With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements : 1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizers is market-driven and not administered by the Government. 2. Ammonia, which is an input of urea, is produced from natural gas. 3. Sulphur, which is a raw material for phosphoric acid fertilizer, is a by-product of oil refineries. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. Statement 1 is incorrect. While the prices of Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers are technically decontrolled, the Government influences them through subsidies under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme. More importantly, the retail price of urea, the most widely used chemical fertilizer in India, is still fixed and administered by the Government; it is not market-driven. 2. Statement 2 is correct. Ammonia (NH3) is the essential input for manufacturing urea. The primary method for industrial production of ammonia globally involves the Haber-Bosch process, which typically uses hydrogen derived from natural gas (methane). 3. Statement 3 is correct. Elemental Sulphur is a crucial raw material for producing sulphuric acid, which is then used to manufacture phosphoric acid fertilizer (by reacting with rock phosphate). A significant portion of the global sulphur supply comes from recovery during the processing of natural gas and the refining of crude oil (hydrodesulfurization process in oil refineries), making it a by-product of these operations. 4. Therefore, statements 2 and 3 are correct.