As on January 21, over 4000 applications for domain name registrations had been received by the .IN registrars, an official release said in New Delhi.

The registration for '.IN' domain name commenced on January 1 with the "sunrise period" extended till January 21.

All registered companies and registered trademark owners, technically known as sunrise applicants, were given this time period in which to select their addresses in their names after which a silent period will prevail.

These applications are now being processed. Registration will start for the general public from February 16. Those seeking to register after the stipulated period of February 15 will have to choose from the "left-over" names only.

There are currently six accredited registrars for '.IN' registry -- Directi, Net4India, Good Luck Domains Pvt Ltd, OnlineNIC, Inc, SGS Technologies, and Sify.

In addition to this, ERNET India is operating as a registrar for academic and research institutions, covering the domains, 'edu.in', 'ac.in' and 'res.in' while National Informatics Centre serves as the designated registrar for government organisations under the domain name '.gov.in'.

The government will appoint more registrars and this will be an open and continuous process.