Current Affairs

1. INDIA-SAUDI ARABIA HAJJ AGREEMENT –

• India and Saudi Arabia signed a bilateral agreement under which India has been allocated a quota of 1,75,025 pilgrims for the annual Haj pilgrimage in 2024.
• Out of 1,75,025 pilgrims from India 1,40,020 seats being reserved for pilgrims to proceed through Haj Committee whereas 35,005 pilgrims would be permitted to proceed through private operators.
• The Haj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims.
• It is considered to be a mandatory religious duty for all adult Muslims physically and financially capable of doing so.
• The rites of pilgrimage are performed over five to six days, in Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar.

 

2. INDIA’S REAL GDP GROWTH IN 2023-24 IS ESTIMATED AT 7.3%, COMPARED TO 7.2% A YEAR AGO, AS PER THE NSO –

Key highlights of the NSO estimates-

• GVA growth for the farm sector is estimated to more than halve from 4% a year ago to 1.8% this year, as is the case for Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and Services whose GVA uptick is estimated to moderate to 6.3% from 14% in 2022-23.
• The investment rate is likely to pick up to nearly 30% of GDP, driven by government capex, higher consumption growth is vital for private investments to take on the onus of spurring the economy.
• Manufacturing GVA    growth    is estimated to accelerate to 6.5% in 2023-24 from just 1.3% a year earlier, while mining GVA is expected to rise 8.1%, from 4.6% in 2022-23.
• Real GDP or GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in the year 2023-24 is estimated to attain a level of ₹171.79 lakh crore, as against the Provisional Estimate of GDP for the year 2022-23 of ₹160.06 lakh crore, released on 31st May, 2023.

Gross Value Added (GVA)-

• It is a measure of the economic value generated by a sector, industry, or entity within a specific period.
• GVA represents the difference between the value of goods and services produced by an economic unit and the cost of inputs and raw materials used in the production process.

Nominal GDP vs Real GDP-

1. Nominal GDP: – The total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a given year, measured in current prices.

• Example: If India produces $2 trillion worth of goods and services in 2024, its nominal GDP is $2 trillion.

2. Real GDP: – Nominal GDP adjusted for inflation to reflect the actual volume of goods and services produced.

• Example: If inflation in 2024 is 5%, then India’s real GDP would be approximately $1.9 trillion and not $2 trillion.

 

3. RECENTLY, ISRO PERFORMED A CRUCIAL MANOEUVRE TO BIND ADITYA-L1 INTO L1 ORBIT –

• Aditya-L1 is the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun.The solar mission will not see the spacecraft actually go to the sun, it will instead create a space observatory at a point from which the sun can be observed even during an eclipse.
• The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1), around 1.5 million km from the Earth, of the Sun-Earth system.
• The mission has a life of five years during which its payloads are expected to provide the information to understand the phenomenon of
• Coronal heating; coronal mass ejection; pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics;
• Dynamics of space weather; and propagation of particles and fields.
• It is equipped with seven payloads (instruments) on board with four of them carrying out remote sensing of the Sun and three of them carrying in-situ observation.