Oct 2015 09
Roundtable Discussion on Review of ICANN Geographical Regions
Abstract
This meeting was organised by the the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and focused on the Final Report prepared by the Geographic Regions Review Working Group. Shri. Sanjeev Mittal, Joint Secretary, DeitY chaired the roundtable and the discussions were moderated by Shri. Rahul Gosain, Director, DeitY. Rajat Rai Handa from the Internet Democracy Project participated as one of the civil society representatives.
In pursuance to India’s commitment to the multi-stakeholder approach towards Internet governance, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has been hosting a series of roundtables in order to invite comments from relevant stakeholders on key Internet governance issues. This was the fifth multi-stakeholder roundtable discussion in the series of roundtables.
This edition of the roundtable discussion was hosted by DeitY and focused on the Final Report prepared by the Geographic Regions Review Working Group. ICANN geographic regions are currently defined according to the United Nations Statistics Division’s existing classification. The main objective of the Working Group was to develop an alternate standard for geographic categorisation which would meet ICANN’s commitment to geographic diversity. The Report has made certain specific recommendations with respect to modifying the current classification of ICANN’s geographic regions and comments are sought on the same from the relevant stakeholder groups from India