Federal ministers call on Punjab to move stalled HPCL ethanol plant forward

In India, the Tribune newspaper reports that following its exposé on the proposed $84 million HPCL ethanol plant in Punjab that has been stalled for three years, the national food processing industries minister has called upon the petroleum and natural gas minister to push the Punjab government to expedite approval of the land HPCL requires to move forward with the project. The facility is meant to use crop waste as a feedstock, the burning of which has led to serious air pollution problems across the country, culminating in months of dense smog in New Delhi late last year.