about how ethanol E20 20% ethanol is being mixed with petrol around the country without really debating the issue by this government without really even coming out with proper or making public proper studies research on on on what is the impact of 20% ethanol on vehicles which are not ethanol compliant. I think it's a utter failure. Why was the roadmap compressed? What were the policy goals? All that is unclear because this consultation, the research business, nothing happened. The blending concept is not new. And government has been having some kind of a blending of petrol with ethanol since 2003. The ETIO came out with a report based on the consultation which they held in I think 2021, which flagged certain issue including the fuel efficiency. Consumers have not been consulted. I don't think any consumer body was part of any consultation. Also, we are not clear why this policy has been formed. Is it for the environment? Then it has to be a part of a larger energy transition. Why only the transport sector? In a situation where manufacturers are coerced into saying things which are not true, scientifically not true as you said. So besides policy failure, there is policy coercion also. Of how much consumers have paid more and has it made any impact on the foreign exchange output. Because of this 6 to 7% increase in the mileage, we are ending up using more fuel, The pure petrol, that is without any blend, I am told it is being sold at a higher price. See the transition if you see in Brazil it has taken 50 years. I am not saying we should take 50 years, we learn from that. Give the choice, let the market play, everything can be done. The policy goals also have to be clear. Hello and welcome to this special conversation on something that has really been occupying the mind of Indians, the large middle class, lower middle classes and very intensely concerning nation for the last perhaps a year And these concerns are being voiced on a regular basis through social media through regular media through whatever democratic channels that are available The opposition has raised this issue Even the students who protested the Cockroach Janta Party, which carried out a nationwide protest around the issue of exam paper leaks. They have also mentioned this issue very prominently. So so it's I mean, you would have guessed by now it's about how ethanol E20 20% ethanol is being mixed with petrol around the country without really debating the issue by this government without really even coming out with proper or making public proper studies, research on what is the impact of 20% ethanol on vehicles which are not ethanol compliant, that is vehicles before 2023. Rough numbers of such vehicles is being put at 230 million, which includes 30 million passenger vehicles and 1 million two wheelers. And now we are told there's a plan to bring some mix with diesel in diesel vehicles also. Of course, it's not, but some other kind of chemical mix. So this issue has really grabbed attention and it's really causing a lot of hurt to people. And most recently, Arvind Kejriwal had a town hall meeting where he He went directly to the citizens and he is planning to arm the parties, planning to do a kind of countrywide campaign against the way ethanol E20 has been brought into the way it's been implemented in terms of by the government, both by Petroleum Ministry as as well as the Ministry of Road and Highways. So we thought we'll have to discuss this and give us more analysis information. We thought we would have with us, Professor Dinesh Sharma. Now Dinesh Sharma is a veteran journalist, a science writer from decades, he writes on science and technology, He written many books and he taken very seriously in the domain that he writes on And Dinesh has also been writing on this issue So Dinesh welcome to our show So why don you just start by telling us what do you think about the way the government has gone about this business and whether something can still be retrieved given that so much protest is going on political. This has become an odd button political issue. Dinesh. Thank you, Venu for having me on your show. It is always a pleasure to talk to you. See you also been writing and covering the public policy space. See there are many perspectives of this particular crisis or the controversy which you are witnessing. But one most important aspect of it, as I see it, and I'm sure you will share that view, it's a public is a classic public case of public policy failure. So when we talk about a new policy, I mean, they have been the job of the government is to bring out new policies and you know, implement them and watch how they pan out and what is the impact on the society. But what is the process of public policy making, there is a consultation, first of all, there is a policy need, why do you need to formulate a policy, there should be clear policy goals. Then there is a process of consultation with all stakeholders and whatever measures have been proposed in a policy, you need to back it by some evidence or research. And then you carry out some pilot scale studies or if you're talking of a large rollout in terms millions of people getting affected you at least carry out some pilot scale studies in certain states or certain areas and then you also create a public awareness see these are the classic ingredients parameters for any public policy making so if we apply this framework to what we are seeing today in terms of the ethanol blending policy we'll see that we have altered at many places the government has faltered many many on many of these parameters first of all yeah the blending concept is not new and government has been having some kind of a blending of uh petrol with ethanol since 2003 if i'm not wrong or 2005 yeah and then 0.1 percent two percent five percent like that but there was a major push so obviously there was some data on how it is to be done what should be the feedstock and things like that if the blending has been in place for almost two decades now but what happened now in recent past is in 2018 we had a national policy biofuel policy which had a road map which is rightly to have a road map roadmap which said that we will reach 20 blending which at that time was around five percent i suppose in 2018 20 blending by 2030 so there was a kind of a road map and there were consultations so in between after 2018 when this biofuel policy roadmap was announced there was a consultation within niti ayog but I don't think it was an open consultation in the sense of see who are the stakeholders in this is the government number one, the oil companies, and auto car makers, and consumers. And if you look beyond the agriculture sector also is a major stakeholder, then there is absolutely so environment sector is a major stakeholder. So these are all stakeholders. I don't know if everybody was consulted, but planning commission, the NITI came out with the report based on the consultation which they held in I think 2021 which flagged certain issue including the fuel efficiency six to seven percent drop in cars whatever data which they had at that time they did project so there were checks and balances if you are looking from that point of view still all of a sudden in 2025 the roadmap was advanced and say government said that we are going to achieve uh 20 blending ahead of time and we have done it in 2025 july last year so that why did why was the roadmap compressed what were the policy goals all that is unclear because this consultation the research business nothing happened and now once the controversy is erupted we are hearing of the main point which is you know the efficiency loss and what are the goals they are saying west asia crisis but the crisis didn't happen last year you know when the road map was changed from 2013 2013 from a policy making perspective i think it's a utter failure but on several counts there was no consultation if there is research it has not been in public domain if there are pilot scale studies certain states have implemented on certain type of vehicles what is that what does that data show before you roll out on a national scale and advancing the time you see why why are the goals set from 2025 to 2030 so that everybody prepares for that is the feedstock you know is arranged for the production is arranged for and everything is taken, then you have a roadmap, suddenly you compress the roadmap. So I think this is a classic public policy mess. And that's what we are witnessing today because consumers have not been consulted. I don't think any consumer body was part of any consultation. Manufacturers may have been auto manufacturers. I'm not saying they were not.
