Democratising Learning

'One Nation One Subscription' can potentially enhance access to academic resources-reducing costs, and enhancing research quality, which could eventually fuel innovation in India

- MANOJ K TIWARI & POONAM SINGH

The ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS) scheme, approved by the Government of India on November 25, 2024, aims to democratise access to academic and research content by enabling institutions, organisations, and individuals to access a wide range of scientific literature, including research papers, journals, and e-books, through a unified subscription model.

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

The idea was originally proposed in the National Science and Technology Policy (2020).

By centralising subscriptions to global academic resources, ONOS addresses the long-standing issue of unequal access to scholarly resources by ensuring that institutions, students, and researchers have access to high-quality academic content regardless of their geographical location and financial capacity.