India may have solved cheap energy question

When police bring the traffic to an abrupt halt in Raipur, capital of the remote Indian state of Chhattisgarh, drivers know what to expect next. Soon, flashing red lights atop speeding government vehicles come into view. Raman Singh, Chhattisgarh's chief minister, is passing through.

Government motorcades are a common sight in Indian capitals. But what is different about this one is that all of Chhattisgarh's official vehicles, including the chief minister's Tata Safari jeep, are run on oil from the wrinkled black nut of a shrub-like tree called jatropha.

Unlike biofuels made from crops such as soybeans and maize, jatropha is inedible, grows on non-arable land and needs little water or care. "It has good potential, no doubt about it," says Suhas Wani, principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, near Hyderabad.

News Source : Samachar