"Growth of Internet activity in India is extraordinary so it's fitting that the ICANN community is gathering there to discuss major Internet issues like internationalized domain names and new generic top-level domains," said Paul Levins, ICANN's Executive Officer and Vice President - Corporate Affairs.

The ICANN Board accepted the proposal put forward by Department of Information Technology, Government of India, along with the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

"The four proposals we received to host the ICANN meeting slated for the Asia-Pacific region were extremely competitive. We want to thank the Internet communities in Australia, Hong Kong, India, and the United Arab Emirates for their proposals."

Each year ICANN holds three meetings in different regions around the world. These meetings constitute an essential part of ICANN's global consensus-building and outreach efforts. The ICANN Meetings Committee sets the regions in which ICANN will hold its meetings. Proposals are then solicited from organizations interested in hosting the ICANN Meeting.

About ICANN:

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Media Contacts:

Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN (USA)
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org

International: Andrew Robertson
Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588 770
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com