Government Rolls Out 'One Nation, One Subscription' Initiative to Provide Access to Top Journals Across India

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday announced its ambitious 'One Nation, One Subscription' initiative, which aims to provide access to top international journals across various fields of study for over 1.8 crore students from state-funded higher education institutions in India.

Launched with a budgetary outlay of Rs 6,000 crore for the next three years, the initiative will enable researchers and students to access research papers published by 30 major publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley through the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET).

Under the plan, more than 13,400 international journals covering subjects like science, technology, engineering, medicine, mathematics, management, social sciences, and humanities will be made available to over 6,380 higher education and research institutes.

Addressing a press conference, Principal Scientific Advisor AK Sood said that all state public universities, colleges, and institutes of national importance will have access to top journals across various disciplines as part of the first phase.

In contrast, earlier institutions such as IITs or central universities subscribed to a limited set of journals related to specific disciplines. With ONOS, however, researchers will gain full access to these 13,400 international journals.

The initiative was formally launched on Wednesday and is expected to benefit over 1 crore students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities who currently lack direct access to top research papers due to their educational institutions' limited subscription options.

Sood said that the ONOS initiative would provide a level-playing field for researchers across all disciplines, empowering them to share findings and collaborate globally.

"The plan has been rolled out as a central sector scheme," Sood explained. "It aims to expand access to scholarly journals to a vast diaspora of students, faculty, researchers and scientists of all disciplines." The coordinator agency INFLIBNET will be responsible for coordinating the initiative across various state-funded higher education institutions in India.

While the first phase of ONOS provides access to international journals for three years, it is planned that private academic institutions may have access to these top research materials through a public-private partnership model.