India leads in aligning bioeconomy demand and supply, says WEF report

India has emerged as one of the clearest examples of coordinated demand and supply expansion in the bioeconomy, supported by targeted government policies and investments in research, infrastructure and industrial capacity, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Tuesday.

In its Bioeconomy Policy Index report, prepared in collaboration with Capgemini Invent, the WEF said governments worldwide were investing heavily in developing their bioeconomies, but effective policy coordination remained crucial to translating scientific advances into commercial outcomes.

The report examined 935 bioeconomy policy instruments across seven major economies — Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, India, China and Brazil.

It highlighted India's expanding bioeconomy and the government's emphasis on creating an enabling environment for innovation, investment and industrial development.

𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵

According to the report, India's bioeconomy development is supported by targeted national initiatives, including the Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment (BioE3) Policy.

The WEF identified India as having the most cross-cutting policy portfolio among the countries studied, with 48 per cent of its policy instruments focused on enabling conditions rather than individual industries.

These measures include support for research and development, tax incentives and strengthening institutional capacity.

"India has the most cross-cutting portfolio, with 48 per cent of policy instruments supporting enabling conditions such as research and development (R&D), tax incentives and institutional capacity rather than individual sectors," the report said.

The findings suggested that India's policy approach placed considerable emphasis on developing the broader ecosystem needed to support biotechnology-led economic growth.

Despite differences in national priorities, the report found that most countries relied on a broadly similar range of policy instruments.

India recorded the highest combined share of these commonly used instruments at 76 per cent, followed by the United Kingdom at 69 per cent and Brazil at 68 per cent. The United States followed closely at 67 per cent.

𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗹 𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲

The WEF identified India's ethanol blending programme as a particularly clear example of policies that simultaneously stimulate demand and expand production capacity.

It noted that the Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme was supported by concessional financing for new distillery capacity through the Ethanol Interest Subvention Scheme.

The combination of mandated demand and financial support for production enabled ethanol output to expand alongside its use in petrol blending.

"Production expanded alongside mandated demand, supporting 20 per cent ethanol blending five years ahead of the original 2030 target," the report stated.

The WEF also referred to emissions savings attributed to the programme by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

According to the ministry, ethanol blending has resulted in cumulative emissions savings of 95.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

However, the report cautioned that this estimate had not been independently evaluated.

𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻

Beyond its assessment of individual countries, the WEF called for governments to adopt more coordinated policy portfolios capable of addressing barriers to the commercialisation of bio-based technologies.

It recommended designing policy instruments that actively create market demand, tackle specific obstacles to commercial deployment and generate measurable evidence of their effectiveness from the outset.

The report also stressed the importance of establishing common reporting standards to allow policymakers to compare outcomes across different instruments, industries and countries.

Such measures, it suggested, would help governments assess which interventions deliver meaningful economic and environmental benefits and improve the allocation of resources.

The findings underline the growing importance of bioeconomy policies in supporting industrial innovation, sustainable production and economic development, while highlighting India's experience in linking government-backed demand with investments in production capacity.