• Odisha cadre 1987-batch IAS officer, Rajesh Verma has been appointed as the Secretary to President Droupadi Murmu. He replaces the incumbent Kapil Dev Tripathi, a 1980-batch IAS officer. He is currently serving as Secretary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs & has also served as principal secretary to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. In the past, Verma has also served as the Principal Secretary to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Principal Secretary of Energy Department, Government of Odisha.
• Droupadi Murmu became the 15th President of India after Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana administered the oath of office last month. With this, she became the second woman President of the country, and the first-ever tribal woman to hold the highest Constitutional office and also happens to be the first President to be born in independent India. Murmu received around 64 per cent of the valid votes of MPs and MLAs comprising the Electoral College. Murmu received 6,76,803 votes whereas Sinha secured 3,80,177 votes.

• Credit Suisse has appointed Dixit Joshi as chief financial officer with effect from October 1, 2022 and Francesca McDonagh as group chief operating officer from September 19, 2022.
• Prior to this, Dixit Joshi was group treasurer at Deutsche Bank and also worked at Credit Suisse from 1995 to 2003.
• He replaced David Mathers, who stepped down from the post.

• IIT Guwahati researchers have developed a new method, ultrasound-assisted fermentation, to produce a safe sugar substitute called ‘Xylitol’ from sugarcane waste.
• Xylitol is a sugar alcohol derived from natural products.
• It has potential antidiabetic and anti-obesogenic effects and is a mild prebiotic and protects teeth against caries.
• The research team was led by Professor VS Moholkar.
• Other team members: Dr. Belachew Zegale Tizazu and Dr. Kuldeep Roy.

• HM Amit Shah has chaired the 23rd edition of Central Zonal Council meeting in Bhopal.
• Issues: connectivity, power, sharing of river water and other matters of common interests
• The meeting was attended by CMs, ministers and senior officers of the member states.
• The Central Zonal Council comprises Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• Five zonal councils in the country were set up in 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.

• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has signed an agreement with Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Technology Ltd (MAHAPREIT) to provide loans for green energy projects.
• IREDA will provide financial facilities and techno-financial consultancy to MAHAPREIT for renewable energy.
• MAHAPREIT is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPBCDC (49% of Govt. of India and 51% of Govt. of Maharashtra).

• Muthoot Finance has launched Milligram Reward Programme for its customers to strengthen its relationships with customers.
• In this programme, transactions with the company will be rewarded with a certain amount of milligram reward points.
• With this launch, the company has become the first gold loan NBFC to launch a new reward programme.
• Two year long programme, every customer referral transaction with the company will yield 20 mg of gold.

• Indian men's volleyball team won bronze medal after defeating South Korea by 3-2 in the 14th Asian U-18 Championship in Tehran.
• In the preliminary league round, India defeated Korea but lost to Iran in the semifinal.
• The Indian U-18 team has been qualified along with Japan, Iran, and South Korea for the FIVB World U-19 Men’s Volleyball Championship.
• Japan has secured the gold after beating Iran (Silver) in the final match.

• SEBI has joined the Account Aggregator framework of RBI, this will boost the regulated financial-data sharing system.
• It will allow customers to share information about their mutual fund and stock holdings with financial service providers.
• The account aggregator (AA) is a licensed by the RBI to enable the flow of data between Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs).
• The user has to give consent while sharing data.

• Rajasthan's Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot has inaugurated Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Advanced Technologies (R-CAT) in Jaipur and three incubation centres in Kota, Bikaner and Churu that will promote the start-up culture in the state.
• The inauguration ceremony of RCAT was held on DigiFest 2022 at Birla Auditorium.
• RCAT would provide an opportunity for the state's youth to learn advanced and emerging technologies in areas like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing.

• The Punjab and Haryana governments have been agreed to rename Chandigarh's international airport after the freedom struggle icon Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
• The collective decision was taken by Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann and Haryana Deputy CM, Dushyant Chautala.
• The terminal building of airport falls in Punjab's Mohali town.
• This airport project is a joint venture of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the governments of Punjab and Haryana.

Download Daily GK PDF of 24 August 2022