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.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet 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.
The Government also announced Rs 1,435 crore PAN 2.0 Project to make the Permanent Account Number a ‘common business identifier’ for all digital systems of government agencies.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the PAN 2.0 Project of the Income Tax Department with a financial outlay of Rs 1,435 crore, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
The PAN 2.0 Project enables technology-driven transformation of taxpayer registration services and is aimed at ease of access and speedy service delivery with improved quality.
Single source of truth and data consistency; eco-friendly processes and cost optimization; and security and optimisation of infrastructure for greater agility, are the other benefits of the project.
“The PAN 2.0 Project resonates with the vision of the Government enshrined in Digital India by enabling the use of PAN as Common Identifier for all digital systems of specified Government agencies,” an official release said.
PAN 2.0 Project is an e-Governance project for re-engineering the business processes of taxpayer registration services through technology-driven transformation of PAN/TAN services for enhanced digital experience of the taxpayers.
“This will be an upgrade of the current PAN/TAN 1.0 eco-system consolidating the core and non-core PAN/TAN activities as well as PAN validation service,” the release said.
Currently, about 78 crore PANs have been issued, of which 98 per cent are to individuals.
The Government announced a national mission to promote natural farming among one crore farmers across the country with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore.
The decision, taken in the Cabinet aims to create an ecosystem for sustainable farming.
“There is a need to improve the quality of soil and maintain the health of the people with chemical-free food…The National Mission on Natural Farming is a path-breaking decision,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a media briefing after the Cabinet meeting.
The mission, with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore, will cover 1 crore farmers across the country, he added.
The Cabinet Committee also approved three projects of the Ministry of Railways on Monday with a total cost of Rs 7,927 crore.
The projects are the Jalgaon-Manmad fourth line (160 km), Bhusawal-Khandwa third and fourth lines (131 km) and Prayagraj (Iradatganj)-Manikpur third line (84 km)
