In an ambitious move to make scientific knowledge and data available to all, the government has proposed an open data policy that will make the information generated by all publicly funded research, including its results, freely accessible. for all.
More significantly, the government has also proposed to buy massive subscriptions to all the major scientific journals around the world and provide everyone in India with free access to them. The proposals have been made in the draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy that was released to the public on New Year’s Day for comments and suggestions.
The “One nation, one subscription” policy for scientific journals is a radical movement that could be a game changer for the scientific community and individual researchers. There are more than 3,000 to 4,000 high-impact scientific journals, and sources say that the government might have to spend a few hundred rupees each year to get their massive subscriptions. But their impact on the scientific research community could be enormous, given that access to these journals is expensive and even large institutions are selective when it comes to buying subscriptions.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, which has drawn up the new policy, proposes the creation of a new Science, Technology and Innovation Observatory that will serve as a central repository for all kinds of data generated from research in India. It is proposed that all data generated from publicly funded research be freely available to all. In cases where, for reasons of privacy, national security or intellectual property rights, the availability of the data has to be restricted, “duly anonymized and / or redacted data” will continue to be provided. Even in cases where it cannot be released to the general public, genuine researchers would have access to it, the policy has proposed.
Furthermore, it is proposed that the libraries of all publicly funded institutions be accessible to the general public “subject only to reasonable security protocols.”
The policy also speaks of promoting the goal of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” in the field of science and technology. “A two-way approach to indigenous technology development and technology indigenization will be adopted,” he says.
“More emphasis will be placed on promoting traditional knowledge systems, developing indigenous technologies and fostering grassroots innovations,” he says.
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