• The day is celebrated to create awareness of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) including heart disease & stroke and highlights the preventive and control measures. This initiative was launched in 2000 by the World Heart Federation as an annual event and has been celebrated on the 29th day of September ever since.
• On an average, more than 17 million people die from heart-related illnesses every year.
• 2020 theme: “Use Heart To Beat Cardiovascular Disease”.

• Senior bureaucrat P D Vaghela appointed as chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), according to a Personnel Ministry order. Vaghela, a 1986-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, is currently Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals.
• The order regarding his appointment says Vaghela's will serve as TRAI chief for three years or till he attains the age of 65. 
• A 1986-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, PD Vaghela will succeed RS Sharma whose tenure as chairperson of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ends on September 30. Sharma was appointed to the post in 2015 for a term of three years. However, his term was extended in August of 2018 till September 30, 2020.

• Keeping China in focus, India is bringing together its Indo-Pacific and ASEAN policies under a single unit, with the ministry of external affairs creating a new vertical, which includes a new Oceania territorial division with Australia at its centre, as well as including the Indo-Pacific and ASEAN divisions within it.
• The region targeted by India (western Pacific to Andaman sea) is considered by China as a strategic backyard. In 2019, India created the Indo-Pacific division to include Indian Ocean Rim Association, QUAD and ASEAN. The Indian Ocean Division was created earlier to bring together Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles. Later Comoros, Madagascar and Reunion Islands were included. 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate six mega projects in Uttarakhand under the 'Namami Gange Mission' through a video conference. The projects include the construction of a 68 MLD sewage treatment plant (STP), upgradation of the existing 27 MLD STP at Jagjeetpur in Haridwar and construction of an 18 MLD STP at Sarai in Haridwar, the Prime Minister's Office said on Monday.
• PM Modi will also inaugurate 'Ganga Avalokan', the first museum on Ganga aimed at showcasing the culture, biodiversity and rejuvenation activities done in the river. The museum is located at ChandiGhat, Haridwar.
• A book, ‘Rowing down the Ganges’, co-published by National Mission for Clean Ganga & Wildlife Institute of India was launched at the event. The logo of Jal Jeevan Mission and ‘Margdarshika for Gram Panchayats and Paani Samitis under Jal Jeevan Mission’ was also unveiled by the Prime Minister.

• The Himalayan Chandra Telescope is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO). It has been scanning the night sky in search of comets, stellar explosions, exo-planets and asteroids.
• It operates using delicate satellite communication link from Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST), IIA (Indian Institute of Astrophysics). The telescope marked 20 years of successful operation with more than 260 research papers published using data obtained from it.
• It is located on Mt Saraswati at an altitude of 4,500 metres. It is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. It was installed by IIA, Bangalore in 2000. The telescope has three major science instruments namely Near-IR Imager, Himalayan Faint Object Spectrograph and Optical CCD Imager. The telescope is remotely operated by INSAT-3B satellite link that allows operation even in sub-zero temperatures.
• It generated 1000 GB of data in a year.

• Former Malian foreign minister Moctar Ouane has been named Prime Minister by the country's interim president Bah Ndaw.
• The appointment opens the way for the country’s neighbours to lift sanctions imposed after its August military coup.
• A veteran diplomat, Ouane, served as Mali’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1995-2002, and as foreign minister from 2004-2009 during Amadou Toumani Toure’s presidency.

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named Neetu David as the chairman of the women’s national selection panel. She will be joined by four other former India internationals – Arati Vaidya, Renu Margrate, Venkatacher Kalpana and Mithu Mukherjee.
• The applications were invited in January this year after all the members of the previous committee - headed by Hemalatha Kala - completed their terms. However, the pandemic delayed the entire selection process. It has been learnt that around 38 candidates had applied for the five vacant positions, and the candidates were chosen on the basis of their seniority and experience.

• The Maharashtra government announced the Gan Samragni Lata Mangeshkar award for the year 2020-21 to veteran female playback singer Usha Mangeshkar.
• The award is given by the cultural department of the state government. Making the announcement, state culture minister, Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh said the award include cash prize of five lakh rupees, a certificate and a memento.
• The veteran singer has sung songs in Marathi, Hindi and several  other Indian language films.  Her songs from the film 'Subahka Tara', 'Jay Santoshi Maa', 'Azad', 'Chitrlekha', 'Khatta Meetha', 'Kala Pathar', 'Naseeb', 'Khubsurat', 'Disco Dancer', 'Inkar' ruled the chartbuster.

• Indian men's team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and women's squad's mid-fielder Sanju declared the winners of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Footballer of the Year awards for the 2019-20 season.
• This is the first time Gurpreet has received the award, and in the process, he became the second goalkeeper after Subrata Paul in 2009 to be named the AIFF Player of the Year.
• He is only the second goalkeeper to win this award after Subrata Pal won it in 2009.
• Midfielder Sanju who was a regular feature for the Indian national team last year also winning the Indian Women’s League with Gokulam Kerala was adjudged as the women’s player of the year.She had won the emerging player of the year award in 2016.

• Eminent economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia (74), who has served as the chairperson of Delhi based think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), died. She was suffering from brain cancer.
• Ahluwalia is survived by her husband Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and their two sons. Her memoir “Breaking Through”, a testament of a career that broke many glass ceilings, was recently published.
• She was a professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), and then director, and later chairperson, of ICRIER. Over the last decade and a half, she has built ICRIER into a leading global think tank.

Read More:

Current Affairs of 28 September 2020

Current Affairs of 27 September 2020

Current Affairs of 26 September 2020

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