Sweet sorghum ethanol production – An economic assessmentGBasavarajauthorP PRaoauthorKBasuauthorChRavinder ReddyauthorB V SReddyauthorAAshok KumarauthorOver the past two decades, India’s economy has grown on average at the rate of 5-6% per annum. Energy consumption is one of the major indicators of the country’s economic progress and is one of the major inputs whose use increases with economic growth and development. India ranks the sixth in terms of energy demand accounting for 3.6% of the global energy demand (Prasad et al. 2007) and this is expected to increase by 4.8% in the next few years (Gonsalves 2006). Currently, India’s energy demand is primarily met through non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil). Being short in domestic production, India mainly depends on crude oil imports that have risen from 57.8 mt in 1999-2000 to 140.4 mt in 2009-10 which accounts for about 81% of the oil consumption in the country (GOI 2009).This in turn puts pressure on scarce foreign exchange resources (for instance, the import bill of $75.6 billion in 2009-10). In the near future the imports are slated to rise further with no major breakthrough in domestic oil production and rise in vehicular population that has grown at 10% per annum between 2001 to 2006 and expected to continue in the near future.Sorghum2013International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid TropicsBook Section