How will advancing ethanol blending help India?
Biofuels are fuels produced from renewable resources such as biodegradable products, wastes and residues from agriculture. They can be used as an alternative or to blend with fossil fuelssay, ethanol with petrol and biodiesel with diesel. Though started in 2003, only 1.5% of ethanol blending with petrol was achieved until 2014. This has increased to 8.5% now. The earlier goal was to achieve 20% blending in petrol and 5% in diesel by 2030. Now, government has decided to advance the 20% ethanol blending target by five years to 2025. The move will reduce the annual import bill by around $4 billion and provide additional farmer income. It is also nature-friendly as biofuels pollute less than other fuels.