“Given the price of petrol in the market at that time, we saved Rs 41,000 crore and we were able to utilitise that and pay our farmers Rs 42,400 crores,” he said while speaking at The Energy Transition Dialogue co-hosted by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and the Observer Research Foundation in the capital on Wednesday.
The minister also said that India needs 1,000 crore litres for 20% blending in petrol. “We are going to get it. We are already at 600 crore litres,” he stated.
Talking about the Global Biofuels Alliance, Puri said the market for ethanol is projected on a steady growth trajectory. “We are just 3% of the global market. The market in ethanol is $92 billion. It will go up to $162 billion in two years. But you are potentially looking at $500 billion. Why shouldn’t I expect people who have already become billionaires to be even bigger,” he highlighted, while answering a question on the objective of the alliance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the launch of Global Biofuels Alliance at G20 Summit in September.
