One Nation One Subscription – Access Granted?
Abhishek Goel asks: Is accessibility the next chapter for the Indian $700 million ONOS scheme?
The recently announced One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme represents more than just a policy shift – it is a huge step toward empowering Indian institutions and nurturing a new generation of critical thinkers.
Imagine a world where all students, faculty, and researchers alike have access to free, equitable, and high-quality research resources. This vision is precisely what ONOS seeks to deliver, promising to transform how Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) access scholarly content. In fact, globally, all eyes are on India to see if ONOS can serve as a template to address the resource disparities in other under-resourced regions in the Global South.
Under the ONOS scheme, nearly 1.8 crore (18 million) students, faculty, and researchers from 6,300 state and central government HEIs will gain access to 13,000 journals via a single platform. This is a remarkable achievement, but is access alone enough to bridge the resource inequities in a country as diverse as India? Should the next step focus on ensuring true accessibility?
To put this more simply, when we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI), access does not necessarily equate to accessibility. ONOS has made the first critical step in breaking down the financial and copyright barriers. However, accessibility goes beyond availability – it means ensuring that resources can be effectively utilized by everyone without hindrance. So, the question to reflect on is: Does providing access to paywalled research papers truly enable all the 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers in India to fully benefit from these resources?
Let’s unpack these accessibility gaps. Challenges could arise from the lack of translation support, tools for navigating huge databases, or features such as text to audio that are essential for those who prefer or require auditory learning. Barriers such as these might prevent students and researchers from engaging optimally with the resources ONOS will offer.
The accessibility gap – challenges and the road ahead
Together, let’s take a closer look at these gaps and chart ways to level the playing field and create a more inclusive academic culture.
India’s linguistic diversity is one of its most unique features, but it also presents challenges in academia. The thousands of journals that ONOS will make available will predominantly be in English, which may limit accessibility for some students and researchers who prefer research papers translated in regional languages.
The government is considering the promotion of homegrown translation tools such as Anuvadini and Bhashini. But are these tools advanced enough to translate the nuanced language of research papers across diverse disciplines? While the answer is still unfolding, what is clear is a keen focus on providing multilingual support with advanced tools to ensure that research is truly accessible across every corner of the country.
Yet, accessibility pertains not just to linguistic challenges. While India has made major strides in digitisation and most prominent institutions have advanced digital infrastructure, the penetration of high-speed internet and access to digital tools may be uneven in institutions especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Without basic digital infrastructure, the ability to fully leverage the vast repository of journals provided by ONOS could be severely limited.
The government must, therefore, pay special attention to raising awareness in all institutions, by providing training and required infrastructure.
While we do not know at this point what features the ONOS platform will bring, one common challenge researchers around the world face is locating the resources they need. Conducting a literature search can be painstakingly tedious process. So how can one efficiently access papers from a massive database of journals?
Today several advanced AI tools can streamline this process by identifying the most relevant papers, offering personalised recommendations, and summarising research papers with ease, ensuring that researchers and students spend less time sifting through material to find what they need. These tools need to be made available in order for the ONOS’s repository to be fully and optimally utilised.
Finally, discussions around inclusivity must extend beyond language, infrastructure, and search barriers. Students and researchers who are differently abled may have diverse learning needs. To address these requirements, content should be made available in alternative formats and be compatible with assistive technologies, such as text-to-speech functionality. Ensuring that alternative formats coexist with the traditional learning methods would open doors of learning and knowledge to everyone irrespective of their abilities and learning preferences.
Musings and the way forward
The ONOS scheme is a groundbreaking step toward democratising knowledge and making it accessible to all. It promises to level the field by providing equal access and opportunities, but true empowerment lies in making knowledge accessible regardless of language differences, institutional resources, and abilities of students and researchers. To make this possible, policymakers, institutional heads, and technology providers must collaborate to create an inclusive academic culture. By going beyond access and championing equitable participation for every student and researcher, India can redefine accessibility and set a global benchmark.
Abhishek Goel is Founder & Chief Mentor at Cactus Communications
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