since launch and has served as Advisor on the Editorial Board. Suchit contributed articles and wrote on technology for Express Computer. He is CEO of Online Services, Advisor to Reliance Industries Ltd., Reliance Foundation, SAGE Foundation and associated with APNIC Foundation.