[ICANN]<http://www.icann.org/> News Alert https://www.icann.org/resources/press-material/release-2015-06-22-en ________________________________ Indian Government Declares Support for Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance at ICANN53 22 June 2015 Buenos Aires, Argentina... Indian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad announced today India's support for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, during the opening ceremony of ICANN's 53rd public meeting in Buenos Aires. "The Internet must remain plural. It must be managed by a multistakeholder system," said Prasad. "Not only do we support multistakeholderism, but also we encourage multistakeholderism itself to embrace all geographies and all societies. We will partner with you all to make this a reality. We must work toward this new form of digital democracy." On March 14, 2014, the United States Government announced its intent to transition its stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community. Minister Prasad's statement of support marks not only an important milestone for the transition, but also speaks to the continued success of the multistakeholder model. "Today, with India joining this group of countries that openly support the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, we increase our ranks significantly, said ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé. "The decision that was made by India is a significant decision." Also during the opening ceremony, NIC.AR Director Gabriel Brenta discussed how NIC.AR incorporated the multistakeholder model into their business operations, stating, "Some years ago, we decided to make NIC.AR to go through a change. And that change was in line with the developments that were taking place all over the world. What our administration was doing in terms of domain names, we wanted to reflect all those changes, all those improvements, all those developments in what we believe has been our duty since then." ICANN also announced the winners of the 2015 Multistakeholder Ethos award - community leader Cheryl Langdon Orr and Africa Internet pioneer Nii Quaynor. The award is given to members of global Internet community who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the multistakeholder model. More than 1,400 members of the global Internet community will meet over the course of the week, both in-person and remotely, to discuss and debate the future of ICANN and Internet governance. The meeting's 300+ sessions are a continuation of the community's dedication to a global, secure, stable and resilient Internet, and their hard work in ensuring the success of the IANA stewardship transition. "People have put enormous effort to make this multistakeholder effort go, and thank you. Thank you all for this effort. It will be recorded in history," said Chehadé. Those unable to attend ICANN53 in person are highly encouraged to participate remotely. Details for doing so can be found for any of the sessions listed at https://buenosaires53.icann.org/en/schedule-full. ### To learn more about ICANN53 in Buenos Aires, please visit: https://buenosaires53.icann.org/en To download high-resolution photos of the meeting, please visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann Media Contacts Alexandra Dans Communications Manager, LAC Montevideo, Uruguay Tel: + 598 95 831 442 Email: alexandra.dans@icann.org<mailto:alexandra.dans@icann.org> James Cole Global Media Coordinator Washington, D.C. Tel: +1 202 733 7598 Email: james.cole@icann.org<mailto:james.cole@icann.org> ________________________________ About ICANN ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org<https://www.icann.org/>.