CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's leading academic institutions have emerged among the top users of global research literature under the Centre's One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative, with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) recording the highest number of article downloads in the country in 2025.
Official data from the ONOS portal showed that more than 11.3 crore scholarly research articles were downloaded across India between January and December 2025 by students, faculty members and researchers of government-funded institutions, averaging nearly one crore downloads every month.
Among all institutions nationwide, IIT-M topped the list with 40.3 lakh downloads, followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, which recorded 28.3 lakh downloads during the year.
Tamil Nadu universities also figured prominently among the leading users of the national research platform. Anna University recorded 7.8 lakh downloads, while Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) registered 5.3 lakh downloads. The University of Madras logged 4.1 lakh downloads, reflecting steady research engagement from the State's academic community.
Usage data showed that Elsevier's ScienceDirect accounted for the largest share with 4.4 crore downloads, followed by Springer (2.2 crore) and the American Chemical Society (1.4 crore).
The national subscription has substantially expanded research access. Earlier, about 2,300 institutions accessed around 8,100 journals through separate government library consortia. Under ONOS, the number of beneficiaries has nearly doubled to around one crore students, faculty members and researchers.
The scheme also allows researchers to publish in selected open-access journals with support for Article Processing Charges, further strengthening the country's academic research ecosystem.
Across the country, other institutions with significant access included Banaras Hindu University (15.3 lakh downloads), Delhi University (14.2 lakh) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (7.3 lakh). The Institute of Chemical Technology (6.7 lakh), Pondicherry University (6.4 lakh) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (6.3 lakh) also reported high usage.
The ONOS programme, approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2024 and launched on January 1, 2025, provides nationwide access to international scholarly journals through a single national subscription coordinated by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre under the University Grants Commission.
With an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore for 2025–2027, the initiative enables nearly 5,800 higher education institutions and research organisations to access over 13,000 journals from 30 major international publishers, covering disciplines across science, engineering, medicine and social sciences.