.hdfc New gTLD Application
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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED
Application Downloaded On: 18 Mar 2015
String: hdfc
Application ID: 1-1859-23172
Applicant Information
- Full legal name
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED
- Address of the principal place of business
Ramon House
169 Backbay Reclamation, Churchgate Mumbai, Maharashtra - 400020 IN
- Phone number
+912266316209
- Fax number
+912222811203
- If applicable, website or URL
http://www.hdfc.com
Primary Contact
6(a). Name
Arivazhagan Rengasamy
6(b). Title
Member of Executive Management
6(c). Address
6(d). Phone Number
912266316447
6(e). Fax Number
912222821366
6(f). Email Address
Secondary Contact
7(a). Name
Sankaranarayan Ranganathan
7(b). Title
General Manager - IT
7(c). Address
7(d). Phone Number
+912267546009
7(e). Fax Number
+91222811203
7(f). Email Address
Proof of Legal Establishment
8(a). Legal form of the Applicant
Limited liability
8(b). State the specific national or other jurisdiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).
India
8(c). Attach evidence of the applicant's establishment.
Attachments are not displayed on this form.
9(a). If applying company is publicly traded, provide the exchange and symbol.
Bombay_Stock_Exchange / HDFC
9(b). If the applying entity is a subsidiary, provide the parent company.
9(c). If the applying entity is a joint venture, list all joint venture partners.
Applicant Background
11(a). Name(s) and position(s) of all directors
Name
Position
B N Jalan Director
B S Mehta Director
D M Sukhthankar Director
D N Ghosh Director
Deepak S. Parekh Chairman
J J Irani Director
Keki M Mistry VC & CEO
N M Munjee Director
R S Tarneja Director
Renu S Karnad Managing Director
S A Dave Director
V Srinivasa Ranga Executive Director
11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners
Name
Position
Keki M Mistry VC & CEO
Renu Sud Karnad Managing Director
V Srinivasa Rangan Executive Director
11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares
11(d). For an applying entity that does not have directors, officers, partners, or shareholders: Name(s) and position(s) of all individuals having legal or executive responsibility
Applied-for gTLD string
- Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.
hdfc
14A. If applying for an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").
14B. If an IDN, provide the meaning, or restatement of the string in English, that is, a description of the literal meaning of the string in the opinion of the applicant.
14C1. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).
14C2. If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).
14D1. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).
14D2. If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).
14E. If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.
15A. If an IDN, upload IDN tables for the proposed registry. An IDN table must include:
the applied-for gTLD string relevant to the tables,
the script or language designator (as defined in BCP 47),
table version number,
effective date (DD Month YYYY), and
contact name, email address, and phone number.
Submission of IDN tables in a standards-based format is encouraged.
15B. Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.
15C. List any variants to the applied-for gTLD string according to the relevant IDN tables.
- Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string. If such issues are known, describe steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues in software and other applications.
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED anticipates the introduction of this TLD without operational or rendering problems. Based on a decade of experience launching and operating new TLDs, Afilias, the back-end provider of registry services for this TLD, is confident the launch and operation of this TLD presents no known challenges. The rationale for this opinion includes:
- The string is not complex and is represented in standard ASCII characters and follows relevant technical, operational and policy standards;
- The string length is within lengths currently supported in the root and by ubiquitous Internet programs such as web browsers and mail applications;
- There are no new standards required for the introduction of this TLD;
- No onerous requirements are being made on registrars, registrants or Internet users, and;
- The existing secure, stable and reliable Afilias SRS, DNS, WHOIS and supporting systems and staff are amply provisioned and prepared to meet the needs of this TLD.
- OPTIONAL.
Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).
18A. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.
About HDFC:
Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) was established in 1977 with the primary objective of meeting a social need of encouraging home ownership by providing
long-term finance to households. A pioneer and leader in housing finance in India, since inception, HDFC has assisted close to 4 million customers to own a home of their own, through cumulative housing loan approvals of over INR. 3.73 trillion and disbursements of over INR. 3.02 trillion, as at March 31, 2011. It is one of the largest mobiliser of retail deposits with a deposit base of over INR 340 billion from over 1 million depositors.
