The Delhi High Court has at last given its verdict on the case filed by Elsevier et al., against Ms Alexandra Elbakyan and Sci-Hub. Please see  https://spicyip.com/2025/08/sci-hub-now-completely-blocked-in-india.html. The Hon'ble judge of the Delhi High Court has heard the arguments of both sides and given his verdict as per the provisions of Indian laws. Sci-Hub and similar shadow libraries will be banned in India and the government agencies in charge of providing Internet access to people will ensure that no one can access those sites from the Indian soil. This decision will affect tens of thousands of users of journal articles in the sciences, social sciences, the humanities, and whatever area one may pursue. I am sure a lot of people - mostly graduate students, teachers in colleges and universities and researchers in research institutions outside of academia, doctors and journalists - will feel the pinch. But I have a hunch, innovative people will find a way out. After all, India is known for 'jugaad.'

But I want all of you to think why there was a need at all for a Sci-Hub or a Lib-Gen to emerge in the first place. Is it not because authors not only do the research and submit it to journals but also referee articles written by others for free  and finally when the paper is accepted by a journal they transfer the copyright to publishers of the journals. We can start the change from India. From now on let all researchers in India decide to retain the copyright to their work and not surrender it to the publisher. Second, another equally important initiative, is that all researchers make the first announcement of their new findings (results) in the form of a preprint which could then be publicly peer reviewed. Let the funding agencies in India (DST, DBT, UGC, DAE, etc.) mandate immediate open access through preprinting and retention of copyright to one's research findings by the authors.