General Agriculture, Economics & Extension

Statutory bodies under Biodiversity Act:

• Kolkata houses the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and Botanical Survey of India (BSI).
• New Delhi houses ICAR, NBAIR is elsewhere, and various central ministries.
• National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in $2003$ under the Biological Diversity Act, $2002$, with its statutory headquarters located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• Bangalore houses ICAR-NBAIR (Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources) and IIHR.

Olivine is a magnesium iron silicate mineral with the chemical formula $(Mg, Fe)_2SiO_4$. It crystallizes in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks and constitutes one of the most important primary mineral sources of Magnesium (Mg) in parent material and soil weathering processes.

The sky appears blue due to Rayleigh scattering of sunlight by gas molecules ($N_2, O_2$) in the Earth's atmosphere. According to Rayleigh's law of scattering, the intensity of scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of its wavelength ($I \propto 1/\lambda^4$). Shorter blue wavelengths (approx. 400-450 nm) are scattered nearly 10 times more effectively than longer red wavelengths, filling the clear sky with diffuse blue light.

Banana is a fast-growing, heavy feeder herbaceous fruit crop that displays extraordinary demand and responsiveness to micronutrients (especially Zinc, Boron, Iron, and Manganese). Deficiencies in Zn or B cause severe bunch deformation and yield depression, which is why banana is widely designated as a 'micronutrient loving crop' requiring regular foliar micronutrient sprays.