Kobe (Japan), March 12: In a very keenly contested election for the Chair of Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) which is supported by the International Internet Body (ICANN), Indian IT Firm Data Xgen’s Chief Dr Ajay Data was elected as chairman today and he becomes the first Asian to occupy this prestigious post.
During the ongoing conference of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) here, over 400 global IT companies’ representatives from 32 countries voted to elect Chair of UASG which is an Internet community initiative and tasked with undertaking activities that will effectively promote the Universal Acceptance of all valid domain names and email addresses. Dr Data defeated Richard Merdinger, Vice President, GoDaddy.
The Group’s members come from global IT companies such as Apple, GoDaddy, Afilias, Google, Microsoft, XgenPlus and Verisign and it receives financial and administrative support from ICANN.
Dr Data will take charge of Chair from Mr Ram Mohan, COO of Afilias. He will be the first Asian to occupy the seat with two years tenure.
Commenting on his election to chair of UASG, the Founder and CEO of Data Xgen Technologies Dr Ajay Data said, “First of all, I extend my sincere gratitude to members who expressed confidence in me for taking forward Universal Acceptance Mission forward. We will work collectively to break all barriers on internet.”
Last year in July, Dr Data was nominated as member of ccNSO of the Council to represent Asia Pacific region.
“Now, I have dual responsibility to address UA readiness issues and provide support. It is surely a mission for us to bring millions of people online. My priority would be people across globe should not face any linguistic barrier or hindrance in writing, sharing and communicating in their own languages on internet,” he added.
The UASG helps organizations ensure their systems are UA-ready and able to accept all domain names and email addresses in any valid script.
