When PM Modi's 'Start Up India' scheme forced an entrepreuner to change his domain name

A Delhi-based start-up entrepreneur has been asked to cancel a domain by the name of Startupindia.in that he registered in February 2014 – two years before Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Start-Up India programme.

As per reports in Moneycontrol, the request to cancel to domain came last week from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. It was mentioned that the ‘domain was misleading’ and was in violation with the Start-Up India programme. The domain for the government’s initiative is startupindia.gov.in.

StartupIndia.in has now put up a disclaimer citing that it has nothing to do with the government’s initiative of Startup India and that it is a website of the Startup India Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, a company incorporated in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in July 2015.

Cyberlaw experts say that such a directive can be challenged legally and it may encourage entrepreneurs to book less of ‘.in’ domains.

According to experts, booking domain names happens on a first come first serve basis. If there’s a conflict, the case mostly goes through a dispute resolution mechanism. If someone has booked a similar looking or similar type of domain, then it goes to an arbitrator.

The .IN registry which was launched in January 2005 serves as an autonomous body. Its primary responsibility is to maintain the .IN country code top level domain and see that it operates in a secure manner. Most countries have their own country code top-level domains such as '.us' for the US, '.au' for Australia or '.jp' for Japan.