'One Nation, One Subscription': India Pushes Bold Proposal To Make Scholarly Literature Accessible For Free To All Its Citizens

In a bid to make scholarly literature accessible for free to everyone in the country, the Modi government is pushing a bold 'one nation, one subscription' proposal, reports Nature.

According to the report, the government under its latest science, technology and innovation policy, developed by the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor K VijayRaghavan and the Science and Technology Ministry, is expected to release a draft of the proposal in coming weeks.

In a bid to make scholarly literature widely accessible, the government would negotiate with the world's biggest scientific publishers to establish nationwide subscriptions, instead of many agreements with individual institutions that only scholars can use, the Nature reported citing researchers consulting for the government.

A draft of the proposal will likely be approved by the Union Cabinet before the year's end.

The success of the proposal relies on the willingness of the publishers' to negotiate nationwide subscriptions. However, if negotiations are successful, India would become the largest country to strike deals with global publishers, giving access to their paywalled articles to all of its citizens.

Besides, India's success in negotiating deals with publishers could also pave way for other countries to follow suit.