onos-launch-to-launch-jan-1-1-8-crore-students-to-benefit

About 18 million students from state-funded higher education institutions, including universities and IITs, will gain access to research papers published in leading international journals from 1 January, under the government’s ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ (ONOS) initiative.

 

Speaking at a press conference, Principal Scientific Advisor A.K. Sood announced that over 13,400 international journals spanning science, technology, engineering, medicine, mathematics, management, social sciences, and humanities would be available to researchers in the first phase of the ONOS scheme.

 

Under this initiative, 451 state public universities, 4,864 colleges, and 172 institutes of national importance will be among the 6,380 higher education and research institutions granted access to journals from 30 publishers, including Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley.

 

"Previously, institutions like IITs or central universities subscribed to a limited set of journals related to specific fields. With ONOS, all institutions will have access to 13,400 research journals," said Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology.

 

The ONOS initiative is set to launch on 1 January, providing access to leading journals for three years. In its second phase, the government plans to extend the scheme to private academic institutions via a public-private partnership model. The third phase will enable universal access to international journals through designated access points in public libraries.

 

The programme will be coordinated by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), an autonomous inter-university centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

 

"This initiative will significantly broaden access to academic journals for students, faculty, researchers, and scientists across all disciplines, including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, fostering both core and interdisciplinary research across the country," Sood added.

 

The central sector scheme has been launched with a budget of ₹6,000 crore for the initial three-year period.