• The United Nations  pared down India’s growth forecast by 20 basis points to 5.8 per cent for 2023 calendar year, citing higher interest rates and risks of recession in the developed world weighing on investment and exports.
• Economic growth in India is projected to moderate in 2023, with higher interest rates weighing on investment and slower global growth weakening exports,it said in its latest World Economic Situation and Prospects report.

• In the recently concluded 12th session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) at Rome for January 18 -20, 2023, India was elected as Vice-Chair and represented Asia and Pacific region.
• Dr B N Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences), ICAR, and the National Coordinator, vice-chaired the Session and also act as Rapporteur.The Working Group, established by the FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), functions to review technical issues, advise and make recommendations to the Commission and further implement the Commission’s programme related to AnGR at global level.

• South Africa said that it had reached a deal to transfer more than 100 cheetahs to India as part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the spotted cats in the south Asian country.The environment ministry said an initial batch of 12 cheetahs would be flown to India next month, after eight cheetahs arrived from Namibia last September.
• The plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years, to help establish a "viable and secure cheetah population," the ministry said in a statement.

• China seems to be building a new dam on a tributary of Ganga in Tibet, alarmingly close to the India-Nepal border, satellite images tweeted by an Intel Lab researcher shows, a development likely to worsen the already fragile ties between the two neighbours.
• The dam is being built on Yarlung and Zangbo rivers which connects Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang and Assam’s Brahmaputra.

• Earlier this month, Canada launched its National Quantum Strategy, which invests an additional 360 million Canadian dollars ($288 million) to help solidify Canada as a global leader in quantum technologies.
• Founded in 2016, Xanadu, with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere, leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

• Toyota Motor Corp said , that Akio Toyoda would step down as president and chief executive and hand over the helm of Japan's largest automaker at a time when the company faces the challenge of adapting to zero-carbon transportation.
• Koji Sato, a 53-year-old who is also president of Toyota's luxury brand Lexus, will become the new CEO, the company said.The current chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada will drop his chairman title but remain on the board. Toyoda will become chairman in a series of changes that take effect from April 1^st.

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. has received approval from India’s central bank to name Prabdev Singh as the lender’s chief executive officer in the country. The Reserve Bank of India last week approved a three-year term for Singh, a JPMorgan spokeswoman said in an emailed reply to Bloomberg . An email to the RBI wasn’t answered.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. has received approval from India’s central bank to name Prabdev Singh as the lender’s chief executive officer in the country.

• India and Egypt  signed an MOU to facilitate content exchange, capacity building, and Co-Productions between Prasar Bharati and National Media Authority of Egypt. The MoU was signed by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Hon’ble Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Youth affairs and Sports and Mr. Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Egypt.
• The MoUs were exchanged between the two countries in the presence of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and the Hon’ble President of Egypt following the delegation level talks between the two sides at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

• Every year around 27 January, UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.
• The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945. It was officially proclaimed, in November 2005, International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly.

• ‘Ironman of India’ Sabir Ali, who won the decathlon gold at the 1981 Asian Athletics Championships in Tokyo, passed away in New Delhi, following a cardiac arrest, family sources said. He was 67.
• Ali, who retired from Railways, won the title in the Japanese capital with a tally of 7,253 points beating Japan’s Nobuya Saito (7,078) and China’s Zu Qilin (7,074). He also won two silver medals at the South Asian Federation Games held in Kathmandu and Dhaka.

Download Daily GK PDF of 27 January 2023