Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh while speaking at the Environment Friendly Vehicles Conference in New Delhi said that bio-fuels have a limited role in India due to India’s land limitation and food security issues, a view which differs from the official line pushing for a 20 per cent blend of such fuel in gasoline and diesel by 2017. The same seems to be debated now by experts in the industry as well.
It may be recalled that in October 2007, under pressure from the developed world to cut emissions of the greenhouse gasses produced by fossil fuel combustion, India had fallen in line and mandated that all diesel should contain 5 per cent of biofuel by volume.
Valued opinion by some experts states that the Minister for Environment and Forests appears to have got his idea wrong. Also there are a number of non-edible yielding plant species that are native to India.