Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARdhan) is a vital umbrella initiative of Government of India which aims to convert waste to wealth. The Government of India intends to build a robust ecosystem for setting up Biogas/Compressed Biogas (CBG)/ Bio-Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) plants to drive sustainable economic growth.In addition, GOBARdhan also aims to promote the circular economy using the “Whole of Government” approach.
GOBARdhan is a multi ministerial initiative designed with the intention of significantly advancing India's climate action goals, especially the target of having net-zero emissions by 2070. India produces a tremendous amount of animal waste due to its large cattle population. The biogas and CBG industry has the potential to be a major player in India's shift to clean energy, providing affordable and secure energy, encouraging entrepreneurship, opening up job possibilities in rural areas, and boosting local economies.
This groundbreaking project received a significant boost from the 2023 Budget, which announced the construction of 500 new "Waste to Wealth" manufacturing plants with a Rs. 10,000 crore investment. 198 plants were established in the Financial Year 2023–2024, comprising 186 biogas plants and 12 compressed biogas (CBG) plants. Moreover, 427 biogas and 129 CBG plants are among the 556 plants that are under construction.
The Indian government has taken a number of measures to actively encourage the implementation of the GOBARdhan initiative. The few measures includes:
Compressed Biogas (CBG) has been included in a list of activities for trading of carbon credits under bilateral/ cooperative approaches. This will help CBG plant owners to generate extra revenue through trading of carbon credits.
In order to avoid double taxation Central excise duty exemption has been provided to CNG blended with CBG from 2nd February, 2023.
DA&FW released a notice of adjustment to the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) for
A) Granting exemption for requirement of Authorization letter for sale of Fermented Organic Manure (FOM) /Liquid Fermented Organic Manure (LFOM) (organic manure produced from GOBARdhan plants) for a period of three year to boost uptake of LFOM/FOM.
B) Increasing the FOM moisture content standards from 30–40% to 30–70%.
C) Increasing the pH content in LFOM/FOM from "6.5-8.0" to "6.5-8.4" and the C/N ratio from "less than 20" to "up to 30".
To promote the advantages of FOM/LFOM on soil health and agricultural productivity, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) created a report on "Utilisation of Bioslurry in various cropping systems" and a package of practices for using FOM/LFOM for several crops to highlight its benefits on farm productivity and soil health.
The Market Development Assistance (MDA) Scheme approved and started the implementation to incentivize sale and marketing of FOM/LFOM (a by-product from GOBARDhan plants) inter-alia promoting organic farming
The MoPNG's CBG-CGD synchronization scheme has been extended for ten years, or until 2024, in order to increase CBG output and consumption.
Issued a notification permitting the bulk sale of FOM/LFOM to facilitate the marketing of FOM/LFOM by CBG plant operators and to encourage organic farming.
The National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) approved the phased implementation of a mandatory 5% CBG blending to strengthen production and consumption of CBG
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation established the Unified Registration Portal for GOBARdhan, which was introduced on June 1, 2023, to accelerate the registration of CBG and biogas plants nationally and to track their status.
The "Functionality Assessment Module," which assesses the plant's functioning, and the "Bank Loan Module," which tracks loan applications' progress and gets bank responses, are two of the portal’s most important functions.
The ultimate goal of the government is to increase the number of Biogas/CBG plants, raise public awareness, and make the sector attractive for private sector investment. Nexgen Energia, as a leading EPC company specializing in setting up CBG manufacturing plants, has 40 CBG units under its pipeline out of the 556 plants that are under construction as a part of the initiative. A 3,000 cr investment in Gujarat and 13,900 cr. investment in Uttar Pradesh has also been announced for establishing Compressed Biogas (CBG) facilities. The company’s investments focus on setting up Compressed Biogas (CBG) plants across the country.