Our vision is to truly democratise internet across the country: Devesh Tyagi, CEO, NIXI

A report by Statista, a global data platform, reveals that internet penetration in India at present is around 52 percent. This is evident enough to understand the gap in internet penetration and adoption of digital across the length and breadth of the country. However, the Government of India, through its various initiatives like Digital India, proactively working towards enabling more and more population to go digital. Also, as internet penetration grows, it calls for regulations and norms for the effective governance of the internet wherein the people’s participation besides the government and the private sector plays a key role.

On the sidelines of the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF), Devesh Tyagi, CEO at the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) interacted with Express Computer. He shed light on the key roles of NIXI in ensuring true democratisation of the internet and the effective deployment of a multi-stakeholder model for internet governance. 

NIXI’s vision entails democratisation of internet technology across India. Considering the present status quo, what steps are you taking to achieve your vision?

The democratisation of the internet simply means that the same type of internet shall be available across the country. To achieve this we had specifically called out a theme ‘Internet for All’. NIXI is dedicatedly working towards the goal. We have established exchange points wherein the type of content delivery network (CDN) services available in metro cities, we are taking the to smaller cities and towns free of cost. Hence, the end goal is to ensure that, being in a city like Delhi, if I am getting a good internet service then another citizen residing in tier II or tier III city should also get the same quality of internet at their doorstep. 

One of the sessions emphasised that for internet governance a multi-stakeholder model (MSM) should be the approach and more participation from the people should be ensured. However, there is a significant chunk of the population unaware of the ins and outs of the internet and are not tech-savvy. So is the Government of India or NIXI working towards filling this gap to implement the MSM model effectively?

Considering the multi-stakeholder model in policymaking for the internet or sensitising people about the internet and their digital presence, there is a set of not-for-profit partnerships of people like ICANN, IGF, and more who are playing a key role in this area. We call these I-star organisations. Now, such organisations do not control the content on the Internet, nor they can stop spam or deal with access to the Internet. However, through their coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, such organisations do have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

At NIXI, we are working to ensure that the initial capacity building should be done at the college and school levels. The mention of these organisations is to highlight the importance of their work and how they are providing multiple opportunities for the people to be engaged in India and international internet governance. Many people, and even youth are unaware of such initiatives. Therefore, we plan to engage with organisations like ICANN, IGF, and more to leverage their platform and spread the word of awareness. 

How are you leveraging GenAI and LLMs for the welfare of citizens and to improve digital inclusion?

Most of us are well aware of the innovative initiatives Bhashini is taking up wherein they are leveraging LLMs to help citizens avail government services in over 20 indigenous languages. Now, how did NIXI come into the picture? We have created the primary domain names in 22 official Indian languages and we are offering these. Enterprises or people anyone can buy these domain names and can operate. We envision that once these domains are being taken in tier II or tier III cities, they will create content in their respective languages, this will be a breakthrough. At present, a majority of the content is being created in English only. 

A recent study revealed that the next major penetration in the internet will come from non-English speaking places or non-English speaking citizens. Such domain names open up a platform or foundation for creating content in different languages, and these are available to common citizens, and they will be able to interact better in their respective languages. That is when we will see the true democratisation of digital shaping up.

As much as GenAI is building capacities and pushing business growth, it is also complicating the threat landscape. How is NIXI geared up to safeguard the internet and Indian cyberspace?

Cybersecurity is a subject managed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and the Cyber Security Division along with NIXI. As an example, a particular domain .in that has been attacked or is witnessing a security compromise, then the Ministry reaches out to us and we, on an immediate basis, hold the server and block the domain to ensure the content does not spread any further. Besides, NIXI gets in touch with India Registry Information Network (IRIN) to spot the IP address. We track out the IP address and work with the law enforcement agency to assist them and neutralise the breach to safeguard the network.

With the onset of 5G and Web3.0 technologies, what are some major changes in Indian cyberspace? Further, how will these technologies reshape the digital landscape of the country?

There are multiple Centers of Excellence for 6G technologies coming up. The Ministry of Telecommunication has created many 5G centers as well and in the previous budget there was provision for working on 6G technologies. Also, organisations under MeitY have already put up R&D labs for 6G technology. I think we will be among the front-runners in deployment as well as in the creation of 6G technologies.

What are your plans and strategies for the year ahead?

For the year ahead, MeitY has approved a project to be implemented by NIXI in collaboration with the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA). At present, the SSL is not indigenous. Our CA is not a web trust-certified CA. So, they are not able to issue SSL certificates. They are being issued by other parties from foreign countries. Due to this, an SSL certificate issued in our country is not valid outside. Hence, with this project, we are now creating our CA and will become root SSL supplier which will be web trust recognised so that our CA and our SSL certificate are valid globally.