Current Affairs 20th August 2015..

•  President of IAAF - Olympic champion Sebastian Coe

 The former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe was elected as the sixth President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

He has replaced Senegalese Lamine Diack who has led the IAAF for past 16 years.

About Sebastian Coe

• He former track and field athlete and also a British politician.
• In 1980 and 1984, Coe had won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games as a middle-distance runner.
• In middle-distance track events, he set eight outdoor and three indoor world records – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997.
• On 16th May 2000, he became a Life Peer. Post retirement, he became the Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1997.

• Ranil Wickremesinghe became PM of Sri Lanka

• Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on 18^th August 2015 as the results announced that United National Party (UNP) led United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) coalition won the Parliamentary elections.

The UNP has emerged as the single largest party with 106 seats in the 225-member legislature. Rajapaksa, who was president of Sri Lanka for over nine years till January this year, was the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)’s prime ministerial candidate for elections held on 17 August 2015. Though the UNP has not secured a simple majority, the formation of the next government with Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister looks only a matter of formality, given that several smaller parties, including the Tamil National Alliance, support him

• 12 MW solar power project inaugrated by - Kerala Government

 a 12 MW solar power project at the Cochin International Airport was inaugrated by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. It has a area of over 50 acres and is the single largest solar project which has been constructed in an airport in India.

Now, Cochin airport became the first airport in India to run on solar power. Approximately 50000 units of electricity will be generated by this project daily and the airport will technically become grid power neutral.

The project is executed by Bosch Energy and Building Solutions (BEBS) team in India executed this project.

• Bangladesh won Under-16 South Asian Football Federation

Bangladesh won Under-16 South Asian Football Federation title on 18^th August 2015 after defeating India played in Bangladesh.

• Name the Uttar Pradesh Minister who has passed away - Chitranjan Swarup

 Chitranjan Swarup, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs passed away at the age of 70. He was from the ruling Samajwadi Party.

He was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Uttar Pradesh state assembly from Muzaffarnagar constituency. In the year 1974, he was elected as a MLA on a Congress ticket for the first and later in 2002 and 2012 on a Bhaujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket.