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Bioenergy in India: barriers and policy options

India offers a conducive environment for accelerating the use and internalisation of bioenergy technologies (BETs). Nearly 25% of its primary energy comes from biomass resources, and close to 70% of
rural population depend on biomass to meet their daily energy needs. India has over two decades of experience in demonstrating bioenergy packages. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recognizes this potential. MNRE, state governments, and central and state regulatory commissions have developed a number of policy instruments (tariff support) and financial incentives (capital
subsidy, interest subsidy, etc.) to support bioenergy development. Despite this, empirical evidence shows that the rate of spread of BETs is rather low because of institutional, technical, informational, market and financial barriers.