To boost farmers’ income and move to cleaner fuel alternatives, the Assam cabinet has approved a production-linked incentive for production of grain-based ethanol. Assam is a key producer of rice.

The incentive is kept at ₹2 per litre, which will be effective for a period of three years, as per the State government decision taken at the Saturday cabinet meeting.

India as a whole has already rolled out 20 per cent blended fuel, though in a phased manner, in April 2023 and widespread availability is expected in days to come.

The government is ambitious of attaining 20 per cent ethanol-blended petrol by 2024-25 and 30 per cent by 2029-30. The government has advanced the target of E20 fuel from 2030 to 2025.

E20 blending in petrol was introduced by the Centre to reduce the country’s oil import cost, energy security, lower carbon emissions and better air quality.

India however has no plans to mandate the blending of ethanol with diesel. The issue of blending ethanol with diesel is still at an experimental stage.

Blending of diesel with ethanol would form deposits in fuel tanks, which can have a series of other implications, Minister Hardeep Puri had said earlier this year. To do this in the case of diesel, the government has to be very careful that it does not raise vulnerability on safety.

Notably, at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge, including reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, generating half of all energy requirements from renewables, and reducing emissions by 1 billion metric tonnes by 2030.

India also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent. Finally, India commits to net-zero emissions by 2070.