1) Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs): RBI tightens norms to prevent evergreening of loans via investments in AIFs.
- AIFs means any fund established or incorporated in India which is a privately pooled investment vehicle which collects funds from sophisticated investors, whether Indian or foreign, for investing.
- Three Categories of AIFs
- Category I: Investment in start-up, social ventures, small & medium enterprises (SME) etc. E.g. Venture capital funds, SME Funds etc.
- Category II: Investment in equity and debt securities. E.g. Real estate funds, Private equity funds etc.
- Category III: Investment aimed at short-term returns achieved by employing complex trading strategies. E.g. Hedge funds, Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) Fund etc.
2) Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Satellite: NASA’s TEMPO satellite monitors air pollution hourly over North America.
- TEMPO is NASA’s first Earth-observation satellite in geostationary orbit.
- It allows scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources from space more comprehensively than ever before.
- Among the pollutants tracked by TEMPO will be nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide and ozone.
- TEMPO’s monitoring range extends from Canada’s oil sands to Yucatán Peninsula and across Atlantic to Pacific Ocean.
- Data gathered by TEMPO will be shared with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environmental Protection Agency to enhance air quality forecasting.
3) Monkeypox (Mpox): WHO warned an epidemic of Mpox in Democratic Republic of Congo could spread internationally.
- Mpox is a viral zoonotic illness caused by monkeypox virus, a species of genus Orthopoxvirus.
- It was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a poxlike disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research.
- Primarily occurs in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa.
- Transmitted to humans through physical contact with someone who is infectious, with contaminated materials, or with infected animals.
- Common symptoms: Skin rash or mucosal lesions, fever, headache, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes.
4) JN.1 Variant: First case of a person infected with JN.1 variant of Sars-CoV-2 was reported in India.
- Sars-CoV-2 virus was responsible for Covid-19 pandemic.
- About JN.1 Variant: It is a sub-variant of Sublineage BA.2.86 (also known as Pirola), is an off-shoot of the widely circulating Omicron variant.
- Variant is a genome (genetic code) that may contain one or more mutations. World Health Organization (WHO) has classified it as a variant of interest.
- These are strains that are worrying enough to trigger stepped up investigations of the variant by countries, like laboratory studies
Places in News:
1) Iceland (Capital: Reykjavik):
- After weeks of intense earthquake activity, a volcano has erupted on Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland.
- Political features
- Island country located in North Atlantic Ocean.
- A member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since its foundation in 1949.
- Its coastline meets Greenland Sea (north), Norwegian Sea (east), Atlantic Ocean (south and west), and Denmark Strait (northwest) which separates it from Greenland.
- Geographical features
- Highest point: Hvannadals Peak.
- Longest River: The Þjórsá River.
- Located on Mid-Atlantic Ridge which results in volcanoes reaching deep into unstable interior of Earth.
