G20 CSAR meet | Enabling universal access to scientific knowledge ‘a million-dollar question’, says Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood | Ahmedabad News - The Indian Express

"[Q] Given that one of the talking point in G20-CSAR was acknowledging the need to enable immediate and universal access to scientific knowledge to communities, how do we do that in the Indian context?

[A] It is a million dollar question, how do we do it. The current publication model doesn’t deal with this because it is based on subscription through organisations. Our attempt in our negotiations with publishers is to strike a deal fair to them as well as us, which is a difficult job. The ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ is aimed at making publications accessible to say, all in colleges, which is not the case at the moment. When we ask publishers to grant greater access, they increase the price manifold. It is not easy but we are trying our best in collaboration with multiple ministries."