An ecosystem is a structural and functional unit of nature and it comprises abiotic and biotic components. Abiotic components are inorganic materials- air, water and soil, whereas biotic components are producers, consumers and decomposers.

Since life originated on earth nearly 3.8 billion years ago, there had been enormous diversification of life forms on earth. Biodiversity refers to the sum total of diversity that exists at all levels of biological organisation. Of particular importance is the diversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels and conservation efforts are aimed at protecting diversity at all these levels.

Genetics is a branch of biology which deals with principles of inheritance and its practices. Progeny resembling the parents in morphological and physiological features has attracted the attention of many biologists.

Nucleic acids are long polymers of nucleotides. While DNA stores genetic information, RNA mostly helps in transfer and expression of information. Though DNA and RNA both function as genetic material, but DNA being chemically and structurally more stable is a better genetic material. However, RNA is the first to evolve and DNA was derived from RNA.

Meaning of Accounting: Accounting is a process of identifying, measuring, recording the business transactions and communicating thereof the required information to the interested users.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): Generally Accepted Accounting principles refer to the rules or guidelines adopted for recording and reporting of business transactions in order to bring uniformity in the preparation and presentation of financial statements. These principles are also referred to as concepts and conventions.

Meaning of source documents: Various business documents such as invoice, bills, cash memos, vouchers, which form the basis and evidence of a business transaction recorded in the books of account, are called source documents.

Bank Reconciliation Statement: A statement prepared to reconcile the bank balance as per cash book with the balance as per passbook or bank statement, by showing the items of difference between the two accounts.

Meaning of trial balance: A statement showing the abstract of the balance (debit/credit) of various accounts in the ledger.

Meaning of depreciation: Depreciation is decline in the value of a tangible fixed asset. In accounting, depreciation is the process of allocating depreciable cost over useful life of a fixed asset.

Meaning, usefulness and types of financial statements: After the agreement of the trial balance, a business enterprise proceeds to prepare financial statements. Financial statements are the statements, which present periodic reports on the process of business enterprises and the results achieved during a given period.

Need for adjustments: For the preparation of financial statements, it is necessary that all the adjustments arising out of the accrual basis of accounting are made at the end of the accounting period. Another important consideration in the preparation of final accounts with adjustments, is the distinction between capital and revenue items. Entries which are recorded to give effect to these adjustments are known as adjusting entries.

New Profit Sharing Ratio: New profit sharing ratio is the ratio in which the remaining partner will share future profits after the retirement or death of any partner.

Dissolution of Partnership Firm: The dissolution of a firm implies the discontinuance of partnership business and separation of economic relations between the partners.

Company: An organisation consisting of individuals called shareholders by virtue of their holding the shares of a company, who can act as legal person as regards its business through board of directors.

Debenture: Debenture is the acknowledgements of debt. It is a loan capital raised by the company from general public. A person or holder of such a written acknowledgement is called debenture holder.

Financial Statements: Financial statements are the end products of accounting process, which reveal the financial results of a specified period and financial position as on a particular date. Financial Statements are prepared and published by corporate undertakings for the benefit of various stakeholders. These statements include Statement of profit and loss and balance sheet.

Major Parts of an Annual Report: An annual report contains basic financial statements - Balance Sheet, Statement of Profit and Loss and Cash Flow Statement. It also carries management’s discussion of corporate performance of the year under review for futuristic prospects.

Ratio Analysis: An important tool of financial statement analysis is ratio analysis. Accounting ratios represent relationship between two accounting numbers.

Cash Flow Statement: The Cash Flow Statement helps in ascertaining the liquidity of an enterprise. Cash Flow Statement is to be prepared and reported by Indian companies according to AS-3 issued by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The cash flows are categorised into flows from operating, investing and financing activities.

Definition of partnership and its essential features: Partnership is defined as Relation between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a business carried on by all or any one of them acting for all.

Matters requiring adjustments at the time of admission of a partner: Various matters which need adjustments in the books of firm at the time of admission of a new partner are: goodwill, revaluation of assets and liabilities, reserves and other accumulated profits and losses and the capitals of the old partners (if agreed).

