Govt's ethanol-blending policy needs stimulus to adhere to 2022 timeline

India’s ambitious target of blending 10 per cent ethanol with petrol by 2022 (that is, three years from now) could go off track unless immediate measures are taken to correct the anomalies that have cropped up in this high-profile policy. 

The policy, which could be a viable and long-term answer to the cyclicality in the sugar sector and a solution to India’s bulging oil import bill, has run into rough weather at multiple levels. The principal problems begin with molasses supply from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which account for more than 65 per cent of the country’s sugar production, and 67