Why India wants its own internet root server from ICANN

Every time you open a website, send an email or run a search, your phone or computer has to do one thing first. It has to find the address.

You typed a name — say, “thepioneer.com.” But machines don’t understand names. They understand numbers. So your device asks: which number goes with this name? That question travels up a chain of computers until it reaches the very top of the internet’s address book. At the top sit a small set of machines called root servers. For most of the internet’s history, they have been based in the United States.