Who among the following was the winner of Miss World – 2021, which was held in March 2022 in Puerto Rico ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, Karolina Bielawska. Bielawska, of Poland, was crowned Miss World 2021 on 16 March 2022 at the Coca-Cola Music Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The odd pairing of a 2021 title with a March 2022 ceremony — which the question itself flags — is the point worth noticing: the final had been set for 16 December 2021 and was postponed at short notice after a COVID-19 outbreak among the contestants in Puerto Rico, so the 2021 edition was decided three months into the following year. Bielawska is Poland's second Miss World, after Aneta Kregliczka in 1989. The exam was held on 12 June 2022, which made this a three-month-old current-affairs item at the time. As of 2026 the title has of course moved on: Krystyna Pyszkova of the Czech Republic won the 2023 edition, staged in India, and Suchata Chuangsri of Thailand won in Hyderabad on 31 May 2025.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) The outgoing titleholder, not the new one. Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica was Miss World 2019, and because no pageant was held in 2020 she held the title for more than two years — it was she who crowned Bielawska in San Juan. Anyone whose memory of the pageant stopped before the pandemic will name her, which is precisely why she is here.  (c) Olivia Yace of Cote d'Ivoire was the second runner-up at the same event. She placed on the final stage but did not win, and the question asks for the winner.  (d) The Indian-origin trap, and the option most Indian candidates reach for. Shree Saini — spelt 'Sri Saini' in the paper — competed for the United States and finished as FIRST runner-up. She was the closest to the crown of the three wrong options, and being of Indian origin she received wide coverage in the Indian press, which is exactly the reflex the paper is testing.

Concept: Miss World is one of the two long-running international pageants that appear in general-knowledge papers, the other being Miss Universe; they are separately owned competitions with separate titleholders, and confusing them is the standard error. The 2021 edition is unusual for a reason that is itself a piece of current affairs: the pandemic cancelled the 2020 edition outright and forced the 2021 final to be postponed from December 2021 to March 2022, so the titleholder of 2019 held the crown for over two years and the 2021 winner was announced in 2022. India has won Miss World six times — Reita Faria in 1966, Aishwarya Rai in 1994, Diana Hayden in 1997, Yukta Mookhey in 1999, Priyanka Chopra in 2000 and Manushi Chhillar in 2017 — which is why the pageant carries more weight in Indian general-knowledge papers than it does elsewhere.

State PCS 2022 Q77 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q77 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer