BANGALORE, INDIA: The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a government agency that facilitates exchange of domestic Internet traffic between the peering ISPs. Its CEO Govind in an interaction with CIOL speaks on department's roadmap for 2015, IPv6 upgrade and www.registry.in programme.

CIOL: What is the domestic Internet scenario in India? What are the steps that you are taking to safeguard small ISPs vis-a-vis large ISPs?

Govind: The domestic Internet scenario in India is unique with several large and small ISPs spread across a large geographical area. NIXI is a not-for-profit organization under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956. NIXI is managed and operated on a neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives globally. Presently, NIXI has 7 nodes operating in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Equipment have also been deployed at three more nodes at Lucknow & Mohali (Chandigarh), Guwahati but ISPs are yet to start peering at these nodes. At the end of Nov 2011, there were around 164 operational ISPs, out of which 59 were category ‘A’, 58 were category ‘B’ and 47 were category ‘C’. By and large, category ‘A’ ISPs are connected at 4 metro cities only. Very few ISPs are connected at the nodes in state capitals other than metros.

The Routing and Tariff Policy of NIXI attempts at addressing the concerns of the large as well as the small ISPs at the same time keeping the larger national interest in mind by promoting domestic hosting of content as well as saving foreign exchange by keeping domestic traffic within India.

CIOL: With increasing Internet traffic, what's your roadmap for 2015?

Govind: To increase the quantum of traffic exchanged from the present 13 Gbps to 100 Gbps by the year 2015.

What is safe Surfing Campaign for school kids? What are your expectations from this program?

Safe Surfing campaign was done by IAMAI in association with NIXI. The project started on July 25, 2009 and was completed on Feb 4, 2010. The campaign was focused on students of sixth standard and above spreading awareness about Internet, presentation on safe surfing habits, positive offerings of the Internet as a tool for education and knowledge and Do’s and Don'ts of Internet usage.

Some of our key achievements include:
Total 2.5 lakh students and 180 schools were covered.
Increased Internet awareness.
Establishment of 6 Internet training centres with IAMAI during the campaign.