Open access in India traces to roots back to circa 2000. Open access is the practice of making research available online free of restrictions, especially access tolls.
In the year 2000, the conference Advances in Information Access and Science Communication was organised at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation as a tribute to Eugene Garfield's 75th birthday.
The country's first Open access repository ePrints@IISc was established by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in November 2002 and it houses currently 41,101 number of publications dated since 1914. In India by the end of 2015 produced 94,156 open access articles from 595 open access journals and is ranked fourth in the world.
Indian National Science Academy signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2004
NIT Rourkela mandated Open Access policy in May 2006.
National Knowledge Commission recommends Open Educational Resources and Open Access in November 2007
UNESCO New Delhi published the first-ever stocktaking book on open access to knowledge in South Asia, titled "Open Access to Knowledge and Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital Library Initiatives - the South Asian Scenario", in April 2008.
As of 2008, there were around 100 open access journals in India.
In 2011, CSIR Open Access Mandate was launched by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
CSIR Journals made Open Access - NISCAIR Online Periodicals Repository
ICRISAT mandates open access to all its scientific and scholarly publications in May 2009.
In 2011, the CSIR-URDIP launched a Central Platform called CSIR-CENTRAL csircentral.net' for Hosting Institutional Repositories and Harvester service for Institutes of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) and to support CSIR Open Access Mandate.
In 2011, Shodhganga: A Reservoir of Indian Theses was launched by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET Centre). Shodhganga aims at serving the mandates of the UGC Notification (Minimum Standards & Procedure for Award of MPhil/PhD Degree, Regulation, 2009) dated 1 June 2009, to facilitate open access to Indian theses and dissertations for global dissemination to the academic community world-wide.
On 8 July 2011, ‘Open Access India’, an online community of practice advocating Open Access, Open data, Open education in India has been formed.
In January 2012, National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) was launched by Government of India.
In September 2012, Government of India unveiled its Data.gov.in (Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India), in compliance with the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP).
As of 2012, as open access journals became more popular under an author-pays model, it became more popular for scam publishers to solicit papers with payment. As of 2015, a study found that large amounts of fake open access journal publishers were located in India. (see predatory open access publishing)
National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) launched in August 2013
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) adopted its Open Access policy in September 2013.
In December 2014, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (India) (DST), Government of India had jointly adopted their Open Access Policy
In March 2015, UNESCO and CEMCA jointly launched an Open Access Curriculum for Researchers, and an Open Access Curriculum for Library Schools.
In 2015, a Google Scholar Profile of literature related to Open Access in India was published for tracking Open Science and Open Access movement in India, which is updated regularly.
In 2015, the CSIR-URDIP launched a portal, "Listing of Open Access Databases" or LOADB. The objective of LOADB is to create a web-enabled, linked, classified and categorized collection of Open Access Databases which one can access from a single portal. Although initial focus of LOADB is on science and technology subjects, the ultimate aim is to include all subject areas.
In 2015, the CSIR-URDIP launched a portal 'ScienceCentral.in', which is the Centralized Institutional Repositories Hosting Service for DST-DBT Labs and a Harvester service for DST-DBT Institutional Repositories.
The notable people involved in building the movement in India are T. B. Rajashekar, N. Balakrishnan and Subbiah Arunachalam. Other notable people include:
V. Balaji was instrumental in launching green open access repository and open access mandate of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
Sanjaya Mishra
Francis Jayakanth was the winner of the first Open Access Annual Award instituted by the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (EPT).
Madhan Muthu has won 3rd Open Access Annual Award instituted by the EPT and is involved in setting up many open access repositories noted among them are Open Access Repository of ICRISAT and Open Access Thesis Repository of NIT Rourkela.
Alok Khode is an active member of Open Access Movement in India. Architect of two successful Centralized Platform for Open Access Insitutional Repositories i.e. CSIR-CENTRAL and SCIENCE-CENTRAL to support Open Access Mandate of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and Department Of Science & Technology(DST) and Department of Biotechnology(DBT). He has setup, customized and maintaining more than 35 Institutional Repositories on these Platforms
M S Swaminathan Research Foundation facilitated seminars, symposia and conferences on Open Access in India
Indian Institute of Science
Indian Academy of Sciences
Indian National Science Academy
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Centre for Internet and Society
ICRISAT
Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), Commonwealth of Learning
University Grants Commission through Inflibnet launched Shodhganga
Ministry of Human Resources Development
Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
Department of Science and Technology (India) (DST)
Legal Information Institute of India
Kerala Agricultural University
Open Access India - To take forward the open access movement in India, the Open Access India an online community of practice was formed on social networking site Facebook and is building the momentum with advocacy on Open Access, Open Data and Open Education and development of community e-infrastructure & capacity building. It is partner of Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) and the International Community for Open Research and Open Education (ICORE). Its Facebook group has now membership of more than 10,000 and has Ambassadors, Conveners across the country.
DataMeet - DataMeet which started as small google group discussing on open data had grown into a largest community working for open data in India. It regularly organisers meet ups and open data camps.
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Association of India
Information and Communication Society of India
