Notes:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chaired the high-level Ministerial meeting on ‘Global Food Security-Call to Action’ in New York.
India’s Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan expressed concern over global food insecurity in the meeting. He said that India welcomes the UN Secretary General’s initiative of establishing a Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance (GCRG) and exemption of food purchases by WFP for humanitarian assistance from food export restrictions.

Notes:
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs released its World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report.
India is projected to grow by 6.4 per cent in 2022, slower than the last year’s 8.8 per cent but still remains the fastest-growing major economy. For the fiscal year 2023, India’s growth is projected to be 6 per cent. The war in Ukraine slowed global economic growth to 3.1 per cent from 4 per cent.

Notes:
The Central Government has rolled out the NEFT, RTGS facility for Post Office Savings Bank Account (POSB) Account holders.
This step will make investment in POSB schemes easier. At present, NEFT is allowed only to Post Office Savings Accounts and this facility will be extended to PPF and SSA accounts soon. IPPB has entered into an arrangement with the Department of Post to allow NEFT/RTGS transactions to their customers in eligible accounts.

Notes:
National Endangered Species Day is celebrated every year on the third Friday of May and this year it is celebrated on 20 May.
The day aims to create awareness among people about endangered species and the different steps we can take to protect them. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 came into existence on 28 December. The act aims to raise the need for wildlife conservation and rehabilitation of endangered species.

Notes:
The third advance estimates of production of major agricultural crops for 2021-22 have been released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
As per the estimate, the production of Food-grains in the country is estimated at record 314.51 million tonnes which is higher by 3.77 million tonnes than the production of food-grain during 2020-21. The production during 2021-22 is higher by 23.80 million tonnes than the previous five years’ average production of food-grains.