The Indian government’s announcement of the One Nation One Subscription scheme is set to revolutionise academic access in the country. Starting from January 1, 2025, the initiative will grant 18 million students, faculty, and researchers across 6,300 government-funded institutions access to nearly 13,000 paywalled scientific journals. This groundbreaking move is poised to make a significant impact on academic resources in India, enabling a broader demographic of scholars to access top-tier journals.
The scheme is the result of a monumental agreement with 30 major global publishers, including Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley, and carries an estimated cost of $715 million over three years. This is a sharp increase from the approximately $200 million that Indian government-funded institutions were spending annually on subscriptions in 2018. However, the agreement offers far more value, covering a larger number of journals and reaching a wider audience, according to Devika Madalli, Director of the Information and Library Network Centre.
One of the standout aspects of this deal is its potential to benefit underfunded institutions, which often struggle to afford subscriptions to scientific journals. Aniket Sule, of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, expressed optimism about the plan, emphasising how it would allow resource-strapped universities and colleges to access a broader range of academic materials. This expanded access is especially beneficial for institutions with niche or discipline-specific subscriptions, as it enables them to tap into resources across various fields.
Despite the enthusiasm, there has been some criticism of the scheme, particularly regarding its cost. Critics, such as Sridhar Gutam, a scientist at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and founder of Open Access India, have questioned whether the significant financial commitment is the best use of public funds. Gutam has advocated for a shift towards the diamond open-access model, which eliminates fees for both authors and readers.
A key aspect of the deal also includes provisions for article processing charges (APCs), which will allow Indian researchers to publish open-access articles without incurring costs. While this is seen as a step forward, experts like Rahul Siddharthan of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences have pointed out that the average APC of $2,000 is still prohibitive for many scholars in India.