UGC-Infonet & E-journals

Consortium
Presentation
By

Dr. T A V Murthy
Director
INFLIBNET Centre

&

Dr. V S Cholin
Scientist-B
INFLIBNET Centre

tav@inflibnet.ac.in
cholin@inflibnet.ac.in
 What is UGC-Infonet?

University Grants Commission has launched an

ambitious programme to bring about a qualitative
change in the academic infrastructure, especially
for higher education. Under this initiative UGC is
modernizing the university campuses with state-
of-the-art campus wide networks and setting up its
own nationwide communication network named
UGC-Infonet. INLFIBNET is responsible for
execution and monitoring the entire project w.e.f
Jan, 2003
 The Mission
 UGC-Infonet will become a vehicle for distance
learning to facilitate spread of quality education
all over the country.
 UGC-Infonet will be a tool distribute education
material and journals to the remotest of areas.
 UGC-Infonet will be a resource for researchers
and scholars for tapping the most up-to-date
information.
 UGC-Infonet will form a medium for
collaboration among teachers and students, not
only within the country but all over the world.
 Cont..
 UGC-Infonet will be an Intranet for University
Automation.
 UGC-Infonet will encompass entire University
System for most efficient utilisation of precious
network resources.
 UGC-Infonet will establish a channel for
Globalisation of Education and facillitate the
universities in marketing their services and
developments.
Who are involved in the project?
 University Grants Commission (UGC)
 Information and Library Network Centre
(INFLIBNET)
 Education Research Network (ERNET) on
turnkey basis
 Universities
 UGC
•Over all monitoring
•Constitution of Joint Technical and Tariff committee
for smooth execution of project
•Providing finance support to the project

INFLIBNET
•Decide type of connectivity
•Monitoring of Network
•Provide the content in terms of
Bibliographic database and e-
subscription
•Help Universities to setting up IT
ERNET Infrastructure
•Design & Installation
•Maintenance
•Providing Backbone
•Hosting of Mirror sites
•Training University
•Place firm order to ERNET
•Provide necessary accommodation
•Identify two persons for training
•Campus network/ access center
 Implementation Methodology
UGC

Constitution of JTTC

Guide lines

ERNET INFLIBNET University

Design Network Identify Universities

Network Architecture
UGC-Infonet is based on open IP platform,
employing state-of-the-art technologies like IP
Multicast, TCP spoofing and other tools that
provide interactive education on PC, enabling
online response to queries. Open system
architecture will ensure high data rates access
to Intranet and Internet resources.
Connectivity Options for
the universities
UGC-Infonet is overlaid on
ERNET Infrastructure
including a nation wide
terrestrial backbone and a
complementary satellite
wide area network.
Available options are:
 Digital Leases Lines (LL)
 Radio Link
 SCPC
 Broadband VSAT
(FTDMA)
 Main Features of the UGC-Infonet
 Scaleable Architecture to grow from Universities
to affiliated Colleges.
 Nation-wide Terrestrial Backbone using Fiber
Optic links
 Integrated Satellite WAN supporting broadband
and SCPC VSAT technology.
 Comprehensive Network Management Systems
for overall monitoring of the network, down to
each and every device.
 Linkage with other academic and Research
Networks all over the world.
 Cont..
 Dedicated Data Centre for web hosting, e-
journals and Mail Boxes.
 It will be dedicated for UGC-Infonet

 Protected with firewalls and IDS

 Co-located with Satellite Hub

 With single hop access to the universities

over VSAT
 Mirror sites spread all over the country for
content hosting
 Broadband Multimedia and Video Channels for
Distance Learning.
 UGC-Infonet summery as on 1 Oct,
2004
Agreement Signed 140 Connected Universities
Sanction Released 150 FTDMA 34
Connected 117 SCPC 43
N Pipline 20 LL 40

Bandwidth Summery 64 Kbps 4

Total Inernation 90 128 Kbps 44
Bandwidth Involved in Mbps 256 kbps 2
150
512 Kbps 42
Total Internation 70.5
Bandwidth installed in Mbps 1 Mbps 6
114 Universities 2 Mbps 19
 Pie Charts

