NEW DELHI: In a bid to promote cost-effective clean energy sources, India on Thursday approved a new policy that calls for blending at least 20 percent biofuels in diesel and petrol by 2017, apart from extending incentives to encourage its production in wastelands.
"The policy endeavours to facilitate and bring about optimal development and utilisation of indigenous biomass feedstock for production of biofuels," an official statement said, after a meeting of the cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The Indian approach to biofuels is based solely on non-food feedstock to be raised on degraded or wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, thus avoiding a possible conflict of fuel versus food security," the statement added.
The salient features of the National Policy on Bio-fuels include:
-Setting up of a National Biofuel Coordination Committee under prime minister for broader policy perspective
-Setting up of a Biofuel Steering Committee under the cabinet secretary to oversee implementation of policy
-Bio-diesel production to be encouraged from non-edible oil seeds in waste, degraded, marginal land
-An indicative target of 20 percent blending of bio-fuels in diesel and ethanol by 2017
-Minimum support price to be announced for farmers producing non-edible oil seeds
-Financial incentives for second generation biofuels, including a national biofuel fund
The ministry of new and renewable energy will be the co-ordinating ministry for biofuel development and utilisation, with scientific agencies being assigned specific roles.
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