Daily Current Affairs MCQs : 10 April 2024 - Humanities/Arts MCQ

Every year, on April 10th, World Homoeopathy Day is commemorated to honour homoeopathy and its contributions to medicine. The anniversary of the birth of German physician Dr Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, the pioneer of homoeopathy, is commemorated on this day.

World Athletics will award US$50,000 to gold medal winners in athletics at the Paris Olympics. This is the first time that World Athletics has announced prize money for an Olympic sports event. It will be extended to all three medal winners in Los Angeles 2028.

Air India has recently appointed Jayaraj Shanmugam as the new head of its global airport operations. Shanmugam will begin his new role on April 15, 2024 and will report to Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch. He has also worked with airlines like Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Jet Airways.

India's Chandrayaan-3 mission team was recently awarded the prestigious space scholar John L. 'Jack' Swigert Jr. Award 2024 (John L 'Jack' Swigert Jr. Award). The award is named by NASA in honor of John L. It is named after 'Jack' Swigert Jr. who flew on the Apollo 13 mission.

Iceland's Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson has been chosen as the country's next Prime Minister. Earlier, Katrin Jakobsdottir had resigned from her post to contest the presidential election. Iceland is a Nordic island country located between the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean.

The Irish Parliament has elected Simon Harris as the country's new and youngest Prime Minister. Earlier, Indian-origin Leo Varadkar had resigned from the post of Prime Minister. He was appointed Minister of Health in 2016 at the age of 29 and Minister of Higher Education in 2020. Simon Harris has become the youngest PM of the country. 

The Central Government has appointed Manoj Panda, former Director of the Institute of Economic Growth, as a full-time member of the Sixteenth Finance Commission. Till now there were only three full-time members in the Commission. The Center constituted the 16th Finance Commission on December 31, 2023. The Chairman of the Sixteenth Finance Commission is Arvind Panagariya.

India has invoked the WTO’s Peace Clause for the fifth time, citing breach of rice subsidy limits. The clause shields developing nations from dispute challenges regarding subsidy breaches. Global trade norms dictate subsidies should not exceed 10% of production value based on a 1986-88 reference price. India seeks amendments to this formula and proposed the Peace Clause in 2013 as an interim measure until a permanent solution is negotiated.

Neptis philyra, a rare butterfly species known as the long-streak sailor, was recently discovered in India’s Tale Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. Previously found in east Asia, it boasts serrated wings with rich brownish-black on top and yellow-brown underneath, featuring a distinctive “hockey stick” pattern on the forewing. Part of the Nymphalidae family, it thrives in habitats like evergreen forests and rocky streams, marking a significant addition to India’s biodiversity.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended a five-year anti-dumping duty on sodium cyanide (NaCN) imported from China, the EU, Japan, and Korea. The investigation, conducted under the Customs Tariff Act and Rules, cited suppressed prices, production declines, and financial losses for domestic industry. Economic non-viability has led to production suspension despite capacity expansion. Sodium cyanide, used in various applications including insecticides and metal extraction, appears as a white crystalline solid with the chemical formula NaCN.