HDFC has a wide network of 304 offices (which includes 76 offices of HDFCʹs wholly owned distribution company HDFC Sales Private Limited) catering to over 2,400 towns and cities spread across the country. It also has offices in Dubai, London and Singapore and service associates in the Middle East region, to provide housing loans and property advisory services to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).In the online space, HDFC reaches out to its customers through its web site (www.hdfc.com) and .mobi-site (m.hdfc.com) in the mobile space.
Over the years, HDFC has emerged as a financial conglomerate with its presence in the entire gamut of financial services including banking, insurance (life and non-life), asset management, real estate venture capital and more recently education loans. The HDFC group manages assets of over INR 6.3 trillion and has a customer base of over 39 million.
For the year ended March 31, 2011, HDFC’s gross income were INR 128.78 billion and Profit after tax was INR 35.35 billion and the total assets of HDFC stood at INR 1.33 trillion
Mission of .HDFC
HDFC believes that the digital medium is fast-growing to become an indispensable medium for brands in the years to come. It therefore becomes imperative for HDFC to leverage our brand presence online and be technologically adept to reach out to young India.
Purpose of .HDFC
Currently, the web sites of HDFC are registered under several existing TLDs like “.com”, “.in”,“.net” and so on, with different second level domains forvarious products and purposes. Various second level domains are registered to protect and defend the brand HDFC. Widespread possible naming conventions⁄ Cybersquatting in the existing TLDs may mislead any financial institutional customers to various phishing⁄malicious web sites, leading to online fraud. HDFC wants to have an exclusive ownership of a TLD, as it intends to have complete control on the second-level domain names to have “worldwide Uniform presence for the Brand HDFC” and provide confidence to customers by consolidating and simplifying their online identity.
Owning a TLD (.hdfc) can bring in multiple advantages and can help in building the brand equity in the following ways -
- Fully branded, owned and protected domain names
- Opportunity to showcase Brand Leadership
- First Mover advantage in the Home Loans Category
- Adds to Brand Equity and therefore complements Valuation
- Builds authenticity and trust for the brand on the Internet
- Reinforces association of products and services with the brand in the minds of consumers
- Unique brand platforms that are controlled, purposeful and relevant
- Builds customer engagement and increases long-term brand loyalty
- Shorter URLs help in top-of-mind recall for the brand
- Supplements navigation experience
- Increases geographical relevance to the brand
- Attribute-centric digital experiences can be built around second-level domains
- Aids in SEO, Search Engine efforts and optimizing media spends
- Defined URLs bring in security and adds to the confidence of online users
- Running Social Media Campaigns that brings in social relevance to the brand in the consumer space
- Building brand affinity with increased levels of customer engagement
- Enhances Online Reputation Management
- Protection against Brand Dilution
- Employee Engagement and internal communication
- Protection of Brand Goodwill
- Adaptable to numerous future innovations, businesses, services and opportunities
- Protection against likely frauds
- Reduces costs related to multiple domain purchase, security of data, malware, phishing etc
HDFC Limited witnesses a visitor base of 600,000 per month approximately, on www.hdfc.com.
These are users who are seeking information on various products and services, applying online for various products and services, accessing company’s financial performances, seeking information on Company News and announcements, exploring career opportunities with the Company or existing customers accessing their Accounts.
In addition to the conventional media vehicles like the Print, Outdoors, Eventsand Exhibitions, Cable, Below-The-Line Activities etc., HDFC spends substantial amounts on the digital medium.
HDFC will be using .hdfc exclusively for its internal divisions, subsidiaries and appointed third party distributors. HDFC intends using .hdfc exclusively for its varied products and services. Currently HDFC has purchased more than 50 domain names on other TLDs such as .com, .net, .in to run its operations on the Internet. Currently www.hdfc.com caters to different housing and non-housing products like Home Loans, Home Improvement Loans, Home Extension Loans, Short Term Bridging Loans, Land Loans, Loan Against Property, Non Residential Premises Loans, NRI Home Loans, Rural Housing Finance etc. In addition, the web site also caters to the needs of existing customers.
HDFC estimates that in the first year after .hdfc is allotted to HDFC, around 50second-level domains will be registered; in the second- year around 200second-level domains will be live and in the third-year around 300 second-level domains will be live.
In the first-year, the focus of HDFC will be to cater to multiple purposes that will aid the business needs of the organization. For instance, the Online Access for existing customers will be separated out with a new second-level domain name www.customerservice.hdfc. Similarly, all home loans related content and details would be made available under www.homeloans.hdfc, the content of loan against property would be made available under www.loanagainstproperty.hdfc,details about deposit products would be made available under www.fixeddeposits.hdfc, and so on. All such second-level domains for various service-led offerings will also be created under the new gTLD of HDFC.
