National mission on biodiesel: a study of science, development and policy processes in India
Abstract
Biofuel has caught the imagination of countries worldwide as a tool for providing
energy security, advancing rural development, promoting environmental sustainability,
mitigating climate change, and enhancing international trade. Developing countries in
particular are said to have much to gain from biofuel. Testimony to the belief in its
ability to deliver a multitude of societal benefits, a number of developing countries have
initiated large-scale biofuel projects. Among them is the Indian National Mission on
Biodiesel.
However, the global tide of enthusiasm behind biofuel is turning. Biofuel has been
named as a culprit in recent and rapid increases in the price of staple foods. Its
environmental credentials have also come under scrutiny, and there are claims that
biofuel will exacerbate, as opposed to mitigate, climate change. The impacts of
international trade in biofuel are also said to be ambiguous. Existing trade regimes are
unable to provide clear guidelines as to how biofuel trade should be governed. There
are suggestions that under current circumstances, biofuel-exporting developing
countries – and small-scale producers in particular – are likely to be disadvantaged
This MPhil thesis is a study of science, policy and development processes around the
National Mission on Biodiesel in India. Empirically, it adds a qualitative account to an
emerging, and largely quantitative, knowledge base on biofuel. Theoretically, it
contributes to the growing convergence of social science disciplines. Science and Technology Studies (STS), itself an interdisciplinary field of scholarship, provides the
starting point for the research. It also draws upon concepts from other subjects –
notably those from Development Studies that explore environmental and natural
resource issues – to augment the analysis. In the process, the thesis provides inputs for
the further evolution of theoretical concepts that span multiple academic traditions.
The aims of the thesis are threefold. Firstly, it seeks to understand and critically
comment upon the vision of technology and its relationship to society that underpins
biofuel in general, and the National Mission on Biodiesel in particular. Secondly, the
thesis attempts to identify the narratives that are dominant in the National Mission on
Biodiesel, and to explore the processes through which they have become stabilised
given the contention around biofuel. The National Mission on Biodiesel intends to rely
on a complex network of local governance institutions that exists in the Indian
countryside to deliver its rural development benefits. The final aim of the thesis is to
cast the ambitions of the National Mission on Biodiesel against past experiences of
implementing development projects through these institutions. This is in efforts to
make tentative statements about the likelihood of the Mission achieving its goals.
The research reveals a seemingly unquestioning conviction in the ability of biofuel to
transform societies towards pre-defined ends – even in the face of claims to the
contrary. Although such ‘technological determinism’ has been largely discredited by
Science and Technology Studies, the paradigm shows remarkable staying power. With
its tradition of ‘development through modernisation’, the Indian policy context has
been particularly conducive to expert-led, technocratic interventions. One of the
rationales for establishing local governance institutions was to erode this elitedominance
of development initiatives. Despite their intentions, however, such institutions have proved less than effective in enrolling a wider range of stakeholders –
particularly marginalised communities – into development processes. Set against this
backdrop, the ‘pro-poor’ outcomes of the National Mission on Biodiesel appear elusive.