India's ethanol blending programme has been marketed as a patriotic, environmentally responsible and economically prudent initiative. The promise is seductive indeed. Lower crude oil imports, cleaner fuel, better incomes for farmers and a smaller carbon footprint. On paper, it appears to be one of those rare public policies that benefits everyone. Yet, somewhere along the way, one stakeholder has been almost entirely forgotten. The ordinary Indian motorist.

He buys the vehicle, pays the taxes, pays for the fuel and, if something goes wrong, pays for the repairs as well. Yet he has had almost no say in a policy that directly affects the fuel his vehicle consumes. That is perhaps the most troubling aspect of India's ethanol story. It is not merely about ethanol. It is actually about informed consent.

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There is an unfortunate tendency in India to believe that once a policy objective is declared noble, every criticism of its implementation becomes an attack on the objective itself. That is a dangerous way to frame public debate.

Questioning how a policy is implemented is not the same as questioning why it exists. No sensible person would argue against reducing India's dependence on imported crude oil. Energy security is a legitimate national goal and so is reducing emissions. The real question is whether India has chosen the most prudent path towards those goals.

Brazil is frequently cited as the gold standard for ethanol blending. The comparison is convenient, but incomplete. Brazil did not wake up one morning and decide that petrol would henceforth contain large quantities of ethanol. It spent decades building an entire ecosystem around the fuel. Vehicle manufacturers redesigned engines. Fuel systems were engineered to withstand higher ethanol concentrations. Consumers understood what they were buying because the transition evolved over generations rather than through policy announcements.

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India, on the other hand, has attempted to arrive........

© Mathrubhumi English