Context: The Union Cabinet has approved a budgetary allocation of Rs 6,000 crore for the newly launched initiative ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS).
Relevance of the topic: Prelims- Key facts about One Nation One Subscription initiative.
About One Nation One Subscription
- ONOS is an initiative to facilitate better access to academic resources to India’s higher education institutions (HEIs).
- Implementation: INFLIBNET Centre (Information and Library Network Centre) in Gandhinagar. It is an Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission under the Ministry of Education.
- Scheme operation from: January 1, 2025.
- Conceptualization: The initiative stems from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasised research as a critical pillar for achieving excellence in education and national development. ONOS aims to democratise access to knowledge and promote research in India.
Current Mechanism for Journal Access:
- HEIs currently access journals through 10 different library consortia, under the administrative control of various ministries.
- A library consortium is a group of two or more libraries that have agreed to share resources among its members.
- E.g., INFLIBNET Centre oversees the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium providing access to scholarly journals and databases.
- HEIs also subscribe to several journals individually.
Key Features of One Nation One Subscription:
- Centralised/ Single-Point Access: ONOS aims to centralise journal subscriptions for nearly 6,300 government-run institutions, offering access to 13,000 scholarly journals (published by 30 international publishers) under a single platform hosted by INFLIBNET.
- Publishers include: Elsevier Science Direct (including Lancet), Springer Nature, Wiley Blackwell, IEEE, Sage Publishing, American Chemical Society, and American Mathematical Society etc.
- Whether ONOS will also cover private HEIs is still undecided.
- Equity in Access: HEIs from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will have the same access as premier institutions. Institutions need to register on the ONOS platform to use it.
- Flexibility: HEIs can still individually subscribe to journals not covered under ONOS.
Benefits of One Nation One Subscription:
- Enhanced Accessibility: Expand access to the best scholarly journals for 55 lakh to nearly 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers across roughly 6,300 government universities, colleges, research bodies, and Institutions of National Importance (INIs), including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
- Cost Efficiency: Avoid duplication of journal subscriptions across different library consortia and individual HEIs to reduce excess expenditure.
- Data-driven Insights: Allows the government to analyse journal download and usage by HEIs, and accordingly improve resource allocation, and encourage under-utilising institutions to maximise benefits.