APNIC’s role in India’s Internet governance was among the topics discussed at the most recent event in the Digital Dialogues series, themed ‘The Role of Internet Governance Platforms: APNIC’.
This series was organized by Indian think-tank, The Broadband India Forum (BIF), CCAOI and Bharat Exhibitions (BE), along with the support of the Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI) and the Indian Council for Research on Economic Relations (ICRIER).
Speaking at the event, APNIC’s Director General, Paul Wilson, highlighted the Internet as one of the greatest examples of successful human collaboration. He outlined the evolution of the IP address management system and the role of Regional Internet Registries, emphasizing the role of collaborative efforts that have led to the growth of the Internet and the multistakeholder model.
While discussing the community-led APNIC Policy Development Process (PDP), Paul highlighted the initiatives taken in creating policies for managing IPv4 and supporting IPv6, routing security through Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) and encouraging participation in the PDP.
APNIC and India
From the Indian stakeholders, Sanjay Goel, Joint Secretary, MeitY and CEO of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), outlined the history and role of NIXI and its engagement with APNIC, while K Ramchand from the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) highlighted the initiatives taken by DOT related to IPv6, including drafting the National IPv6 deployment roadmap (v-I and v-II). Sharing the industry perspective, Ramesh Chandra, Vice President – Network Planning & Engineering, Reliance Jio, outlined how his organization has built their technical capability and deployed IPv6, and their longstanding engagement with APNIC.
Despite networks deploying IPv6, all the speakers acknowledged the continuing demand for IPv4. To meet this demand, Ramesh, Sanjay, and Ramchand suggested there was a need to use reserved blocks of IPv4. Paul highlighted the APNIC Transfer Policy and the measures being taken by APNIC to meet this demand, including the process for the recovery of unused IPv4 address space.
Suggestions for development
Ramesh suggested service improvements for the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) and that APNIC could continue driving systems and processes beneficial for the community, such as RPKI implementation.
Read: A new infrastructure to serve RDAP
Paul also clarified that under the APNIC Transfer Policy, National Internet Registries (NIRs) cannot directly receive transfers. When the policy was being drafted, the focus of the community (including NIRs) was to ensure a process for Members to get Internet number resources efficiently and transparently.
Read: APNIC services to help your IPv4 transfers
Training and engagement
Sanjay suggested further capacity-building activities in India with the support of APNIC, including deploying dedicated trainers in India. Ramchand suggested conducting joint capacity-building initiatives between departments (DOT and MeiTY) and with APNIC for future training programs.
Paul highlighted APNIC’s work to build a network of community trainers across the region and create better linkages with educational institutions. He reiterated the importance of sharing expertise and best practices within the community to ensure the Internet functions efficiently.
Read: My experience as an APNIC Community Trainer
BIF President, Tirunelveli Ramachandran, shared key takeaways from the previous sessions on The Digital Dialogue series on Internet Governance, which included the suggestion of holding Internet Governance Forum and Internet Engineering Task Force meetings in India. Paul expressed APNIC’s willingness to support such endeavours.
Paul also highlighted the importance of the two yearly APNIC Survey, which the APNIC Executive Council uses to gather feedback to serve the community better, and he encouraged attendees to pass on their feedback.
Overall, it was a highly interactive and lively discussion. There was agreement to hold more discussions regularly, and BIF, NIXI and DOT expressed a willingness to continue the dialogue.
The recording of the session is available here.
Amrita Choudhury is the Director of CCAOI and an active contributor in the Internet Governance space.
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