In News:

• The government will soon roll out a public Domain Name Server, or DNS, for India aimed at providing a faster and more secure browsing experience for Internet users in the country, while ensuring that citizens’ data is stored locally.

Explained:

What is DNS?

• The Domain Name Systems (DNS) is the phonebook of the Internet. Humans access information online through domain names, like nytimes.com or espn.com. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources.
• Each device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address which other machines use to find the device. DNS servers eliminate the need for humans to memorize IP addresses such as 192.168.1.1 (in IPv4), or more complex newer alphanumeric IP addresses such as 2400:cb00:2048:1::c629:d7a2 (in IPv6).

Importance of own DNS?

• If the DNS is either slow or fails to work, users will not be able to locate web addresses. The main aim of bringing our own public DNS is to ensure availability, particularly for smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who don’t have credible DNS. Bigger ones usually have their own DNS
• Pointing out that there were other open DNS servers, including Google Public DNS, the government’s system would prevent users from visiting malicious websites.
• The roll-out, which will be executed by the National Informatics Centre – the technology arm of the government – will be completed in the next four to six months
• NIC is already using the public DNS within the government network.
• If you use any public DNS, they access and use all your data. It is not that users will compulsorily need to shift to India public DNS. A user is free to choose any DNS,” the official said, adding that with the government’s public DNS, Indian users’ data would be stored within the country

Is It State Sponsored Monitoring?

• No, need, if the government wants to block a website, we have a mechanism in place. We can send a list to the ISPs for reasons such as child porn or fake news, and they have to comply with the order.
• The ministry, as part of its ongoing awareness campaign for safer Internet, also plans to reach out to end-users to educate them on DNS and how they could shift to an Indian public DNS if they desired.