Policy clearance granted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for E100, or fully ethanol-compatible flex-fuel vehicles, marks another ambitious step to reduce the country’s dependence on petroleum-based automotive fuels. Brazil is arguably a leader in promoting E100-fuelled vehicles, with a fleet share of about 78 per cent for new vehicles and a big programme to produce ethyl alcohol for automotive use. Although India has among the biggest petroleum refining capacities anywhere, rising use of petroleum-based fuels is carving a hole into its current account, leaving a significant deficit. Blending automotive fuel with ethanol to various degrees, currently capped at 20 per cent, has, therefore, become a policy imperative, although scaling this up involves finding sources for vast quantities of........

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