The Association of Biotech-Led Enterprises - Agriculture Group (ABLE AG) - the industry body representing agri-biotechnology companies, has sought action from the Minister of Environment & Forest Jayanthi Natarajan and the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee to permit field trials of biotechnology-enhanced seeds in the kharif season sowing, which is already under way, for continued R&D efforts by private and public sector institutions. [...] Member companies of ABLE AG are Advanta India, BASF India, Bayer BioScience, Devgen Seeds, Dow AgroSciences, JK Agri Genetics, Mahyco, MetaHelix, Monsanto, Nath Biogene, PHI Seeds and Syngenta India. Some of them have R&D centres in Bangalore while others are associated with Karnataka for purposes of transgenic crop trials.