Cabinet approves 'One Nation One Subscription' scheme for access to research articles, journals

New Delhi | The Union Cabinet on Monday approved 'One Nation One Subscription', a new scheme for providing country-wide access to scholarly research articles and journal publication.

A total of about Rs 6,000 crore has been allocated for One Nation One Subscription for three calendar years, 2025, 2026 and 2027 as a new Central Sector Scheme.

"One Nation One Subscription will build on and further enhance the scope and reach of the range of initiatives undertaken by the Government of India over the past decade in the domains of education, for maximizing access to quality higher education for the youth of India. This will supplement the ANRF initiative to promote research and development and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout government universities, colleges, research institutions, and research and development laboratories," an official statement said.

The benefits of 'One Nation One Subscription' scheme will be provided to all higher educational institutions under the management of the Central or state government and research & development institutions of the Central government through a national subscription coordinated by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), an autonomous inter-university centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"This list covers more than 6,300 institutions, translating into nearly 1.8 crore students, faculty and researchers, who will be able to potentially avail benefits of One Nation One Subscription. This is in line with the goals of Viksitbharat@2047, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF).

"The initiative will expand access to scholarly journals to a vast diaspora of students, faculty, researchers and scientists of all disciplines, including those in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, thereby promoting core as well as interdisciplinary research in the country. The ANRF will periodically review the usage of One Nation One Subscription and publications of Indian authors of these institutions," the statement added.

The Department of Higher Education will have a unified portal 'One Nation One Subscription' through which the institutions will be able to access the journals.

Cabinet approves continuation of Atal Innovation Mission till March 2028

New Delhi | The Cabinet on Monday approved the continuation of Niti Aayog's flagship initiative Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), with an enhanced scope of work and allocated budget of Rs 2,750 crore, till March 31, 2028.

According to an official statement, AIM 2.0 is a step towards Viksit Bharat that aims to expand, strengthen, and deepen India's already vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The statement said while building on the accomplishments of AIM 1.0, such as Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and Atal Incubation Centers (AIC), AIM 2.0 marks a qualitative shift in the mission’s approach.

"Whereas AIM 1.0 involved implementing programmes that built new innovation infrastructure to strengthen India's then-nascent ecosystem, AIM 2.0 involves piloting new initiatives designed to fill gaps in the ecosystem and scaling successes through central and state governments, industry, academia and community," it added.

AIM 2.0 is designed to strengthen India’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in three ways by increasing input, by improving the success rate or 'throughput', and by improving the quality of 'output', it noted.

With India at 39th rank on the Global Innovation Index and home to the world's third-largest startup ecosystem, the statement said the next phase of AIM 2.0 is expected to further enhance India's global competitiveness.

The continuation of AIM will directly contribute to creating better jobs, innovative products, and high-impact services across sectors, it added.

AIM 2.0 aims to break the language barrier through the Language Inclusive Program of Innovation (LIPI) and 30 vernacular innovation centres.

The statement said AIM 2.0's frontier programme will create customized templates for the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Ladakh, the North Eastern states (NE), aspirational districts and blocks where 15 per cent of India’s citizens live.

"2,500 new ATLs will be created for template development," it added.