ONOS Initiative to Revolutionize Access to Global Research Papers for Indian Students
New Delhi: In an effort to promote research and scholarship in the country, the government is set to launch the 'One Nation, One Subscription' (ONOS) initiative on January 1. The ambitious project aims to provide access to top global journals to approximately 1.8 crore students from state-funded higher education institutions.
According to Principal Scientific Advisor AK Sood, who made a significant announcement at a press conference, more than 13,400 international journals covering various fields such as science, technology, engineering, medicine, mathematics, management, social sciences, and humanities will be available under the initiative's first phase.
Under ONOS, 6,380 higher education and research institutes will gain access to these journals, including 451 state public universities, 4,864 colleges, and 172 institutes of national importance. This represents a significant improvement over the existing regime, which only provided limited access to discipline-specific journals for institutions like IITs or central universities.
The ONOS initiative's second phase aims to extend access to private academic institutions through a public-private partnership model, while the third phase plans to offer universal access to international journals through designated points at public libraries. The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) will manage the initiative.
"We are pleased to announce that our One Nation, One Subscription initiative is going to revolutionize the access to high-quality research papers for students across the country," said Principal Scientific Advisor AK Sood. "This will significantly boost core and interdisciplinary research in India and provide equal opportunities to researchers across all disciplines."
The ONOS initiative has been launched as a central sector scheme with an allocated budget of Rs 6,000 crore for its three-year term.
With this initiative, the government aims to promote research and scholarship, bridging the gap between Indian researchers and global scholars. The launch of ONOS is expected to have far-reaching impacts on India's scientific ecosystem, paving the way for a more inclusive and competitive research community.