18B. How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?
The registrants for the gTLD to be availed by HDFC will be from the internal divisions of HDFC, its subsidiaries and our third party distribution network, as the gTLD is proposed to be exclusively used by HDFC, its subsidiaries and appointed third party distributors. Due to this, only legitimate second-level domain names will be registered. Complete control over the TLD will significantly improve security by minimizing opportunities for phishing or distribution of Trojans⁄malware and other causes of online fraud.
Benefits to the registrants are as follows:
- Sense of brand ownership
- Heightened brand visibility
- Increased brand preference
- Increased probability of higher ranking on search engines
- Optimization of media spends
- Perceived risk offset
- Greater control on security
- Online brand reputation management
- Builds customer perceptions of “Technologically ahead”
- Associating products and services with the brand
- Shorter URLs
- Reduction in security related costs
Existing domain name of Online Access page of HDFC ishttps:⁄⁄online.hdfc.com⁄inet⁄, the
second-level domain name of this domain will be www.customerservice.hdfc . Similarly, all other products and service-led domain names will be created under the .hdfc such as www.ruralhousing.hdfc, www.loanagainstproperty.hdfc, www.deposits.hdfcand so on.
Further, users of .hdfc will benefit by:
- Authenticity and genuineness of the brand web site and distribution network
- Perceived security due to brand ownership
- Various avenues for brand interaction
- Heightened brand engagement
- Relevance of Content
- Quicker query response time
- Better recall of shorter URLs
Registry policies
As mentioned above in purpose .HDFC will be used for the HDFC brand, our subsidiaries and partners. It will only be available to these registrants of HDFC(including the Sunrise period). It will not be offered to the general public as it is only for limited purpose.
In general, domains will be offered for periods of one to ten years. Initial registrations made in the Sunrise period may have a minimum number of years required. For example, there may be a policy that all Sunrise names must be registered for an initial term of at least one year.
The roll-out of our TLD is anticipated to feature the following phases:
- Reservation of reserved names and premium names, which will be distributed through special mechanisms (detailed below).
- Sunrise — the required period for trademark owners to secure their domains before availability to the general public. This phase will feature applications for domain strings, verification of trademarks via Trademark Clearinghouse and a trademark verification agent, auctions between qualified parties who wish to secure the same string, and a Trademark Claims Service.
- General Availability period — real-time registrations, made on a first-come first-served basis. Trademark Claims Service will be in use for the first 60 days after General Availability applications open.
The registration of domain names in the .HDFC TLD will follow standard practices, procedures and policies, which include the following:
- Domain registration polices (for example, grace periods, transfer policies, etc.) are defined in response #27.
- Abuse prevention tools and policies, for example, measures to promote WHOIS accuracy and efforts to reduce phishing and pharming, are discussed in detail in our response #28.
- Rights protection mechanisms and dispute resolution mechanism policies (for example, UDRP, URS) are detailed in #29.
Other detailed policies for this domain include policies for reserved names.
Reserved names
There are two categories of reserved names for this TLD: registry reserved and premium names.
Registry reserved names
We will reserve the following classes of domain names, which will not be made generally available to registrants via the Sunrise or subsequent periods:
- All of the reserved names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement.
- The geographic names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement.
- The registry operator’s own name and variations thereof, and registry operations names (such as registry.tld, and www.tld), for internal use.
- Names related to ICANN and Internet standards bodies (iana.tld, ietf.tld, w3c.tld, etc.), for delegation of those names to the relevant organizations upon their request.
- The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.
Premium names
As mentioned above in purpose .hdfc will be used for HDFC and its subsidiaries. Although the policy for premium names is defined, the same will not be applicable due to the defined TLD purpose.
The registry will also designate a set of premium domain names, set aside for distribution via special mechanisms. The list of premium names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know that these names are not available. Premium names may be distributed via mechanisms such as requests for proposals, contests, direct sales, and auctions.
