QUE. Discuss the importance of “One Nation One Subscription (ONos)” scheme and related challenges.

Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the “One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)” scheme to provide nationwide access to scholarly research articles and journal publications. A total of Rs. 6,000 crore has been allocated for this scheme for three calendar years (2025-2027).

• Importance of ONOS

• Enhanced research output: ONOS is expected to boost the research portfolio of Indian institutions through equitable access to the best scholarly articles and publications.

• Improvement in global rankings: Availability of high quality research content is likely to help raise the profile of education providers in India at the international level.

• Addressing the digital divide: ONOS provides a common setting for students and researchers across India by delivering scholarly resources to institutions in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

• Accelerating academic collaboration: By providing a common ground for researchers to access and share knowledge, ONOS promotes greater academic collaboration than the Internet and fosters the potential for developing joint research initiatives and collaborations at the national and global levels.

• Economic and Social Benefits: Nurturing a research culture increases the production of competent workforce, which helps in bringing about innovation, progress in the economy and overall improvement in social sectors.

• Empowerment of marginalized communities: The initiative supports the mechanism of providing equally focused educational content to students in marginalized regions and ensures social justice in the society by empowering them.

• Challenges related to ONOS

• Coordination among stakeholders: Coordination between the central and state governments, as well as educational institutions, publishing and regulatory bodies, is a challenge to implement ONOS.

• Infrastructure and digital divide: Problems of continuous internet connection and adequate digital equipment as well as rural-urban digital divide pose obstacles to the effective implementation of the scheme.

• Financial sustainability: With the government contributing ₹6,000 crore for the first 3 operational years of 2025-27, efficient planning of supply is required to ensure the financial sustainability of the project beyond this period.

• Public awareness: This will require greater awareness of the ONOS initiative in terms of how students, teachers and researchers can benefit from the central subscription model, as well as promotion activities, training, promotional tools and a user-friendly interface for the dissemination and use of the digital portal.

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Annually auditing the impact of initiatives to assess the potential for success based on research productivity and academic performance can prove challenging.

“One Nation One Subscription” has the potential to completely transform research access in India by providing equal access to research resources to researchers. Through the cooperation of all stakeholders, establishment of digital infrastructure and financial sustainability of the project, ONOS will help significantly enhance the research capacity of the country.