Around April 13, 2026, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced that E20 petrol — gasoline blended with 20 percent ethanol — is now available at nearly all public sector retail outlets of Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited across India. Achieving this nationwide dispensing coverage marks a major milestone in the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, originally launched in 2003 and accelerated in 2021 when the government advanced the 20 percent blending target from 2030 to 2025-26 in the Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-25. Under the National Policy on Biofuels 2018 (amended 2022), ethanol feedstocks have been widened from sugarcane molasses to include surplus sugar, damaged food grains and maize. India's ethanol procurement for the current Ethanol Supply Year has crossed record volumes, supported by price-linking between oil marketing companies and ethanol producers, differential pricing for different feedstocks, interest subvention for ethanol capacity expansion, and a pipeline of new distilleries from cooperative sugar mills and private players. The claimed benefits include a reduction in the crude oil import bill, higher incomes for farmers through fair and remunerative prices for cane and procurement prices for maize and broken rice, lower tailpipe hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions, and progress on net-zero 2070. The Ministry also clarified that E20-compatible vehicles have been rolled out by all major manufacturers since April 2023 and that older vehicles can safely run on E20 with minor adjustments. Environmental critics have flagged potential food-versus-fuel concerns, water footprint of cane-based ethanol and air-quality trade-offs, while the government has emphasised the use of distiller dried grains with solubles (DDGS), maize and 2G ethanol from crop residue.