ICANN85 Community Forum
Context:
The ICANN85 Community Forum is being held in Mumbai from March 7 to 12, 2026.
The event is organized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in collaboration with the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
It brings together global stakeholders to discuss the future of an open, secure, inclusive, and resilient Internet ecosystem
Key Focus Areas of ICANN85:
The forum emphasizes collaborative Internet governance, involving governments, industry leaders, technical experts, and civil society to develop policies and implement digital solutions.
The sessions focus heavily on the secure and stable operation of the Internet.
Key agenda items include the evolution of the Domain Name System (DNS), advancing cybersecurity practices, and the upcoming global expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
About ICANN:
Formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation, ICANN’s primary mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet.
To reach another device on the Internet, computers require unique addresses (names or numbers).
ICANN coordinates and supports the allocation of these unique global identifiers across the world, ensuring that computers know exactly where to find each other across the global network.
About National Internet Exchange of India:
NIXI is a not-for-profit organization set up under the aegis of MeitY to strengthen India's digital infrastructure.
Key Roles:
It facilitates the efficient exchange of domestic Internet traffic.
It manages the .IN and .भारत (.Bharat) country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs).
It actively promotes the broader adoption of Internet services across the country, supporting a resilient ecosystem aligned with India's digital growth ambitions.