Hyderabad, the emerging hub of the IT industry in India, is in the race to host the Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers (ICANN) Conference to be held in the Asia-Pacific region in 2013, a senior state IT official said here today.

ICANN is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for managing Domain Name Systems to protect the uniqueness of web addresses. Besides overseeing the distribution of unique internet protocol addresses and domain names, the organisation works to ensure each domain name is mapped to the correct IP address.

Senior officials of the ICANN Conference Organising Committee recently called on Andhra Pradesh Minister for IT and Communications, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, and briefed him on the event to be held from April 7-12, 2013, the IT Department official, who did not wish to be named, said.

"Hyderabad, which is already known as the convention capital of India and a unique destination in comparison to others, is determined and willing to make a sincere attempt to secure the bid to organise the event," the official told PTI.

ICANN is actively seeking locations for three public meetings to be held between April 7-12, 2013, in the Asia-Pacific; July 14-19, 2013, in Africa; and November 17-22, 2013, in Latin America.

The conference is expected to see participation by the who's-who of the global IT industry.