UPPSC 2023 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 81 of 150

Correct — C, Sunil Chopra. Delhi-born Sunil Chopra, an Indian-origin businessman and Labour councillor, was elected Mayor of the London Borough of Southwark for the second time (2022-23), taking the oath at Southwark Cathedral. He had entered UK politics in 2010, becoming Southwark's first Indian-origin councillor, and first held the mayoralty in 2014-15 (after a term as Deputy Mayor) — making his 2022-23 election a repeat of the office.

• (a)Gautam Adani — Gautam Adani is the Indian industrialist who heads the Adani Group; he has never held any elected civic office in the United Kingdom, let alone the Southwark mayoralty.
• (b)Sam Dalton — Sam Dalton is not the person elected to this office; the twice-elected Indian-origin Mayor of Southwark reported in the news of the period was Sunil Chopra.
• (d)Neeraj Patil — Neeraj Patil is a real Indian-origin (Karnataka-born) UK politician, but he was Mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth (2010-11) — a different borough — not Southwark. This is the intended trap, mixing up two Indian-origin London mayors.

London's 32 boroughs each elect a ceremonial Mayor (distinct from the elected Mayor of London), usually a serving councillor chosen for a one-year civic term. The Indian diaspora has become increasingly visible in this local-government tier, and current-affairs papers track such 'first/again' milestones for people of Indian origin abroad.

The question tests recognition of a specific diaspora achievement from the news cycle around the May-2023 exam. The trap is that all four names are (or sound) plausibly Indian-origin; the discriminator is the exact borough — Southwark — and the phrase 'for the second time', which points to Sunil Chopra rather than a one-term mayor of another borough like Neeraj Patil.

• Sunil Chopra: Delhi-born, Southwark's first Indian-origin councillor (2010), Labour.
• Mayor of Southwark first in 2014-15; elected to the office a second time in 2022-23.
• Neeraj Patil was Mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth (2010-11) — not Southwark.
• Gautam Adani is an industrialist, not a UK elected official.

• Confusing the borough (Southwark) with Lambeth — Neeraj Patil was Mayor of Lambeth.
• Assuming a famous Indian businessman name (Adani) fits a 'businessman elected mayor' clue.

UPPSC/UPSC current-affairs items pin a diaspora 'first/again' milestone to an exact office and place, testing whether you match the person to the specific borough and term.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Neeraj Patil, an Indian-origin politician, served as the Mayor of which London borough?

  • (a)Southwark
  • (b)Lambeth
  • (c)Camden
  • (d)Hounslow

  Answer(b) Lambeth — Neeraj Patil was Mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth (2010-11).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mayor of London (as in the Greater London Authority) differs from a London borough Mayor mainly because the Mayor of London is:

  • (a)A purely ceremonial one-year post
  • (b)Directly elected by voters as an executive head of the whole city-region
  • (c)Appointed by the British monarch
  • (d)Chosen by the House of Commons

  Answer(b) Directly elected as an executive head of Greater London — unlike the ceremonial, council-chosen borough mayoralties.