A little over a decade ago, India’s first national biofuel policy categorically stated that ‘fuel vs. food security’ was not relevant in its context as “bio-ethanol is produced mainly from molasses, a byproduct of the sugar industry. In future too, it would be ensured that the next generation of technologies is based on non-food feedstocks”. On May 16, however, the Narendra Modi-led cabinet, approved a new biofuel policy that “expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of sugarcane juice, sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, rotten potatoes unfit for human consumption, for ethanol production.”
So, is the new policy a negation of the earlier assurance on the food-security-versus-fuel debate?
What A Nasty Tumble-Down! 
Silence Across The Spectrum 
