SEBI has announced a ban on intermediate pooling of funds in MF transactions by service providers.

Pooled Funds

• Pooled funds are funds in a portfolio from many individual investors that are aggregated for the purposes of investment.
• Mutual funds, hedge funds, exchange-traded funds, pension funds, and unit investment trusts are all examples of professionally managed pooled funds.
• Investors in pooled funds benefit from economies of scale, which allow for lower trading costs per dollar of investment, and diversification.
• Mutual funds are among the best-known pooled funds.

Health authorities in the United Kingdom have confirmed a case of monkeypox, a rare viral infection similar to smallpox.

Monkeypox

• The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus, which is a genus of viruses that also includes the variola virus, which causes smallpox, and the vaccinia virus, which was used in the smallpox vaccine.
• Monkeypox is a zoonosis, that is, a disease that is transmitted from infected animals to humans.
• According to the WHO, cases occur close to tropical rainforests inhabited by animals that carry the virus.
• Monkeypox virus infection has been detected in squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, and some species of monkeys.
• It also causes the lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy), which smallpox does not.
• Human to human transmission is, however, limited — the longest documented chain of transmission is six generations, meaning the last person to be infected in this chain was six links away from the original sick person.
• Transmission, when it occurs, can be through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets, and contaminated objects.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

• A virtual private network, when switched on, essentially creates a safe network within the larger global network of the internet and masks the IP address of the user by rerouting the data.
• In essence, a VPN creates several proxy identities for our data and delivers it safely without disturbing the content of the data.
• The main reason why privacy or anonymity is important for both VPN service providers and users is that it helps to avoid being tracked, mostly by websites and cybercriminals.
• Cert-In has asked VPN service providers to maintain for five years or longer details such as the validated names of their customers, the period for which they hired the service, the IP addresses allotted to these users, the email addresses, the IP addresses, and the timestamps used at the time of registration of the customers.
• Cert-In also wants VPN service providers to maintain data such as the purpose for which the customers used their services, their validated addresses and contact numbers, and the ownership pattern of the customers.

DNA samples collected from two human skeletons unearthed at a necropolis of a Harappan-era city site in Haryana have been sent for scientific examination.

Rakhigarhi excavations

• Seven mounds (RGR 1-RGR 7) scattered around two villages (Rakhi Khas and Rakhi Shahpur) in the Hisar district are part of the Rakhigarhi archaeological site.
• RGR 7 is a cemetery site of the Harappan period when this was a well-organized city.
• The Rakhigarhi site is one of the "five iconic sites" declared by the Central government in the Union budget 2020-21.
• Rakhigarhi is located in the Ghaggar river plain of the seasonal Ghaggar river.

Harappan civilization

• The cultural span of the Harappan Civilisation can be broadly subdivided into three periods — early (3300 BC to 2600 BC), mature (2600 BC to 1900 BC), and late (1900 BC to 1700 BC), according to archaeological experts.
• Five major urban sites — Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Ganweriwala, all three sites now in Pakistan, and Rakhigarhi and Dholavira in India, have been identified as regional centers of the Harappan Civilisation.

Sawa Lake

• It is located in the country of Iraq.
• Sawa Lake is a permanent lake located in the western field of the Mesopotamian Plains, near the border with the Western Desert.
• It is a closed water body in an area of sabkha (salt flat) with no inlet or outlet.
• It is normally only fed by groundwater that originates from the higher western desert areas, though it can also be temporarily fed by local wadis when heavy rain in the desert area causes flash floods.
• The lake is formed over limestone rock and is isolated by gypsum barriers surrounding the lake; its water chemistry is unique.