by N.S.Venkataraman in Chennai

The Government  of India has done it again.  It has once again increased the price of fuel and may marginally reduce the price after the expected huge  public protest.  It would then try to convey an impression that it is sensitive to public opinion but would have nevertheless  succeeded  in increasing  the price substantially.  The  helpless citizens will reconcile themselves to the situation, apprehending as to when would be the next price increase.

Many citizens feel outraged about the government resorting to the repeated price increase of fuel at frequent intervals ,  always giving the explanation that such price increase are inevitable due to the spiraling international  price of crude oil . While everyone understands that the Government of India has no way of controlling the international price of crude , the fact is that the Government has failed to take measures  for maintaining the price of fuel   in India in spite of the international price situation of the crude.   There are many options and ways of doing this with reasonable success. However, the Government has failed to implement time bound and imaginative policy measures to tackle the scenario.

The national consensus is that while there are alternative  energy options like wind and solar power etc. , the best alternative fuel for India that can give sort of immediate relief  is the jatropha based bio fuel.

The country has been discussing about the techno economic viability of producing and using jatropha fuel in a big way for the last several years.  But, nothing much has happened on the ground.  The industries and investors have certainly responded and have come forward to set up jatropha  projects in several states  but have not received any matching response from the government so far. It is sad that  a few units that were set up for producing jatropha oil in the country are suffering due to the lack of pro active government measures  and a few projects have not taken off at all.

Jatropha is a drought resistant crop and has a long life. Due to the tropical conditions and huge cultivable land  availability in India of which substantial  land area remain inadequately exploited   due to water scarcity , jatropha is an ideal crop for Indian conditions.  Jatropha oil  has been well proved to be suitable in all respects for  mixing with petroleum diesel.  Use of jatropha oil as a direct fuel  in tractors  have  also been experimented successfully.  It has been repeatedly pointed out that by promoting large scale  cultivation of   jatropha crop, there will be several tangible benefits for the country including utilization of land hitherto not used due to water scarcity and huge employment potential , apart from substituting petroleum diesel  to some extent.

As a matter of fact, the former President of India  and renowned scientist Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was so enthusiastic about the prospects for jatropha in India that he actively propagated the jatropha cultivation in the country  when he was the President.  He continues to do so.

There are mainly  two issues on promoting jatropha fuel in the country and both the issues can be tackled elegantly by appropriate government policies.

For mixing jatropha oil with  diesel , jatropha oil has to be trans esterified , which involves chemical reaction and that would result in the production of glycerin as co product.  Glycerin is a valuable chemical though the demand for glycerin is not high enough for full utilization in the case of large scale production of jatropha  trans esterified oil.

However, in recent years, several multi national companies have developed value added chemical  products for production  from glycerin and such chemicals like epichlorohydrin, propylene glycol are appropriate  and valuable substitutes for petro chemicals. Commercial plants are now in operation abroad.  Unfortunately, Indian scientists have not done much work to develop products for utilization of glycerin.  Government of India could have launched a R & D programme  for utilization of glycerin on national scale and results could be achieved within a year.  Government has not done much in this regard by way of providing  policy support and incentive measures for development of glycerin based products that would substantially improve the economics of jatropha fuel project.

The cost of production of jatropha oil is such that the government has to give marginal  subsidy support to the jatropha industry to ensure reasonable return for the producers. While the government remains helpless in the case of international crude oil price and is spending hundreds of crores of rupees in foreign exchange to import the crude oil, it is unwilling to extend subsidy support to Indian jatropha industry,  in spite of the obvious benefits that it would provide. This attitude of the government is surprising and lacks logic.

The unhappiness of the people about the government increasing the price of fuel is justified, particularly considering the fact that the government has not attempted to find any solution for the problem and seem to have no plans except increasing the price of fuel from time to time,  unmindful of the consequences to national economy and growth.