Will the Centre’s ‘one nation one subscription’ scheme restrict academic freedom?

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a tweet that the Union cabinet had approved a scheme that would be a “game-changer for Indian academia and for youth empowerment”.

The “one nation, one subscription” project will allow higher education institutions managed by the Central and state government as well as Central government research and development institutions to access high-quality academic journals on a single portal, rather than buy their own subscriptions.

The scheme will benefit “nearly 1.8 crore students, faculty, researchers and scientists of all disciplines”, an accompanying press release noted.

Though the government has claimed that the “one nation, on subscription” scheme is “a timely step towards establishing India in the global research ecosystem”, faculty members from institutions across the country told Scroll that they were concerned that it could actually constrain their work. They told Scroll that the government had not explained how the scheme will function. Some fear it could even limit their academic freedom.

“Different institutions will have different needs. What if they say, we can only access certain journals from certain countries?” said C Lakshmanan, who had retired as an associate professor from the Madras Institute of Development Studies. “What if they limit the number of journals we can access from a country and say, maybe,...

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