Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 April 2021

::NATIONAL::

Tripura government has started the shifting of Mizoram Bru refugees for permanent settlement at various places in Tripura.

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Earlier, a quadripartite agreement was signed among the Centre, state governments of Tripura andMizoram and Bru-Reang representatives to facilitate permanent settlement of Bru refugees in Tripura.
Over 30000 Brus are living in the refugee camps in Tripura after they fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes with Mizo tribes in 1997.
Bru community, also referred to as Reangs, resides in Mizoram, Tripura, and parts of southern Assam, and is ethnically distinct from the Mizos of Mizoram.
Reangs in Tripura are categorised as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).

The Rajasthan government announced a Jan AnushasanPakhwara (JAP), or the Public Discipline Fortnight.

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The JAP is essentially an extension of the curfew the Rajasthan government had announced for the weekend (6 pm, April 16 – 5 am, April 19).
However, the government has neither called it a lockdown, nor a curfew, mainly because of the interpretations associated with both, as they have been implemented in the past.
State and Central Government employees will be permitted with identity cards.
Apart from government, all private hospitals, labs and associated personnel such as doctors, nursing staff, paramedical and other health services.
Pregnant women and patients for consultation.
People aged 45 years, who have already registered for vaccination, will be permitted to go out for vaccination, but will have to produce the registration document and ID card.
Medical stores and shops selling medical equipment.

US placed 11 countries, including India, China, Germany and Italy in the currency practices monitoring list.
List includes countries that US feels are engaging in“unfair currency practices”by deliberately devaluing their currency against the dollar.
Devaluation would reduce cost of exports from that country and artificially show a reduction in trade deficits as a result.
Designation does not immediately attract any penalties, but tends to dent confidence about a country in global financial markets.

The Council of the European Union approved conclusions on a European Union strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to “reinforce its strategic focus, presence and actions” in this region.

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It aims to contribute to “regional stability, security, prosperity and sustainable development,” at a time of “rising challenges and tensions in the region.”
The Council tasked the High Representative and the Commission with putting forward a Joint Communication on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific by September 2021.
The renewed EU commitment to the Indo-Pacific will have a long-term focus and will be based on “upholding democracy, human rights, the rule of law and respect for international law.

The Reserve Bank of India has decided not to activate the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) framework as the current situation does not warrant such an action.

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CCyBis equity capital to be kept by a bank to meet business cycle related risks.
It aims to build up a buffer of capital in good times which may be used in difficult times.
Restrict banking sector from indiscriminate lending in the periods of excess credit growth.
It was made part of the BASEL III norm of 2010 (post 2008 recession) as part of creating more resilient banks and banking systems.
RBI issued guidelines on CCyB in 2015 but has kept the ratio at 0% ever since.

Using a new platform, scientists have developed a Covid-19 vaccine that they say could offer protection against not only existing and future strains of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but also other coronaviruses.

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The new vaccine-production platform was invented by Dr Steven L Zeichnerof the University of Virginia Health System (UVA).
It involves synthesising DNA that directs the production of a piece of the virus. This can instruct the immune system how to mount an immune response against the virus.
The vaccine targets a part of the virus’s spike protein called the fusion peptide. This compound is essentially universal among coronaviruses, and has not been observed to differ at all in the many genetic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 obtained from around the world.
Most vaccines in development target either the entire spike protein, or just the receptor binding domain (RBD).While antibodies against the RBD can provide good neutralising activity, there can be mutations in the RBD that decrease somewhat the effectiveness of the antibodies.