India rolled out One Nation One Subscription in January 2025, handing researchers at thousands of government institutions instant access to more than 13,000 journals from thirty major publishers. Downloads already topped 114 million in the first year and another 59 million so far in 2026. The scale is impressive on paper.
The access numbers look strong, yet the model stays rooted in the old subscription economy
The scheme runs on a ₹6,000 crore central allocation spread across three years. It covers campus IP access plus remote login through INFED for roughly 6,500 institutions and an estimated 18 million users. Big commercial houses such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley sit at the centre of the package. A separate ₹150 crore annual pot supports article processing charges for Indian authors in selected outlets.
That structure delivers immediate reading rights. It does not flip the underlying economics toward community-owned or diamond models that avoid both reader paywalls and author fees. Negotiations stayed within the familiar big-deal framework rather than pushing for transformative agreements that convert subscription spend into open access.
Usage data from the official portal shows steady uptake, yet questions remain about long-term sustainability once the current funding window closes in 2027. Institutions outside the government list still negotiate separately, and private universities receive no automatic coverage.
Policy shifts on journal quality run alongside the access push
The University Grants Commission dropped its central CARE list of approved journals in 2025. Evaluation now moves toward institutional and disciplinary responsibility. The change aims to reduce reliance on a single national whitelist that had struggled to keep predatory titles out while still satisfying promotion and thesis requirements.
At the same time, the February 2026 Global Summit on Diamond Open Access in Bengaluru produced a roadmap focused on non-commercial infrastructures. Indian participants highlighted existing repositories and society journals that operate without author or reader charges. Those efforts receive rhetorical support but limited new funding compared with the subscription consortium.
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India’s research output continues to climb. The country now ranks among the top producers of scholarly articles globally, with growth exceeding 50 percent in recent years. Volume alone does not guarantee influence when retractions and citation manipulation remain documented problems in some segments of the system.
What changes for day-to-day researchers
Faculty and students at covered institutions no longer need institutional logins for dozens of major platforms. Off-campus access works through the national federation credentials. Discovery tools on the ONOS portal let users search across the full collection by subject or publisher.
Authors seeking to publish open access can apply for APC support under the scheme’s guidelines, though the annual allocation remains modest relative to total subscription spend. Early indications suggest the fund prioritises high-impact titles, which may steer choices toward established commercial venues.
Smaller publishers and Indian-language or regional journals sit outside the main consortium for now. Their visibility depends on separate indexing and repository strategies rather than the national licence.
Next steps and open questions
The three-year pilot runs through 2027. Renewal talks will test whether the government can extract stronger open-access commitments or price reductions in exchange for continued central funding. Parallel work on diamond infrastructures and revised evaluation criteria could create space for alternatives if institutions choose to support them.
Transparency around usage statistics and cost breakdowns will matter. Without public detail on per-article effective prices or which publishers captured the largest shares, it stays difficult to judge whether the deal represents value or simply scales an existing expensive model.
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Researchers can check eligibility and access the portal directly at onos.gov.in. The Principal Scientific Adviser’s office maintains background on scheme design at psa.gov.in. Details on the diamond open access roadmap appear on the summit site at diamondoasummit.org. Government statements on the original cabinet approval are archived through the Press Information Bureau.