Although the Indian Open Access movement started already in 2002 and was supported by an recommendation for Open Access by the Indian National Knowledge Commission in 2007, the country faces several problems with the promotion of Open Access: India struggle with a lack of awareness for Open Access and of expertise in the use of repository software, unclear copyright policies, a quite orthodox scholar society and in particular with the absence of Open Access policy mandates.

Despite of the rather slow growth of Indian Open Access initiatives there are currently about 450 Indian Open Access journals and about 92 Indian Open Access Repositories. In order to foster the Indian Open Access Movement an online group with the name “OAIndia” has been formed in 2011 by Indian scholars. It promotes the discussion around Open Access, strengthens the capacity building for repository administration and develops appropriate Open Access policies as well as a repository for members and a database on copyright policies. OAIndia is following the manifesto of CIARD and collaborates closely with AIMS.