• Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive of global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., was awarded on 19th January the prestigious Genesis Prize for his efforts in leading the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
• The $1 million award is granted each year to a person for their professional achievements, contributions to humanity and commitment to Jewish values. The Genesis Prize Foundation said Bourla had received the largest number of votes in an online campaign in which some 200,000 people in 71 countries participated.

• A three day long National Dance Festival (first time) has been inaugurated at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka.
• It has been organised by the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in which 75 troupes from across the country will perform.
• The performances will take place at the National Theatre auditorium of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy while some organisations will also hold programmes in their respective districts.

• Senior bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Air India Ltd.
• Dutt, a 1993-batch IAS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, is at present Principal Secretary (Tourism) in Delhi government.
• The Centre had accepted Tata Sons bid of Rs 18,000 crore to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier.
• The takeover has not been completed yet.

• The Indonesian Parliament has passed a law to relocate the country’s capital from Jakarta to Nusantara.
• The initial relocation will start between 2022 and 2024.
• In the next decade, the government centre will be relocated and by 2045, the vision of 'World City for All" will be realised.
• The plan was formulated as Jakarta is prone to flooding amid climate change.
• The sinking megacity also suffers from chronic congestion and air pollution.

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has launched Saa₹thi, a mobile app for investor education.
• Aim:  to empower investors with accurate knowledge about the securities market.
• The app will be helpful in easily accessing all the relevant information like the basic concepts of Securities Market, KYC Process, trading and settlement, mutual funds, recent market developments, investor grievances redressal mechanism, etc.

• PM Narendra Modi and his Mauritius counterpart Pravind K Jugnauth jointly inaugurated the India-assisted Social Housing Units project in Mauritius virtually.
• They also launch the Civil Service College and 8MW Solar PV Farm projects in Mauritius that are being undertaken under India’s development support.
• An agreement on extending a 190 million US dollar  Line of Credit from India to Mauritius for the Metro Express Project and other infra. projects have been exchanged.

• Microsoft announced a landmark $69 billion deal to buy US gaming giant Activision Blizzard, betting big on the prospects of the video game market by scooping up the scandal-hit "Call of Duty" maker.
• If the deal is confirmed, it will be the largest acquisition in the industry, far ahead of Take-Two's $12.7 billion purchase of Zynga announced last week.
• After the deal, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.

• Indian tennis star Sania Mirza (35-year) has decided that she is bidding adieu to the sports at the end of 2022.
• She already bowed out of singles competitions in 2013.
• Sania has six Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles to her name.
• Her last headline-grabbing win came with Chinese partner Shuai Zhang in women's doubles at the Ostrava Open on September 26, 2021.
• Sania Mirza is married to ex-Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik.

• The first BRICS Sherpas meeting of 2022 was held virtually on January 18-19 2022, with the members thanking India for its BRICS chairship in 2021.
• China has taken on the rotating chairmanship of BRICS in 2022.
• BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

• Noted ecologist Prof. M. K. Prasad (89-years) passed away due to complications of COVID-19.
• Prof. Prasad, who had served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University, was at the forefront of environmental protection activities in the State.
• He played a leadership role in the ‘Save Silent Valley’ campaign in the state in the 1970s.
• The campaign was considered the first popular campaign for protecting a forest ecosystem in the State.

Download Daily GK PDF of 20 January 2022