Indian-American elected Mayor of California

An Indian-American engineer has been elected as Mayor of South San Francisco city in the US state of California.

Pradeep Gupta, an IIT Chennai alumni, was sworn in as the Mayor of the city early in December, a media release said.

With this he has become the second Indian-American to be elected as the Mayor of the Californian city.

"It is my honour to step up and continue the work that former Mayor Mark Addiego has started," Gupta said.

"We have a great group of people on our Council, many who have served the City for years. I'm eager to lead this Council and our City during such exciting times," he said.

Gupta was appointed to the South San Francisco City Council for a one-year term on December 31, 2012 and was elected to a full four-year term in November 2013.

Prior to his appointment to the City Council, he was on the South San Francisco Planning Commission for three years, serving as the Commission's Chair in 2011.

He has a Master's degree and a Doctorate from Purdue University in Electrical Engineering, specialising in the area of energy efficiency and long-term planning of electric utility systems.

Gupta's professional career spans over thirty years of working with electric utility industries both in the US and abroad.

He earlier served as Vice Mayor of the City.

This election season, Savita Vaidhyanathan was elected as the new Mayor of Cupertino in California.