Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE)

• The Private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) is defined as the expenditure incurred by the resident households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) on final consumption of goods and services, whether made within or outside the economic territory.
• It is a measure of national consumer spending, it constitutes over 56 per cent of the total GDP.
• It includes the value of goods and services produced for own use on current account i.e., the value of gross output reduced by the sum of the value of their commodity and non-commodity sales.

TROPEX Exercise

• The major Theatre-level exercise TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise)” is conducted by the Navy every two years.
• It is an inter-service military exercise involving the participation of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard.
• It seeks to strengthen interoperability and joint operations in a complex environment.
• TROPEX and Sea Vigil 2021 will be conducted together this year which would cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges.
• In the Sea Vigil 2021 exercise apart from the Navy, the Indian Air Force, Coast Guard, National Security Guard, the Border Security Force, oil handling agencies and airports will also participate.
• SITMEX is the trilateral naval exercise between India, Singapore and Thailand.

Cherry Blossom Mao Festival

• The Manipur government and Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), started organizing the festival since 2017.
• The Mao area of Senapati district in Manipur is known for Cherry Blossom, a plant which is popularly known as Sakura in Japan.
• The festival features the picturesque landscape of Mao town adorned with beautiful Cherry Blossom flowers.
• It is the world’s only autumn cherry blossom festival. 
• A cherry blossom is a flower of many trees of genus Prunus (Prunus cerasoides, called wild Himalayan cherry).

V Shaped Recovery in Economics

• V-shaped recovery is a type of economic recession and recovery that resembles a "V" shape in charting.
• V-shaped recovery represents the shape of a chart of economic measures economists create when examining recessions and recoveries.
• V-shaped recovery involves a sharp rise back to a previous peak after a sharp decline in these metrics.

Magnetotail

• The interaction of the magnetosphere and the solar wind compresses the Sun-facing side of the magnetosphere and drags out the night-time side of the magnetosphere into what is called a “magnetotail.”
• Auroral electrojets are generated by changes in the structure of the magnetotail.
• The same space weather phenomena that power the beautiful aurora can cause interference with radio and communication signals and utility grids on Earth’s surface, and damage to spacecraft in orbit.
• NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) will study electric currents in Earth’s atmosphere linking aurora to the Earth’s magnetosphere.

• Union Minister for MSME Sh. Nitin Gadkari will be launching an innovative new paint “Khadi Prakritik Paint”.

Khadi Prakritik Paint

• It is a first-of-its-kind product, with anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.
• It is an eco-friendly and non-toxic paint.
• It is based on cow dung as its main ingredient.
• The paint is cost-effective and odorless.
• It was developed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
• It has been certified by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
• The paint is free from heavy metals like lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic, cadmium and others.
• It will be a boost to local manufacturing and will create sustainable local employment through technology transfer. 

• Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri. Prakash Javadekar has recently released Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of 146 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country.
• He also announced that this year onwards, 10 best national parks, 5 coastal and marine parks and 5 zoos in the country will be ranked and awarded every year.
• He also launched the Framework for Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Indian Zoos (MEE-ZOO) and of Marine Protected Areas.
• Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Protected Areas has emerged as a key tool that is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.

Highlights of the survey

• India has a network of 903 Protected Areas covering about 5% of its total geographic area of the country.
• According to the survey, Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary and Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh have performed the best among the surveyed protected areas.
• The Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer in the survey.
• India is home to 70% of the global tiger population, 70% of Asiatic lions and more than 60% of leopard population.
• It is a certificate of India’s thriving biodiversity as these big cats sit at the top of food chain and their growing numbers shows the well-being of the whole ecosystem.

• North East Venture Fund (NEVF) is gaining popularity among Start-Ups and young entrepreneurs.

North East Venture Fund (NEVF)

• It is the first and the only dedicated Venture Fund for the North Eastern Region (NER).
• The Venture Fund Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) in co-operation with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi).
• It was intended to promote growth of business ventures and skill development in the region.
• It was setup with an initial corpus of Rs. 100 crores.
• The fund targets to invest in Start-Ups and unique business opportunities to provide resources for new entrepreneurships.

• The second edition of the coastal defence exercise “Sea Vigil-21” will be conducted on 12-13 January 2021.

SEA VIGIL - 21

• It is a biennial pan-Indian coastal defence exercise.
• It will be undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
• It will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities.
• The exercise is being coordinated by the Indian Navy.
• The inaugural edition of the exercise was conducted in January 2019.
• The Sea Vigil is a build up towards the major Theatre level exercise TROPEX [Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise] which Indian Navy conducts every two years.
• SEA VIGIL and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict.

• The Antarctic ozone hole — one of the deepest, largest gap in the ozone layer in the last 40 years — has closed, according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Ozone Hole

• An ozone hole is the thinning of the ozone layer boosted in size by colder temperatures.
• The Antarctic ozone hole is a naturally occurring phenomenon, first discovered in 1985, that typically opens up each year from August to December.
• By the end of December, ozone levels return to normal.

Causes

• The formation of ozone hole in the Antarctic has been an annual occurrence and has been recorded for the last 40 years.
• The expansion of the hole was driven by a strong, stable and cold polar vortex and very cold temperatures in the stratosphere.
• Human-made chemicals migrate into the stratosphere and accumulate inside the polar vortex.

Polar Vortex

• It is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth's North and South poles.
• The term vortex refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air close to the poles.
• It weakens in summer and strengthens in winter.
• Often during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the polar vortex will become less stable and expand, sending cold Arctic air southward over the United States with the jet stream.

Weakening of Polar Vortex

• As the temperatures high up in the stratosphere starts to rise, ozone depletion slows, the polar vortex weakens and breaks down. 
• By the end of December, ozone levels return to normal. 

Montreal Protocol

• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer regulates production and consumption of nearly 100 chemicals referred as Ozone Depleting Substances (OSD).
• Since the ban on halocarbons, the ozone layer has slowly been recovering, according to WMO.