ICANN85 in Mumbai: strengthening the single, interoperable internet for all

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will convene its 85th Public Meeting in Mumbai from 7–12 March 2026, hosted by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). With its more than one billion Internet users and a thriving digital economy, India is an ideal location for participants from around the world to gather at the ICANN85 Community Forum to advance the technical work that ensures the secure and stable operation of the Internet.

“Ten years after the ICANN Public Meeting in Hyderabad, the ICANN85 Community Forum in Mumbai offers the Indian Internet community an excellent opportunity to attend and participate in the global dialogue on important Internet governance issues,” said Samiran Gupta, ICANN Vice President for Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region. “I want to thank our host NIXI for bringing ICANN85 to Mumbai and I look forward to a fruitful meeting.”

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S Shri S. Krishnan, IAS Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (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.”

Key Topics at ICANN85: The New gTLD Program, ICANN Community’s Role in Advancing a Multilingual Internet, and the Multistakeholder Model

ICANN85 takes place at a pivotal moment – just before the launch of the New gTLD Program in April. The program, the next expansion of the Domain Name System, helps to evolve the global digital landscape.Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are the extensions that appear after a website name—such as .travel, .company, .bank —and the New gTLD Program allows organizations to create customized domain endings like .brand, .city to better reflect their identity and audience. It provides businesses, communities, governments, and other organizations the rare opportunity to apply for new top-level domains tailored to fit their organization, community, culture, language, and customer interests. The meeting will include important updates about the New gTLD Program.

The New gTLD Program advances ICANN’s 2030 vision as the trusted steward of the Internet’s unique identifier systems to strengthen the single, globally interoperable Internet for all. This truly multilingual Internet enables people globally to use the Internet in their own languages and scripts, which matches the Indian government’s approach towards expanding Internet usage. The cultural and economic benefits of a multilingual Internet are clear. It will serve India’s local language communities as well as the needs of language communities around the world. It will also provide a unique business opportunity for India’s information technology sector.

With its cultural and linguistic diversity, India can be the torchbearer for the rest of the world, not just for enabling the next billion users to get online, but also for native speakers to use the Internet in their native script.

ICANN85 is the first ICANN Public Meeting since the United Nations General Assembly adopted the WSIS+20 Outcomes Document on 17 December 2025. The World Summit on the Information Society: 20-year review (WSIS+20) reaffirmed that the Internet is a shared global resource whose stability, openness, and interoperability depend on the multistakeholder model approach, a position strongly supported by ICANN and the government of India.

The WSIS+20 marked a reaffirmation rather than an end point, demonstrating the need to continue the work of the multistakeholder model, bringing new voices and expertise into the Internet governance ecosystem, strengthening knowledge transfer and capacity building, and sustaining engagement through forums like ICANN Public Meetings.

ICANN Community Excellence Award

Continuing its tradition of recognizing outstanding community member contributions, the ICANN Community Excellence Award will be presented at the Welcome Ceremony (9 March 2026). This award recognizes ICANN community members who have deeply invested in consensus-based solutions and contributed substantively to the ICANN multistakeholder model.

Registration

In-person registration remains open until 6 March 2026. On-site registration is not available. Attendance is free and open to all. For more information, and to register, please visit the meeting website.

About ICANN

ICANN’s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique, so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.

About NIXI

The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a not-for-profit organization set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India. NIXI plays a critical role in strengthening India’s Internet infrastructure by facilitating efficient exchange of domestic Internet traffic, managing the .INand .भारत(.Bharat) country-code top-level domains, and promoting adoption of Internet services across the country. Through its initiatives, NIXI supports a secure, resilient, and inclusive Internet ecosystem aligned with India’s digital growth ambitions.