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Who was the first Indian woman to win the Miss World crown?
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Answer: Option D — Reita Faria
Detailed Solution
Reita Faria became the first Indian woman to win the Miss World title in 1966. She was also the first Asian woman to win the crown.
About Reita Faria:
- She was born on 23 August 1943 in Bombay (Mumbai), into a Goan Catholic family.
- She won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest in 1966 and represented India at the Miss World pageant held in London on 17 November 1966.
- At the pageant, she also won the "Best in Swimsuit" and "Best in Eveningwear" sub-titles.
- She was a medical student at Grant Medical College, Bombay, when she won the title.
- She was also the first Miss World winner to qualify as a doctor.
After her reign, she declined most film offers and returned to her medical studies. She later studied at King's College Hospital in London.
She married Dr. David Powell and settled in Dublin, Ireland, where she practised medicine.
She was a judge at the Miss World pageant in later years.
Indian winners of Miss World:
- Reita Faria (1966).
- Aishwarya Rai (1994).
- Diana Hayden (1997).
- Yukta Mookhey (1999).
- Priyanka Chopra (2000).
- Manushi Chhillar (2017), a medical student from Haryana.
- India has won the Miss World title six times, a record it shares with Venezuela.
Other early Indian pageant winners:
- Zeenat Aman: Miss Asia Pacific (1970), the first Indian to win that title.
- Persis Khambatta: Miss India (1965); later acted in the Hollywood film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979).
- Miss Universe from India: Sushmita Sen (1994), Lara Dutta (2000), Harnaaz Sandhu (2021).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Aishwarya Rai won Miss World in 1994, the second Indian to do so.
- ✗Zeenat Aman won Miss Asia Pacific in 1970.
- ✗Persis Khambatta was Miss India 1965.
Quick tip
Remember: first Indian Miss World = Reita Faria (1966; a medical student who became a doctor); then Aishwarya Rai (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999), Priyanka Chopra (2000), Manushi Chhillar (2017).
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Famous Personalities & Founders — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Famous Personalities & Founders, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous personalities from India and the world: leaders, reformers, scientists, entrepreneurs and their nicknames, along with the founders of organisations, companies, institutions, religions and movements. Questions often use popular titles such as 'Iron Man of India' (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) or 'Nightingale of India' (Sarojini Naidu), or ask who founded an organisation, such as the Ramakrishna Mission (Swami Vivekananda). Grouping people by field and by title makes revision faster and helps you spot wrong options. Practise the famous personalities questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.