Men and animals may go hungry without food in Modi’s New India is also clear from the Global Food Policy Report 2022 released by the International Food Policy Research Institute that has painted a grim and alarming picture for the country. It has warned that the number of Indians at risk from hunger is expected to be 73.9 million by 2030. India’s rank on Global Hunger Index has also been falling year after year in Modi regime, and in 2021 it ranked 101 out of 116 countries in the world with a score of only 27.5 indicating India’s hunger level ‘serious’. The Global Food Policy report has even projected that India’s food production would drop by 16 per cent on account of climate change alone which would push hunger by 23 per cent. Obviously, our livestock is also running greater risk of hunger due to scarcity of feedstock.

However, this scenario has been ignored by the Modi government if its recent policy changes are of any indication. The changes have been made purportedly to bolster energy security of the country by advancing the targets of biofuel production and usage from 2030 to 2025. The hurry of attaining the targets five years earlier will also involve diversion of large quantity of food grains and feedstocks to biofuel production industry producing ethanol which is to be blended with petrol and diesel. Modi’s policy of New India obviously ignores the hungry men and animals in favour of profiteering through selling petrol and diesel which sell at about 40 per cent above the price of ethanol which sell at more than three times the government rate of MSP for food grains while large number of farmers getting even less price for their agriculture produce, including rice and sugarcane, that are used for producing ethanol. The more serious issue is the diversion of subsidized food grains from FCI to ethanol producing industry while the government claims it to be food subsidies for feeding the people and providing remunerative rates to farmers.

To drive biofuel output, the Union Cabinet has approved several amendments to the National Policy on Biofuels of 2018 that had allowed more feedstocks and diversion of food grains for biofuel production. Accordingly, the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) has taken several decisions including to advance introduction of Ethanol Blended Petrol with up to 20 per cent throughout the country from April 1, 2023. The original plan was to attain 20 per cent blending target by 2030, which was advanced to 2025-26. The Centre now plans to advance it further and implement it from the next financial year.

Production of Biofuels will be promoted under Make in India programme, by units located in Special Economic Zones (SEZ)/Export Oriented Units (EoUs). Permission will also be granted for export of biofuels in specific cases. The Centre has claimed that it would pave the way for economic development though reduction of petroleum import bills of the country, would promote Atmanirbhar Bharat, generate large number of employment, and give impetus to the Prime Minister’s vision of India becoming ‘energy independent’by 2047.

The fulfillment of the target of blending 20 per cent of ethanol in petrol would require consistent supply of an estimated 1,500 crore litre of ethanol annually. According to Niti Aayog, 760 crore litre of ethanol would need to be produced from sugarcane and 740 crore litres from grains. It means India would require to divert 60 lakh tones of sugar for ethanol production annually. Since one tonne of starch produces 620 litre of ethanol, one tonne of grain at 60 per cent starch would produce 360 litre of ethanol, and if starch level increases to 70 per cent it would produce 420 litre.

Last year in June 2021, Modi government had diverted 78,000 tonnes of rice procured for food security to ethanol producing industry at a subsidized rate of Rs20 per kg. It was done after Narendra Modi presented a road map advancing the target of 20 per cent blending by five years to 2025. At that time a third of the 710 crore litre ethanol production capacity came from grains, but most of it was already committed for alcohol-based products rather than for fuel bending. Only 38 crore litres of grain-based ethanol was being used for fuel.

All India average blending of ethanol as per the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas stood in the beginning of last month at 9.9 per cent. Letters of Intent for supply of 468.56 crore litres of ethanol were issued at the start of this Ethanol Supply Year (December 2021 to November 2022), out of which 415.88 crore litres has been contracted and 186.21 crore litres supplied so far.

In Modi’s New India, common people and livestock including cows have a great price to pay, which means even going hungry without food and feedstock at affordable price. Diversion of subsidized grains, and also feedstock, that men and animals need to quench their hunger, would bring further deterioration in the hunger level in men and animals in the country because it would make food and feeds more costly and unaffordable. Profiteering should not be the sole motive of any government, because life is more important than profit and saving precious money.