Achievements and misses of the Indian national policy on biofuels 2009

The National Policy on Biofuels (NPB) 2009 was adopted on 24th December 2009 in India to ensure the minimum availability of biofuels at any given time to meet the demand. NPB 2009 laid down the vision, goals and strategy to biofuel development while proposing a framework of technological, financial and enabling mechanisms. The NPB 2009 undertook reforms and aimed to increase the biodiesel blending percentage in diesel and bioethanol blending percentage in petrol to 20% each by 2017. It promoted inclusive growth, development and contributed to energy security and climate change mitigation. The lack of assured supply of raw material feedstock for biofuel production has been the major slippage of NPB 2009. NPB 2018 was adopted on 16th May 2018 and built on the foundation laid upon by NPB 2009. The paper focuses on the importance of NPB 2009, its achievements and misses and touches upon NPB 2018. [Publisher's Text]