India, my lovely country, so full of colour and sunshine. With over 500 dialects, innumerable festivities and different flavours every few hundred miles, it still holds so many surprises for me every time I wander onto a new land in its territory. India, my colourful country. Oops! does it sound like clichéd patriotism from a class 7 student's notebook? Ok let me get straight to the point.

My latest two absolutely authentic Indian experiences. The first, Mangalorian surmai curry with rice, absolutely yummy and delightful, and the other a little away from gastronomical delights, the booking of .IN domains.

If you remember I had devoted an entire column titled 'Swades', the Indian Identity and how the Indian, read .IN, identity would benefit Indian entrepreneurs. Well, February 16th, the deadline for Sunrise Policy Period has expired and its time to look at who has got what.

Government of India is for sale!

Government of India is for sale! At least virtually it is. Don't believe me try this governmentofindia.IN When I put in a bid for 160 Euros, this is what it said "Premium domain names typically sell for three or four-figure amounts". Absolutely right, our Government is super premium, I am not sure about the three to four figures though! Well, let's not get too harsh, the Government timings are 9 to 5. Also our babus are old and also this Internet rubbish thing is new. So let's look at the other owners of the proud .IN identities.

India is a booming economy. Take a deep breath we have reason to be proud, chest out. The phrase even gives 1,73,000 results in Google, even more that it gives for USA! Trillions of bytes on this by whoever matters in the world. There is Nasscom, there is BBC, Businessweek, Time and you just name it.

India, like its highways, loves giving you surprises. You zoom your car at 120 kmph and suddenly it gets bumpy. Will somebody please tell me why in this "India is a booming economy" era is some Rolf Bluethgen from Zuerich the owner of ebusiness.IN, why is Christoph Hartmann from Braunschweig the owner of business.IN and why is web.IN not a property of India?

New Delhi is the capital of India I always believed. Virtually it now belongs to a gentleman from San Francisco. All this when .IN was meant to be an "Indian" identity. The Blame Game sadly, it isn't a part of Olympics, otherwise we would win a Gold at least there. Does the blame lie with Indian entrepreneurs not being responsive enough? I absolutely disagree. This humble columnist tried registering all the names relevant to his business. I even paid an advance for that. All those names except one are owned by non-Indians.

The blame game starts now….

My .IN pride

Of all the names I tried registering, I managed to secure at least one www.websitepromotion.in. My plans? Well, for one I can flaunt my Indian identity. But more that I can offer my fully value added service with the proud made in .IN label. Despite, the bumps, India moves. Business.IN certainly could have done better.

About the author

Puneet Mehrotra is a web strategist at www.Cyberzest.com and edits www.MidnightEdition.com He is the Interent Economy Columnist for HindustanTimes.com

You can mail him on: ebiz333@yahoo.com