Pie Chart of connected Univerities under UGC- Pie Chart of Allocation of E-Journals to Universities
Infonet Programme as on 1.10.2004 64 Kbps 128 Kbps
0 7
2 Mbps 64 Kbps 2 Mbps
19 4 17
128 Kbps 64 Kbps
44 64 Kbps 256 Kbps
1 Mbps 128 Kbps
0
6 128 Kbps
256 Kbps
256 Kbps
512 Kbps
512 Kbps
1 Mbps
256 Kbps 1 Mbps
512 Kbps 2 Mbps
42 2 2 Mbps 1 Mbps 512 Kbps
6 20
117 Universities 50 Universities
 Cont..
SCPC
1 Mbps
128 Kbps
2
6

FTDMA

256 Kbps
64 Kbps 512 Kbps
1 35
4

43 Univeristies

Leased Line

128 Kbps
9
128 Kbps 2 Mbps
29 19 256 Kbps
34 Univeristies
1

512 Kbps
7
1 Mbps
4 40 Universities
Monitoring of the UGC-Infonet
 Each university sends T r a f f ic A n a ly s is f o r D A M A V S A T : " G o a U ., P a n a j i"
M ax Speed: 5 1 2 . 0 k b it s / s

bandwidth utilization R o u te r A d d r e ss : 2 0 2 .4 1 .9 9 .1 2 _ 2 0

reports INFLIBNET T h e s t a t is t ic s w e r e la s t u p d a t e d M o n d a y , 2 7 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 a t 1 5 : 2 2 ,
a t w h ic h t im e ' D A M A 1 ' h a d b e e n u p fo r 3 3 d a y s , 1 7 : 0 1 : 5 7 .

INFLIBNET is
` D a ily ' G r a p h ( 5 M in u t e A v e r a g e )

managing discussion
forum at M a x In : 5 0 3 .7 k b /s ( 8 3 .9 % ) A v e r a g e In : 1 3 4 .0 k b /s ( 2 2 .3 % ) C u r r e n t In : 4 8 5 .8 k b /s ( 8 1 .0 % )

http://groups.yahoo.co
M a x O u t: 1 2 5 . 0 k b / s ( 2 0 . 8 % ) A v er a g e O u t: 3 8 .4 k b /s (6 .4 % ) C u r r e n t O u t:1 2 3 .7 k b /s ( 2 0 .6 % )

` W e e k ly ' G r a p h ( 3 0 M i n u t e A v e r a g e )

.in/group/ugc-infonet/
for discussing of
issues related to UGC- M a x In : 5 0 3 .9 k b /s ( 8 4 .0 % )
M a x O u t: 1 2 4 . 0 k b / s ( 2 0 . 7 % )
A v e r a g e In : 1 6 5 .9 k b /s ( 2 7 .6 % )
A v er a g e O u t: 4 3 .9 k b /s (7 .3 % )
C u r r e n t In : 4 4 7 .8 k b /s ( 7 4 .6 % )
C u r r e n t O u t:1 2 3 .8 k b /s ( 2 0 .6 % )

Infonet among ` M o n t h ly ' G r a p h ( 2 H o u r A v e r a g e )

participating
Universities. M a x In : 5 0 2 .7 k b /s ( 8 3 .8 % ) A v e r a g e In : 2 4 2 .3 k b /s ( 4 0 .4 % ) C u r r e n t In : 4 0 7 .4 k b /s ( 6 7 .9 % )
M a x O u t: 1 4 4 . 0 k b / s ( 2 4 . 0 % ) A v er a g e O u t: 6 2 .4 k b /s (1 0 .4 % ) C u r r e n t O u t:1 0 7 .6 k b /s ( 1 7 .9 % )
 University Grants Commission

The E-Journals Programme for Universities

electronic access to scholarly literature in

all areas of learning
 The Infonet Paradigm
 Provide Internet connectivity to Universities /
Colleges in Academic sector under the domain of
UGC

 Provide access to literature and research

publications in all areas of learning

 Facilitate the creation of multimedia content to

supplement and aid the traditional learning
process.

 Provide training to the community through

orientation and refresher courses.
 Access to Literature
•Access to research literature,
reviews and databases
•University libraries are
depleted of these resources

•Infonet programme provide E-access to the literature.