For the auctioning of premium names, we intend to contract with an established auction provider that has successfully conducted domain auctions. This will ensure that there is a tested, trustworthy technical platform for the auctions, auditable records, and reliable collection mechanisms. With our chosen auction provider, we will create and post policies and procedures that ensure clear, fair, and ethical auctions. As an example of such a policy, all employees of the registry operator and its contractors will be strictly prohibited from bidding in auctions for domains in the TLD. The auction rules will cover all possible scenarios, such as how domains will be awarded if the winning bidder does not make payment.
- Privacy and confidential information protection
As per the New gTLD Registry Agreement, we will make domain contact data (and other fields) freely and publicly available via a Web-based WHOIS server. This default set of fields includes the mandatory publication of registrant data. Our Registry-Registrar Agreement will require that registrants consent to this publication.
We shall notify each of our registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”) submitted to the Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data (the data in question is essentially the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS). We will require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for the collection and use of such Personal Data. The policies will be posted publicly on our TLD web site. As the registry operator, we shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in any way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.
Our privacy and data use policies are as follows:
- As registry operator, we do not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data. We will not sell contact data in any way. We will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations.
- DNS query data will never be sold in a way that is personally identifiable.
- We may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.
As the registry operator we shall take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In our responses to Question 30 (“Security Policy”) and Question 38 (“Escrow”) we detail the security policies and procedures we will use to protect the registry system and the data contained therefrom from unauthorized access and loss.
Please see our response to Question 26 (“WHOIS”) regarding “searchableWHOIS” and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how we will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.
In order to acquire and maintain accreditation for our TLD, we will require registrars to adhere to certain information technology policies designed to help protect registrant data. These will include standards for access to the registry system and password management protocols. Our response to Question 30, “Security Policy” provides details of implementation.
We will allow the use of proxy and privacy services, which can protect the personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. We are aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect their free speech rights, or to avoid religious or political persecution.
18C. What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences/costs imposed upon consumers?
HDFC TLD has adopted the above-mentioned and other policies to ensure fair and equitable access and cost structures to the Internet community, including:
- no new burdens placed on the Internet community to resolve name disputes
- utilization of standard registration practices and policies (as detailed in responses to questions 27, 28, 29)
- protection of trademarks at launch and on-going operations (as detailed in the response to question 29)
- fair and reasonable wholesale prices
- fair and equitable treatment of registrars As per the ICANN Registry Agreement, we will use only ICANN-accredited registrars, and will provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to those registrars.
Pricing Policies and Commitments
Pricing for domain names at General Availability will be $0 per domain year. Applicant reserves the right to change this pricing for promotional purposes in a manner available to all accredited registrars. Registry Operator reserves the right to work with ICANN to initiate an increase in the wholesale price of domains if required. Registry Operator will provide reasonable notice to the registrars of any approved price increase.
Privacy Policy:
In line with the recognized International practice and for the information of customers and others who visit our HDFC and its subsidiaries web sites, we believe it is necessary to post a privacy statement. We understand that our customers and web site visitors are concerned about the privacy of information. We have established policies and procedures concerning the collection, use and security of users’ information that will help protect their privacy. Our privacy policies are designed to help us serve our customers⁄visitors while maintaining strict privacy and security standards. Customer confidentiality and privacy are of utmost concern to HDFC.
HDFC respects the privacy rights and interests of each person and will observe the following principles when processing sensitive ⁄ personal data:
(i) Data will be processed fairly and lawfully.
(ii) Data will be collected for specified and legitimate purposes and not processed further in ways incompatible with those purposes which have been duly explained, communicated to and consented to by each person concerned.
(iii) Data will be relevant to and not excessive for the purposes for which they are collected and used. For example, data may be rendered anonymous when feasible and appropriate, depending on the nature of the data and the risks associated with the intended uses.
(iv) Data will be kept only as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed and in accordance with data storage requirements under various applicable local laws.
(v) Data will be processed in having full regard to each person’s lawful rights (as described in these Standards or as provided by appropriate law).
(vi) All appropriate technical, physical, and organizational measures will be taken to prevent unauthorized access, unlawful processing, and unauthorized or accidental loss, destruction, or damage to data.
(vii) HDFC does not release customer information except as directed by law or as per your mandate.
We use information to:
- Comply with all applicable laws and regulations
- Help us design or improve our products and services for users benefit.
- Understand users’ needs so that we can provide quality products and superior services.
- To comply with laws, guidelines and regulations that govern the financial services in the country.
Privacy policy is subject to change periodically.