The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS) scheme, under which all centrally-run and state-run higher education institutions will have access to reputed journals published by international publishers on a single platform. Access will be provided through a national subscription, coordinated by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), an autonomous inter-university center under the University Grants Commission (UGC). Currently, there are ten separate library consortia under different ministries that provide access to journals for higher education institutions within their administrative remit. In addition, individual institutions subscribe to journals separately. However, with ONOS, all government higher education institutions, including universities, colleges, and institutions of national importance, will have unified access to national and international journal publications covering all academic disciplines on one platform. The scheme involves an outlay of ₹6,000 crore for three years, until 2027, and will provide subscriptions to around 13,000 journals published by 30 international publishers. Apart from higher education institutions run by the Centre and states, research and development institutions under the Centre will also be included, covering around 6,300 institutions. All 13,000 journals will be accessible to these institutions under the scheme. INFLIBNET will make central payments to the 30 publishers, while institutions can continue to use their own budgets to subscribe to publishers not covered under the scheme. Among the publishers included in the scheme are Elsevier ScienceDirect, Springer Nature, Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Taylor & Francis, Sage Publishing, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and BMJ Journals. The scheme is expected to provide broader access to research journals for institutions that previously lacked sufficient resources. The platform is set to become operational on January 1, 2025.
