Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), insists her research group's fight is not with big business. "We have never stood out against industry," she proclaims. Cola heavyweights Coca-Cola and PepsiCo might have a hard time swallowing that. CSE's report on August 2 alleging high levels of pesticide in cola has thrown India's soft drinks industry into disarray. A quarter of India's 28 states have imposed partial or total bans on Coke and Pepsi...States have not acted to lift the bans despite India's health ministry last week finding CSE's report inconclusive...Ms Narain, 44, joined CSE in 1980. She does not support the cola bans and says they are not the answer to the larger problem of inadequate food standards as well as weak regulation of India's fast-growing industries: "If India is to become modern, we need modern tools of regulation."...Ms Narain accuses India's government of being "completely emasculated" by big business...But won't the example of CSE's report crippling India's multibillion dollar soft drinks industry scare away the foreign direct investment (FDI) that India so sorely needs? Ms Narain disagrees vehemently. Regulation would inspire "more FDI, not less," she insists. "We are asking that [the] rule of law prevail in India. You would think FDI would not like an unregulated, lawless environment."...In 1996 CSE published a report about pollution that eventually led to Delhi's sweeping mandate that public and commercial vehicles use compressed natural gas. Delhi's switch to natural gas - "despite every opposition imaginable: from government; bus companies; and the diesel lobby" - has cut pollution dramatically. "People said there was no way it would happen," recalls Ms Narain. "Nothing is easy in India. Change is for the obdurate."