Government Unveils Historic One Nation One Subscription Scheme to Promote Academic Excellence in India

In a groundbreaking move, the Indian government announced on Monday that its union cabinet has approved a new central government initiative aimed at transforming the country's academic landscape by providing seamless access to scholarly research articles and journal publications nationwide.

The scheme, dubbed 'One Nation One Subscription', is set to take effect on January 1, 2025. According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's led cabinet, the aim of this revolutionary initiative is to democratize access to academic resources for students, faculty, and researchers in higher education institutions across India.

With the launch of this unified portal, eligible institutions will no longer have to subscribe to multiple platforms for accessing research articles and journal publications. The One Nation One Subscription scheme promises to simplify the current fragmented subscription model used by various institutions, thereby saving time and effort for users.

This flagship initiative is backed by a total budget allocation of ₹6,000 crore for the years 2025, 2026, and 2027. A significant chunk of this budget will be allocated to setting up and maintaining the unified portal, as well as covering content acquisition costs from over 30 international publishers.

The INFLIBNET consortium has been entrusted with managing the entire platform, ensuring seamless access to over 13,000 journals for approximately 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers across more than 6,300 government-run higher education institutions and research facilities.

According to the ministry of knowledge and human resources, this scheme promises to be a transformative step in enhancing academic standards across India's educational landscape.

"We are committed to ensuring that every higher education institution has equal access to world-class scholarly content," said an official from Ministry of Education. "The One Nation One Subscription initiative will help us achieve just that."

Critics welcomed the move, hailing it as a significant step towards promoting academic excellence in India.