The .shiksha Domain: India's Word for Education
The .shiksha domain entered the root zone on 16 January 2014 under an ICANN agreement dated 14 November 2013, and its registry operator is Identity Digital Limited. The word comes from Sanskrit, is widely used in Hindi and carries the sense of education and the passing on of knowledge. On 13 August 2026 the zone held 860 registrations, 607 of them in the zone file.
Schools in India, examination coaching institutes, university programmes, online course platforms and educational publishers make up the register. There is no eligibility requirement, and neither presence in the country nor accreditation is asked for. Try candidates in .shiksha domain search, and compare the .education page for an international reading.
The extension was opened for the Indian education ecosystem, yet its agreement carries no eligibility requirement at all: no presence in the country, no status as an educational institution and no accreditation certificate. The operator publishes no eligibility form specific to this extension either. A name pointing at a language or a sector does not show that you are authorised in it; authorisation always follows from the activity.
.SHIKSHA Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Identity Digital Limited
- Root zone entry 16 January 2014
- Eligibility None; no country, institution or accreditation is required
- Zone size 860 registrations, 607 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .shiksha domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.shiksha Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$16.90 /year -
Transfer
$51.99 /year -
Renewal
$55.99 /year -
Restore
$104.90 -
Late Renewal
$3.85
Included With Every .shiksha Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.shiksha Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .shiksha domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .shiksha address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .shiksha domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $3.85 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .shiksha returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.shiksha Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.shiksha Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .shiksha domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.shiksha Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .shiksha Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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The word comes from Sanskrit and is widely used in Hindi, carrying the sense of education, teaching and the passing on of knowledge. The extension was therefore opened for the Indian education ecosystem, and the address is recognised immediately by that audience. Try candidates on the .shiksha search page.
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No. The agreement defines neither a presence requirement nor a condition of being an educational institution, and the operator publishes no eligibility form specific to this extension. You can register from anywhere in the world. That said, the value of the extension rests on a linguistic link; if your audience does not read Hindi, the address will not carry the effect you expect.
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Look at the language of your audience. If you address students, parents and institutions in India, this word builds cultural proximity and stays in memory. If you enrol students from several countries or publish in English, .education carries meaning for a wider audience. The two belong to different registry operators.
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On 13 August 2026 the zone held 860 registrations with 607 in the zone file, about seventy-one per cent. It is among the smallest zones examined in this programme. The advantage is a high chance of finding your institution's full name free; the drawback is that recognition among visitors remains limited outside the target audience.
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Lift the lock, request the authorisation code and open the request at the gaining registrar. Not every registrar carries this extension, so confirm support at the gaining provider in advance. In education it also matters that the record is tied to an institutional mailbox. Run the process from the domain transfer page and check it with whois search.
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