One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)

To build an innovative and knowledge-driven society, access to quality information is critical. For India’s aspirations in deep technology and advanced research, every student, researcher, and institution must be able to access the best global knowledge. The One Nation One Subscription has been designed to bridge this need. It is envisaged to ensure that knowledge creation and dissemination are not limited by access barriers.

Nearly 6,400 institutions across the country including Higher Educational Institutions i.e. central and state universities, colleges (including all medical colleges) and central government R&D institutions will benefit from ONOS. This translates to nearly 1.8 Crore students, faculty and researchers across the country getting access to more than 13,000 journals from 30 publishers including the top 4 global publishers i.e. Elsevier, Springer-Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley. As part of the recent Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) Act, the Government plans to seed and promote a vibrant research culture in the tier-2 and tier-3 higher educational institutions. Through ONOS, many such institutions will begin to get access to journals, which is a necessity for doing research.

This Central Sector Scheme has a total budget of ₹6,000 crore for three years (2025–2027). It has established a national consortium for e-journal subscriptions, where access to journals is centrally negotiated, funded, and made available to everyone in the country who needs it. A dedicated fund of ₹150 crore per year supports Article Processing Charges (APCs) for open-access publishing in reputed journals. The scheme also aims to secure discounts on APCs for Indian authors, making global publishing more accessible.

The INFLIBNET Centre, an Inter-University Centre under the University Grants Commission (UGC), Ministry of Education, serves as the implementing agency for ONOS. The entire subscription and access mechanism is centrally managed by INFLIBNET. The system covers payments from library consortia, higher education and R&D institutions under various central ministries, integrating their existing subscriptions. INFLIBNET is responsible for coordinating with publishers, managing digital access, and ensuring a seamless user experience across institutions. The fully digital platform minimizes administrative hurdles, allowing users on-demand and uniform access to all subscribed journals.

• The ONOS portal- https://www.onos.gov.in became functional in January 2025. All agreements and payments to all 30 publishers were completed by March 2025, and access has been enabled for all participating institutions via campus IP and INFED login credentials. Off-campus access for researchers has also been provided through INFED, enabling users to log in remotely. A monitoring dashboard has been developed for institutional registration and performance tracking.
• An integrated ONOS portal has been developed for both users and administrators. It offers multiple functionalities: institutional registration, user login, list of subscribed publishers with number of journals, and letters issued by DHE to the states. The portal also provides help manuals, search facilities, and easy navigation for accessing e-resources.
• ONOS has introduced a powerful discovery service called the Knowledge Finder, built using the opensource VuFind framework. It allows users to search by title, ISSN, subject area, publisher, or year, and filter results as per their requirements. This tool ensures a smooth and intuitive experience for researchers, simplifying access to the vast collection of subscribed journals.
• ONOS also supports payment of APCs for selected high-quality publications from participating institutions, detailed guidelines have been framed and made available at the website. These guidelines are further undergoing revision.
• The usage statistic and other relevant information can be assessed at  https://www.onos.gov.in