•Funds provided by the UGC, and the programme is
administered by INFLIBNET.
•Subscriptions provided to over 50 Universities and 50
more from this month.
 Who are our users?
 Universities
 Total No. : 311+
 Covered under UGC : 171+
 INFLIBNET supported : 142 so far
These 142+ universities - core group to begin with
 Colleges
 More than 14,000
 Govt.- 20%, Private – 80%
 Who are likely to be covered in phased manner
What is the journal collection
base?
Current journals collection in a university
 Average number of titles subscribed: 250

 60% titles : Indian publications

 Few universities do not subscribe to any

foreign journals

 Abstracting/ indexing journals (e.g)

 Chemical Abstracts : 25

(98 Chemistry Depts)

 Biological Abstracts : 9

 (101 Biological Sciences Depts)

Why is this problem?
Problems faced by Universities

 Increase in price
 Fluctuation in conversion rates
 No proportionate funding to sustain the existing
collections

What is the way out?

 Large number of journals are available in e-form

 Access is provided on the Internet through web
 Subscription under consortia/ national site
licensing
 Present Status
 UGC-Infonet E-journals Consortium is quite an ambitious program initiated
by chairman UGC to facilitate free access to scholarly journals in all areas
of learning.

 The program is being executed by INFLIBNET Ahmedabad on behalf of

UGC

 Academics are helping in identifying the resources

 We have conducted Regional meetings at different places to take the

expert opinions of university librarians across the country while selecting
the journals

 Expert opinions have also been taken from existing consortiums in few
subjects;

 National Negotiation committee set up by UGC recommended number of

resources to be subscribed in different areas of learning;
 Present Status contd…
 The very purpose of this initiative is

 Universities across the country are now facing acute shortage of

funds to subscribe the costly journals and are deprived of access
to latest literature published.

 The situation calls for optimum use of resources through rational

use.

 Thanks to the electronic publishing industry which made it

possible to access the resources at much affordable cost.

 This consortia initiative has helped to get discount of more than

85-90% on many scholarly journals and databases.

 The research and academic community can now have an access to

resources at their finger tips through this initiative.

 This initiative provides archival access and also provision for

mirror sites.
 This facility enables the subject experts and academicians to
browse, download print the relevant articles for their research and
academic development.

 The resources subscribed under the program are available on

Intranet of UGC-Infonet Program in each campus enabling multi
user simultaneous access.

 INFLIBNET will also maintain one print copy of the journals

subscribed for many titles as a national archive at Ahmedabad.

 The resources are accessed based on the IP address at individual

universities.
 The consortium received number of proposals and finalized with
20 publishers / vendors to cover journals and databases in
sciences, humanities, social sciences.

 Many other journals & databases are also under consideration and
being taken up.

 Subscription for minimum 3 years initially and to be reviewed at

the end of three years
 E-Resources Subscribed under UGC-Infonet

23 + 6 DB

36
31 72
34 Life Sci. 8

222 19

100 +100 subscribed, Access all 1200 titles

29

319

28 Lib. Sci.

In addition - Access to 2 Gateway

portal services to 28 univ. each
More is yet to come !!
 To Conclude
 Consortia for buying e-infn. become very popular in last 2 decades

 Encouraging to note that successful consortia examples

 I would say that UGC-Infonet Consortium is a very systematic

approach carried out

 Many commercial publishers have taken initiative to provide trial

access for two to three months for all their full text journals viz.
Elsevier, John wiley and many others.

 This shows their academic interest to enter into this consortia and
to become a part of this noble initiative and attractive discounts
offered by the publishers with eagerness to enter Indian market

 The e-subscription initiative of UGC-Infonet is expected to bring

remarkable change in the academic environment.

 It is time now to inform our scholars to take the advantage and use
the resources extensively and get the benefit
 To Conclude
 We will be able to cover many more universities including
colleges at much cheaper cost, as the major cost is paid for first
50 universities
 The resources subscribed under UGC-Infonet E-Journals
consortium for 50 universities would cost Rs. 190 Crores if
universities subscribe the resources individually,
 This effort shows an overall savings of Rs. 167 Crore Rupees
to the National Exchequer for 50 universities.
 More than 2000 scholarly journals and databases are made
available for access.
 The cost for additional universities even much cheaper than the
first 50 universities enabling more universities to get access to
scholarly journals.
 With time, via Infonet, education in Indian universities will shine
at the global level as solar energy shines everyday, which
indicates that no one should be deprived of education because of
location or time inconvenience.
THANK YOU