GOBARdhan Scheme in India: From Waste to Wealth, Clean Energy and a Circular Bioeconomy
India’s waste challenge is often discussed as a sanitation problem. Organic waste is usually treated as something that has to be collected, transported and disposed of. But a different way of looking at the same material changes the entire equation: what if the waste is not actually waste, but a biological resource waiting to be recovered? This is the central idea behind GOBARdhan - Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan . GOBARdhan represents one of India’s important policy efforts to connect waste management, renewable energy, agriculture, sanitation, rural development, climate action and the circular economy . It seeks to convert biodegradable materials such as cattle dung, agricultural residues, kitchen waste and other organic waste into useful products including biogas, compressed biogas (CBG), organic manure and bio-slurry . The initiative was announced in the Union Budget in February 2018 and launched on 30 April 2018 by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Fr...