The right and wrong in Nitin Gadkari’s ethanol push

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is not a patient man. From ramrodding the industry to switch directly from BS4 to BS6 emission norms–without passing BS5 and two years ahead of schedule at that–to pushing for electric vehicles to warning cement producers that he will set up cement plants under his ministry if industry cartels did not supply adequate cement at the right price for road concretisation, Gadkari has time and again conveyed that he prefers action to plans, and will brook no opposition when it comes to executing his vision. Addressing the 61st convention of automakers body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Gadkari urged automakers to start making flex engines, which can run either on fossil fuel or ethanol, while promising to set up ethanol filling stations within six months in the country. Maharashtra, despite suffering from acute water shortages–the ‘water trains’ to Latur are a recent memory–nevertheless diverts a disproportionate part of its water assets to sugarcane, which is planted on around 4 per cent of the state’s cultivable land but consumes 70 per cent of the state’s irrigation water. A staggering 80 per cent of India’s water used for agriculture is for growing rice, wheat and sugarcane, which together account for 40 per cent of all cultivated land.