UPPSC 2022 Prelims Q102: With reference to the 'India Smart City Awards Contest –

Q: What is the answer to UPPSC 2022 Prelims Q102?

A. Correct — A, A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3. In the India Smart Cities Awards Contest 2020, Indore took first place in the Culture category, Vadodara in Governance, Tirupati in Social Aspects and Bhopal in Urban Environment. The stem's 'given in April 2022' refers to the ceremony, not the contest year: the ISAC 2020 winners were announced online, but the award function was deferred by the pandemic and finally held at the 'Smart Cities, Smart Urbanization' conference in Surat on 18-19 April 2022, which is why a 2020 contest turns up in a June-2022 paper. Two further results from the same contest are worth carrying: Indore and Surat were declared joint best city overall, and Uttar Pradesh was declared the best-performing State — the UP result being the one this commission is most likely to come back to.

UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 102 of 150

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official UPPSC answer key.

With reference to the 'India Smart City Awards Contest – 2020' that was given in April 2022, match List– I with List – II and select the correct answer from the code given below the lists. List – I (Category) A. Culture B. Governance C. Social Aspects D. Urban Environment List – II (Winner City) 1. Vadodara 2. Indore 3. Bhopal 4. Tirupati

(a)A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
(b)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4
(c)A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4
(d)A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3

Answer

Why

Correct — A, A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3. In the India Smart Cities Awards Contest 2020, Indore took first place in the Culture category, Vadodara in Governance, Tirupati in Social Aspects and Bhopal in Urban Environment. The stem's 'given in April 2022' refers to the ceremony, not the contest year: the ISAC 2020 winners were announced online, but the award function was deferred by the pandemic and finally held at the 'Smart Cities, Smart Urbanization' conference in Surat on 18-19 April 2022, which is why a 2020 contest turns up in a June-2022 paper. Two further results from the same contest are worth carrying: Indore and Surat were declared joint best city overall, and Uttar Pradesh was declared the best-performing State — the UP result being the one this commission is most likely to come back to.

Why the others are wrong

(b)A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — Every pair is displaced. It gives Culture to Vadodara and Governance to Indore, which is the exact reverse of the result, and then hands Social Aspects to Bhopal and Urban Environment to Tirupati — again a straight swap of the two cities' actual awards.
(c)A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4 — The nearer of the two half-right options. It correctly places Indore in Culture and Vadodara in Governance, then swaps the second pair: Tirupati won Social Aspects and Bhopal won Urban Environment, not the other way round. Bhopal's award was for the urban environment theme.
(d)A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3 — The mirror image of (c). It gets the second pair right — Tirupati for Social Aspects, Bhopal for Urban Environment — but swaps the first, giving Culture to Vadodara and Governance to Indore. You need both halves right, and only (a) has them.

Concept

The Smart Cities Mission was launched on 25 June 2015 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, with 100 cities selected nationwide through a competitive 'City Challenge' and each selected city implementing its plan through a Special Purpose Vehicle. The India Smart Cities Awards Contest is the mission's own annual recognition exercise: cities submit completed projects, and awards are given theme by theme — culture, governance, social aspects, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water, urban mobility — alongside overall city, State and Union Territory awards. The contest is therefore a ready-made source of match-the-list questions, because each theme has a single named winner.

Two things make this item answerable without memorising the full award table. First, Indore's reputation: it has been India's cleanest city in Swachh Survekshan year after year and is the mission's most decorated performer, so an Indore-shaped answer at the top of the list is the plausible one — that alone kills (b) and (d), both of which demote Indore to Governance. Second, Bhopal and Tirupati are the pair the remaining two options fight over, and the correct assignment is Tirupati to Social Aspects and Bhopal to Urban Environment. Note also the date trap built into the stem: the contest is ISAC 2020, but the ceremony was in April 2022, and candidates who reject the question because 'the 2020 contest cannot be an April 2022 event' talk themselves out of a solvable item.

Key facts

ISAC 2020 category winners as keyed: Culture – Indore; Governance – Vadodara; Social Aspects – Tirupati; Urban Environment – Bhopal
Indore and Surat were declared joint best city overall in ISAC 2020; Uttar Pradesh was the best-performing State and Chandigarh the best Union Territory
The ISAC 2020 award ceremony was held at the 'Smart Cities, Smart Urbanization' conference in Surat on 18-19 April 2022, after pandemic delays
The Smart Cities Mission was launched on 25 June 2015 under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, covering 100 cities chosen by competitive City Challenge
Uttar Pradesh has 10 Smart Cities Mission cities: Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Jhansi, Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur

The tall multi-storeyed wooden and stone facade of the Rajwada palace in Indore, with tiered balconies rising above the street — Indore, whose historic Rajwada is the city's best-known landmark, won the Culture category of the India Smart Cities Awards Contest 2020 and was also named joint best city overall alongside Surat.Image: Bernard Gagnon · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Study next

Smart Cities Mission — City Challenge selection, the Special Purpose Vehicle model, area-based development versus pan-city solutionsAMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 — basic urban infrastructure, and how they differ in coverage from the Smart Cities MissionSwachh Survekshan rankings and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban)Uttar Pradesh's ten smart cities and the state's performance in central urban missionsThe 74th Constitutional Amendment and the Twelfth Schedule — the functions urban local bodies are meant to discharge

Common traps

Reading 'ISAC 2020' and 'April 2022' as a contradiction — the contest year and the ceremony year are different, and the pandemic caused the gap
Assuming Indore's dominance means it won every listed category; it won Culture here, while Governance went to Vadodara
Confusing the Smart Cities Mission with AMRUT — both launched on 25 June 2015 but they differ in coverage, funding pattern and purpose

UPPSC likes contest and index results in match-the-list form — category against winner, or scheme against year — and it favours results in which a Uttar Pradesh entity features. UPSC almost never asks who won an award; it asks what a mission is for, how cities were selected, and which tier of government funds it.

Related PYQs

UPPSC_2020_PRE_PaperI_Q112020Open & attempt →

No. of cities in U.P. which are covered under the 'Smart City' Scheme

(a) 10
(b) 12
(c) 15
(d) 18

Answer(a) 10

The same mission from the state angle. UPPSC has asked the Smart Cities Mission twice in three papers — once for Uttar Pradesh's share of the 100 cities, once for the awards table — so both the state list and the award results are live ground.

UPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q152025Open & attempt →

Consider the following and arrange them in the correct chronological order. 1. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 3. Jal Jeevan Mission 4. National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy Select the correct answer from the code given below :

(a) 2, 4, 1, 3
(b) 2, 4, 3, 1
(c) 4, 2, 1, 3
(d) 4, 2, 3, 1

Answer(a) 2, 4, 1, 3

Places the Smart Cities Mission's sibling programmes on a timeline. AMRUT was launched on 25 June 2015, the same day as the Smart Cities Mission, which is the pairing candidates most often blur — learning the urban-mission chronology fixes both.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Smart Cities Mission of the Government of India was launched in which year?
- (a)2014
- (b)2015
- (c)2017
- (d)2019
Answer(b) 2015 — the Smart Cities Mission was launched on 25 June 2015 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the same day as AMRUT, with 100 cities to be chosen through a competitive City Challenge.
practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city implements its proposal through
- (a)The District Collector's office
- (b)A Special Purpose Vehicle
- (c)The State Urban Development Department directly
- (d)A parliamentary standing committee
Answer(b) A Special Purpose Vehicle — every selected city sets up an SPV, registered as a limited company, to plan, appraise, approve, release funds for and implement its smart city projects.