1. Harsh Vardhan
- Harsh Vardhan, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, has been recently nominated to the board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
- He will be a member of the GAVI board from 2021 to 2023.
- He will represent the South East Area Regional Office/Western Pacific Regional Office in the board.
2. Lewis Hamilton
- Lewis Hamilton has been awarded a knighthood in the 2021 New Year Honours list of the UK.
- It is one of the highest honour of the United Kingdom.
- In 2020, Hamilton equalled the seven F1 world championships record of Michael Schumacher.
3. Arya Rajendran
- 21-year old Arya Rajendran became the youngest Mayor in India.
- She was sworn in as the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
- She is a B.Sc 2nd-year student at Thiruvananthapuram's All Saints College.
4. Hemant Kumar Pandey
- Scientist Hemant Kumar Pandey has been awarded the ''Scientist of the Year Award'' by DRDO.
- He has been awarded for his contribution in developing various medicines, the most popular being drug Lukoskin.
- Lukoskin is used for the treatment of leucoderma.
5. Virat Kohli
- Indian Captain Virat Kohli has won two ICC Awards of the Decade - ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade and Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade.
- Kohli is the only player with more than 10,000 ODI runs in the ICC awards period.
6. Vineet Agarwal
- Vineet Agarwal took over as the new president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
- Vineet is the managing director of Transport Corporation of India Ltd (TCIL).
- He has replaced Niranjan Hiranandani.
7. Ratan Tata
- The Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce (FIICC) has conferred the industrialist Ratan Tata with the "Global Visionary of Sustainable Business and Peace" title.
- He has been given the title for promoting unity, sustainability and peace.
- Ratan Tata has also been awarded the ASSOCHAM Enterprise of the Centenary Award by PM Modi for Tata Group.
8. Narendra Modi
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been awarded with the ‘Legion of Merit’ by the U.S.
- He has been awarded for strengthening the US-India relations.
- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison were also awarded the Legion of Merit Award.
9. Shashi Shekhar Vempati
- Shashi Shekhar Vempati has been chosen as the new Vice-President of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).
- Vempati is the CEO of India's Public Broadcaster Prasar Bharti.
- His tenure is of 3 years.
10. Vidyut Mohan
- Indian Engineer Vidyut Mohan has won the ‘Young Champions of the Earth’ Award by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
- He is the co-founder of an enterprise “Takachar” which helps the farmers to convert their farm residues into value-added chemicals like activated carbon on-site and earn extra money.
- The enterprise also prevents the farmers from burning farm residue in open.
11. Ashraf Patel
- Ashraf Patel has won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award.
- She is the co-founder of two organisations ComMutiny and Pravah which trains youth for leadership.
12. Carolina Araujo
- Carolina Araujo of Brazil has won the Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians 2020.
- After winning the award, she has become the first non-Indian to win the award.
- Carolina is a Mathematician from the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), Brazil.
13. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
- Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been named as the ‘2020 Person of the Year’ by the TIME magazine.
- Joe Biden will take over as the new President of the US after stepping down of Donald Trump and Kamla Harris will be the Vice-President.
14. Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid
- Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid has been re-appointed as the prime minister of Kuwait.
- He has been appointed by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
15. Raj Kamal Jha
- Raj Kamal Jha has won the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2020.
- He has been awarded the prize for his novel-The City and The Sea.
- His book is based on the Nirbhaya rape and murder case.
16. Anil Soni
- Anil Soni, an Indian-origin health expert, has been appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer of The WHO Foundation.
- The WHO Foundation has been launched in May 2020 and is headquartered in Geneva.
- The foundation works alongside the World Health Organisation.
17. Jehan Daruvala
- Jehan Daruvala became the first driver from the country to win a Formula 2 race.
18. Uday Shankar
- Entertainment and Media Executive Uday Shankar has been appointed as the president of FICCI for 2020-21.
- He has replaced Sangita Reddy.
- He is the outgoing Chairman of Star and Disney India and the President of The Walt Disney Company for the Asia Pacific.
