At which of the following places in India the First Municipal Corporation was set up?

The answer is Madras (B). The East India Company's Royal Charter of 1687-88 created a municipal body for Madras, with a Mayor and Aldermen sitting in a Mayor's Court. It is generally counted as the first municipal corporation in India, and the Madras Corporation dates its founding to 1688.

• Calcutta (A): Municipal government came in 1726 under the Mayor's Court charter. It followed Madras, so it is not the first.
• Bombay (C): A Mayor's Court was also set up in 1726. The Bombay Municipal Corporation traces its origin to 1865, so it is later than Madras.
• Delhi (D): The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was created by the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, which came into force in 1958. This is a modern, post-independence body.

The concept here is the evolution of urban local government under colonial rule, which is the historical base for the 74th Constitutional Amendment (1992) on urban local bodies. For Mains, it links to the debate on decentralisation and the weak finances of urban local bodies.

Trap: Candidates pick Calcutta or Bombay because they were the bigger presidency cities. Some sources date Bombay's corporation to 1865 or 1888, so keep the 1688 Madras charter clearly in memory.