Ambitious, but...

New biofuel policy needs a few revisions

The ambitious plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to triple the production of biofuels in four years is a positive move to reduce the excessive dependence on imports for meeting the country’s energy needs. But the proposal to use various kinds of farm produce — and not just agricultural wastes — for this purpose is not beyond dispute. It can potentially distort the pattern of agricultural output in favour of energy crops — a trend that even the land-rich countries are finding hard to sustain. This part of the programme, therefore, needs to be revisited and suitably amended. On