There are all kinds of business organisations - small or large, industrial or trading, privately owned or government owned existing in our country. These organisations affect our daily economic life and therefore, become part of the Indian economy.

Services are those separately identifiable, essentially intangible activities that provide satisfaction of wants, and are not necessarily linked to the sale of a product or another service. There are five basic features of services.

The world of business is changing. e-business and outsourcing are the two most obvious expressions of this change. The trigger for the change owes its origin to both internal and external forces.

Concept of social responsibility: Social responsibility of business refers to its obligation to take those decisions and perform those actions which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society.

Meaning and significance of business finance: Finance required by business to establish and run its operations is known as business finance. No business can function without adequate amount of funds for undertaking various activities.

Role of small business in India: Small Scale Industries play a very important role in the socio-economic development of the country. These industries account for 95 per cent of industrial units, contributing up to 40 per cent of the gross industrial value added and 45 per cent of the total exports.

Trade refers to buying and selling of goods and services with the objective of earning profit on the basis of geographical location of buyers and sellers. It can be classified into two categories (i) internal trade; and (ii) external trade.

International business refers to business activities that take place across national frontiers. Though many people use the terms international business and international trade synonymously, the former is a much broader term.

In every society, people undertake various activities to satisfy their needs. These activities may be broadly classified into two groups - economic and non-economic.

Forms of business organisation refers to the types of organisations which differ in terms of ownership and management. The major forms of organisation include proprietorship, partnership, joint Hindu family business, cooperative society and company.

Organising is the process of defining and grouping activities and establishing authority relationships among them.

Staffing has been described as the managerial function of filling and keeping filled, the positions in an organisation structure. This is achieved by, first of all, identifying requirement of work force, followed by recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, appraisal and development of personnel, to fill the roles designed into the organisation structure.

Directing is a complex managerial function consisting of all the activities that are designed to encourage subordinates to work effectively. It includes supervision, motivation, communication and leading. The principles which guide effective directing may be classified as principles related to the purpose of directing and principles related to direction process.

Controlling is the process of ensuring that actual activities conform to planned activities.

Business finance: The money required for carrying out business activities is called business finance. Almost all business activities require some finance. Finance is needed to establish a business, to run it, to modernise it, to expand, and diversify it.

Financial Market is a market for creation and exchange of financial assets. It helps in mobilisation and channelising the savings into most productive uses. Financial markets also helps in price discovery and provide liquidity to financial assets.

In the traditional sense, the term ‘market’ refers to the place where buyers and sellers gather to enter into transactions involving the exchange of goods and services. But in modern marketing sense, it refers to a set of actual and potential buyers of a product or service.

From the point of consumers, consumer protection is important because consumers are ignorant, unorganised and exploited by sellers.

Management is the process of planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling the enterprise resources efficiently and effectively for achieving the goals of the organisation. Effectiveness in management is concerned with doing the right task, completing activities and achieving goals. Efficiency means doing the task correctly and with minimum cost.

Principles of management are general guidelines, which can be used for conduct in work places under certain situations. They help managers to take and implement decisions.

The term business environment means the totality of all individuals, institutions and other forces that are outside a business but that potentially affect its performance.

Planning: Planning is deciding in advance what to do and how to do. It is one of the basic managerial functions. Planning therefore involves setting objectives and developing an appropriate course of action to achieve these objectives.

City life began in Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers that is now part of the Republic of Iraq. Mesopotamian civilisation is known for its prosperity, city life, its voluminous and rich literature and its mathematics and astronomy.

Over the two millennia that followed the establishment of empires in Mesopotamia, various attempts at empire-building took place across the region and in the area to the west and east of it.

The term 'nomadic empires' can appear contradictory: nomads are arguably quintessential wanderers, organised in family assemblies with a relatively undifferentiated economic life and rudimentary systems of political organisation.

We have seen how, by the ninth century, large parts of Asia and America witnessed the growth and expansion of great empires - some nomadic, some based on well-developed cities and trading networks that centred on them.

From the fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, towns were growing in many countries of Europe. A distinct 'urban culture' also developed. Townspeople began to think of themselves as more 'civilised' than rural people. Towns - particularly Florence, Venice and Rome - became centres of art and learning.

This chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of South America.