Friends: Last year we wrote a paper on an issue of considerable importance to India and it was published in *Current Science* early this year. < http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/112/04/0703.pdf> Our main point was if Indian researchers stop the practice of paying to get their papers published in journals that charge article processing charges (APC) the nation can save roughly $2.5 million annually, money that can be used to support real research. *Now the Ministry of Human Resource Department has come up with a commendable move: From now on papers published by paying article processing charges will not be considered for faculty promotion in the **National Institutes of Technology (Gazette of India, 24 July 2017). *< http://www.mnit.ac.in/cms/uploads/2017/08/Gazette_Notification_MHRD0001.pdf> If this policy is adopted by all funding and regulatory agencies in India, we will not only save money but also curb the proliferation of predatory journals. Here is the abstract of the paper in *Current Science*. *Should Indian researchers pay to get their work published?* Muthu Madhan, Siva Shankar Kimidi, Subbiah Gunasekaran and Subbiah Arunachalam *Current Science*, Vol. 112, No. 4, 25 February 2017, 703-713. Paying to publish is an ethical issue. During 2010–14, Indian researchers have used 488 open access (OA) journals levying article processing charge (APC), ranging from US$ 7.5 to 5,000, to publish about 15,400 papers. Use of OA journals levying APC has increased from 242 journals and 2,557 papers in 2010 to 328 journals and 3,634 papers in 2014. We estimate that India is potentially spending about US$ 2.4 million annually on APCs paid to OA journals and the amount would be much more if we add APCs paid to make papers published in hybrid journals open access. It would be prudent for Indian authors to make their work freely available through interoperable repositories, a trend that is growing in Latin America and China, especially when funding is scarce. Scientists are ready to pay APC as long as institutions pay for it and funding agencies are not ready to insist that grants provided for research should not be used for paying APC. -- Regards. Arun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-4658 http:// <http://www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9925-2009> www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9925-2009 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.