Ethanol from Rice: Clean Hands at Cost of Starving Masses?

The Indian government’s recent decision to convert the sizeable accumulated stocks of rice into ethanol, for use in production of sanitisers and as bio-fuel added to petrol, reflects a cruel and insensitive attitude towards the vast majority of the country that is going hungry. Why is it that the government is more concerned with making sanitisers with extra rice stock, as opposed to using that very stock to feed the millions of workers stranded in different parts of the country without any money or food? In this interview, Prabir Purkayastha talks to D Raghunandan of the Delhi Science Forum, and senior journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty about the government's decision.