Editorial 1: G20, a pathfinder
Recent Context:
- Recently, India is going to organise G20 summit that is expected to be remembered as a historic pivot in global governance.
- As, the 2023 G20 slogan — “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “The world is one family” — exemplifies a typical Indian melding of tradition and contemporary concerns.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam has vision of global inclusiveness
- For a G20 summit that is about reviving, reforming, and defending globalisation, vasudhaiva kutumbakam has taken on a meaning beyond hospitality to visitors from across the world.
- The concept of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” emphasises the interconnection of cultures across geographies, and, as in families, reminds us of our obligation to those left behind, those yet to benefit from globalisation.
India’s vision for G 20: working for the global south
- Of the many priorities India is taking forward in its stewardship of the G20 by raising the voice of global south
- The following are the major initiatives which highlights the India’s active role in rasing the concern of global south
- Democratization and decentralisation of the global economy: “One Earth, One Family, One Future” should be seen especially in the backdrop of recent geo-economic developments that threaten our interconnected futures.
- As the recent initiatives such as The United States’s Inflation Reduction Act and European Union ‘s carbon border tax seems to be an attempt to regulate external markets at the cost of poor and developing countries
- Therefore, there is need to correct this drift away from the pure principles of globalisation in which all benefit, but the poor benefit the most should be priority while taking consideration of developing world.
- Reform and restoration of global finance: Since the 2008 crisis, financial globalisation has ceased to operate properly.
- The purpose of finance is to take savings and deploy them in projects, sectors, and geographies where they will garner the greatest returns.
- As various agencies including the International Monetary Fund estimate, over three-fourths of global growth in the coming years will be in emerging economies.
- Therefore, international financial institute should be encouraged to provide financial facility in underdeveloped and developing nation that will result into better redistribution of wealth within societies
- This G20, under India’s presidency, and those that follow, will aim to fix development and infrastructure finance so that capital can flow to the places where it can best stimulate growth — benefiting all of us, across the world.
- Widening the areas of discussion within G20:
- Earlier the G20 discussion was mainly for technocrats and policy framers but current vision of summit has opened the door for dialogues on urgent issues such as food, health, jobs, adaptation to climate change
- Therefore, India’s proud contribution to the G20 is a diversity that will shake the tree of global governance.
Conclusion:
- This historic turn towards the Global South marked by India’s G20 has begun to redress decades of reductionism. India’s G20 has reclaimed this description and shown that our self-image is of a group seeking green growth, tech-first growth, women-led growth, and inclusive growth.
- Therefore, India’s vibrant scholar community, India’s deft diplomacy and, indeed, India’s warm hospitality have reclaimed our identity.
- For the first time, the Global South is the pathfinder for a greener, digital and equitable growth. This is the developmental legacy of the people’s G20, and of India’s presidency.
Editorial 2: Toyota’s flex-fuel prototype: How it will work, what advantages it offers
Recent Context:
- Recently, Toyota unveiled a prototype of the Innova Hycross with a flex-fuel hybrid powertrain that is claimed to be world’s first BS6 Stage II-compliant flex-fuel vehicle
What is Hycross prototype
- The Hycross flex-fuel prototype has Atkinson Cycle petrol engine coupled with an electric motor, the same as in the hybrid version of the standard Hycross.
- It can run on petrol with more than 20% ethanol blending that is currently mandated in India, and that its performance would be at par with the standard Hycross hybrid, even with ethanol-blended petrol.
- The Hycross flex-fuel prototype would run 60% of the time in the electric vehicle mode using energy stored in the battery pack that will result in ow carbon emissions
Functioning of flex fuel engine
- Most components in a flex fuel vehicle are the same as those in petrol-based cars but certain modifications are made to the fuel pump and fuel injection system to adjust to the different chemical properties and energy content in ethanol/ methanol
- The engine control module (ECM) is also calibrated to accommodate the higher oxygen content of ethanol.
Pros and cons of Flex fuel engine
Pros:
- The most important benefit is that the use of ethanol blending sharply lowers harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur, and carbon and nitrogen oxides
- Another benefit is that blending will help cut back on oil imports for fueling vehicles.
- The ethanol mix in petrol in India went up from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 11.5% in March 2023. This has helped cut the oil import bill by an estimated Rs 41,500 crore in the last eight years
- The expected implementation of E20 by April 2025 is estimated to result in annual savings of Rs 35,000 crore in India’s oil import bill
- Along with it, Alternative fuels contribute towards economical and sustainable mobility
- The high anti-knock properties of ethanol (110 octane) allow a higher compression ratio and thus increased engine performance
- Improved volumetric efficiency of the engine additionally increases the power output and is an ideal prerequisite for downsizing
But there are problems:
- A flex fuel car typically takes a small hit on fuel efficiency when using ethanol for motive power, ranging from between 4 per cent and 8 per cent.
- So, while fuel economy is generally lower with increased levels of ethanol (engines are optimised for petrol),
- on the flip side, many flex fuel vehicles have improved acceleration performance when operating on higher ethanol blends.
- As ethanol is difficult to ignite at temperatures below 13 °C, So, vehicles with the flex fuel system have a small auxiliary fuel tank onboard. On the basis of sensor data, the control unit automatically switches to gasoline drive to guarantee a reliable and convenient start. After a short heat-up phase, the system reverts to ethanol drive.
- A major problem with ethanol blending is that crops such as sugarcane are usually very water-intensive. A NITI Aayog report suggested that in 2019-20, of the total ethanol produced in the country, over 90 per cent came from sugarcane alone.
- Need for flexibility of fuel mix to cope up with adverse situation: The National Biofuel Policy 2018 envisages a 2025 target of 20% blending. Countries such as Brazil can be flexible on the degree of the mix depending on crude prices, varying it when energy prices rise like they did after the Ukraine war — the precondition being that the vehicular fleet has been equipped to adjust to this varying fuel mix.
- There is also need of government subsidy to narrow the price gap of higher ethanol blends, in order to make the proposition viable
Indian Government initiative?
- A Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has included automobile and auto components and auto components of flex-fuel engines
- Government has also promised to provide to provide direct benefits to the Automobile Manufacturers in for manufacturing Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFV) and Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) complying with BS-6 Norms in a time bound manner within a period of six months.
- The government has notified the mass emission standards to introduce alternate fuels, that is, blends of ethanol with gasoline (E-10, E-12, E-15, E-20), flex-fuel (E 85) or (E 100), and Ethanol blend for diesel vehicles (ED 95), Biodiesel, Bio-CNG, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), methanol M15 or M100 and Methanol MD 95, dual fuel, M85 and Dimethyl Ether (DME or D100)
- The government has also mandated the mass emission standard for BS-VI throughout the country with effect from 1st April 2020
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi's along with Department of Science and Technology (DST), developed a technology that enables a diesel-powered automotive vehicle to run in a flex-fuel mode, that is, either on 100% diesel or a mixture of dimethyl ether (DME) plus diesel.
Conclusion:
- Therefore, to overcome the challenges of lower fuel efficiency of flex-fuel vehicles, electrified flex-fuel vehicles are being introduced, which offer the advantages of both a flex-fuel engine and an electric powertrain, as in the case with the Hycross prototype.
- In longer term, to adopt flexible engines will help in cut down on the country’s dependence on imported crude in the medium-to-long run and saving country’s forex while reducing environmental pollution.