• On the 22nd of May, the International Day for Biological Diversity is observed annually across the globe. This day is observed to generate awareness about the biodiversity issues that are overwhelming the world.
• The theme for this year is “Building a shared future for all life.” The theme focuses on developing and supporting the notion that biodiversity is the structure on which humans can build a better life.

• The United Nations (UN)’s World Bee Day is annually observed across the globe on 20th May to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy.
• The theme of World Bee Day 2022 is ‘Bee Engaged: Celebrating the diversity of bees and beekeeping systems’.

• Representatives of the United States, Japan, and three other countries had briefly walked out of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers’ meeting on 21^stMay 2022 to protest against Ukraine’s invasion by Russia.
• This is a two-day meeting that was held in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The ministers from the 21-member countries of the APEC met virtually for this meeting with New Zealand serving as the chair.
• The countries involved in the walkout were Japan, Australia, The United States, New Zealand and Canada
• The walkout happened when the economic development minister of Russia, Maksim Reshetnikov started delivering his speech. The delegations from the 5 countries left the meeting room for around three minutes, the duration of the Russian minister’s speech. They later returned to their tables.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all banks, ATM networks, and White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) to provide their customers with the option of Interoperable Card-less Cash Withdrawal (ICCW) across all ATMs in the country.
• For Card-less Cash Withdrawal transactions, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) facility will be used. For this, RBI asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate the integration of UPI with all banks and ATM networks.
• This facility will ensure convenience for customers and will also reduce scams such as card skimming, card cloning, etc. as there is no need to use debit or credit cards.

• The Centre has constituted a committee of three independent experts to investigate the reasons for recent collapse of a part of under-construction tunnel in Ramban on Jammu-Srinagar highway and suggest remedial measures.
• Ramban is a town in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.
• It lies on the banks of the Chenab river in Chenab Valley on the National Highway-1A (now NH-44) at about 150 km from Jammu and about 150 km from Srinagar.
• Its location makes it almost the central point on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

• India’s Astrosat space telescope has witnessed the birth of a black hole in space for the 500th time.
• AstroSat is India’s first multi-wavelength space telescope, which has five telescopes seeing through different wavelengths simultaneously — visible, near UV, far UV, soft X-ray and hard X-ray.
• It has been studying Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB).

What is a black hole?

• A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape its pull.
• According to Nasa, the gravity in black holes is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying.

• The 250th Birth Anniversary of Raja Ram Mohan  Roy was celebrated on May 22nd this year.
• He is popularly remembered as the father of Indian renaissance.
• He was born on 22 May, 1772 in Radhanagar (Bengal Presidency).
• He represented Akbar II  in England where he pleaded for his pension and allowances. Akbar II awarded him the title ‘Raja’.

Social Contributions:

• He stood against the practice of The Abolition of Satis Act, 1829,   was a result of R.R Mohan Roy’s efforts.
• He pleaded for the right of inheritance and property for women.
• He fought against polygamy and child marriage   which were prevalent back then.
• He supported women education   he believed that only education would fetch women equal social status with men.

Organisations he is associated with:

• Started Atmiya Sabha in 1814in order to crusade against idol worship, meaningless rituals and superstitious beliefs. He spreaded the monotheistic ideals.
• In 1817, along with David Hare, he founded the Hindu College at Calcutta.
• He created the ‘Brahma Sabha’ in 1828 (set up with Debendranath Tagore).

• James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful space-based observatory, recently completed the first test to track a moving object, which verified that the telescope could conduct moving target science.
• The Webb team has already used an asteroid within our solar system to run engineering tests of the ‘moving target’ (MT) capability. The engineering team tested this capability on a small asteroid in the Main Belt: 6481 Tenzing, named after Tenzing Norgay, the famous Tibetan mountain guide who was one of the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

• Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested a solid fuel-based engine, Kalam-100 Engine that would be used in the third stage of the launch vehicle called Vikram 1.

Key points:

• The company is developing a series of three small satellite launch vehicles called Vikram 1, Vikram 2, and Vikram 3.
• The Vikram 1 rocket will use four fuel-based stages which includes 3 solid fuel and one 1 liquid fuel stages for the launch.
• Launch vehicle contains four stages, in which the third stage contains a solid fuel-based engine called Kalam-100 Engine, named after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
• Kalam-100 engine is the largest rocket stage ever designed, manufactured, and tested completely in the Indian private sector.
• In 2021, Skyroot successfully demonstrated the country’s first privately developed cryogenic engine, Dhawan-1, which will be the upper stage in the Vikram-2 rocket.

• The Greenko Group and the Government of Andhra Pradesh is setting up the World’s largest Integrated Renewable Energy Storage Project (IRESP) with a capacity to store 5,230 Mega Watt (MW), in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

Key Points:

• The Greenko Group is one of India’s leading Renewable Energy companies, providing solutions for energy transition and decarbonisation.
• It will be the first-of-its-kind Single location energy storage project with wind and solar capacities.
• The project is scheduled to be commissioned by the last quarter of 2023.
• The project will help avoid 15 million tonnes of CO2 annually which is equivalent to emissions from three million cars.