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Genetic Engineering as an agricultural technology is an imprecise and imperfect technology which offers no real solutions to real-life agricultural problems facing Indian farmers. The technology is fraught with many environmental, social and political problems and CSA believes that transgenics in agriculture should be opposed by farmers and their supporters. In India, regulation with regard to transgenic crops has been very lax, unscientific, opaque and almost non-existent in several areas. To campaign against GE, CSA has taken up many studies and critiques and has been lobbying quite strongly with the regulatory authorities to voice its views. For instance, we took up several steps in the campaign against Bt Cotton starting from September 2004. We were part of a Fact Finding Team which visited several villages in Warangal to ascertain the damage to the Bt Cotton crop there. In February, we came out with a report on the 3 years of commercial cultivation of Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh. We also undertook an end-of-the-season survey about Bt Cotton as a pest management technology as opposed to Non Pesticidal Management [NPM] approach to cotton cultivation and found that Bt Cotton neither controls pests effectively nor reduces pesticide costs compared to solutions like NPM. We also made a presentation to the GEAC on the 4th of March, in a crucial meeting that was to decide on the fate of the future of the 3 Mahyco Bt Cotton hybrids approved for a 3-year period in 2002. We then met with the Minister for Agriculture, GoAP, Shri Raghuveera Reddy to press home our point. As a result of efforts put in by CSA and other organizations in AP, the true story of Bt Cotton emerged in the state and the government decided to ban five Mahyco-Monsanto Bt Cotton hybrids in the state. We also mobilized wide support for a response that was drafted to the National Biotechnology Development Strategy proposed by the Dept of Biotechnology, New Delhi. We then presented our views in the Southern Region consultation on the draft policy paper on June 11th, when the consultation was hosted by MSSRF, Chennai. We continue to monitor the policy formulation process and have been following up with the DBT officials on the matter.