About the Programme

• The ‘National Policy on Biofuels’ notified by the Government in 2018 envisaged an indicative target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol by year 2030. However, considering the encouraging performance, due to various interventions made by the Government since 2014, the target of 20% ethanol blending was advanced from 2030 to 2025-26.
• A “Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-25” was also released by the Prime Minister in 2021 which lays out a detailed pathway for achieving 20% ethanol blending. This roadmap also mentioned an intermediate milestone of 10% blending to be achieved by November, 2022.

Objectives

• The Government of India aims to achieve the following objectives:
  • enhance India’s energy security, 
  • reduce import dependency on fuel, 
  • save foreign exchange, 
  • address environmental issues and 
  • give a boost to the domestic agriculture sector.

Why in News?

• Due to the coordinated efforts of the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) the target of 10% blending under the programme has been achieved much ahead of the targeted timelines of November, 2022 wherein the Public Sector OMCs have attained an average 10% ethanol blending in petrol across the country.
• With all the initiatives taken by the Government, the EBP Programme is on track to achieve the target of 20% blending by 2025-26.

Reference:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1831289