SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 5 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

What was the function of the Board of Control established by Pitt's India Act?

(a)To manage only military operations in India.
(b)To oversee taxation and local revenue.
(c)To control civil and military affairs in British India.
(d)To regulate trade between India and China.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Pitt's India Act of 1784 set up a Board of Control in England to superintend, direct and control the government of the Company's Indian possessions: its civil and military affairs and its revenues.

The Company kept its commerce through the Court of Directors, and the Board held the political side, the arrangement called dual government. Control of civil and military affairs is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
To manage only military operations in India. — The word only is the error. Military affairs did come under the Board, but so did the civil government of the Company's territories.
(b)
To oversee taxation and local revenue. — Revenue was part of the Board's remit, beside civil and military government. Option (b) names a slice of the job and misses the rest.
(d)
To regulate trade between India and China. — Commerce stayed with the Court of Directors under the 1784 settlement. The Board of Control was set over the government of India, not over trade with China.

Concept

Parliament took over the East India Company's government of India in stages.

The Regulating Act of 1773 began supervision but left it weak. Pitt's India Act of 1784 created the Board of Control: not more than six privy councillors, among them a Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

That dual system ran until the Government of India Act 1858 ended Company rule.

Key facts

Pitt's India Act of 1784 created the Board of Control in England.
The Board supervised the civil and military government and the revenues of the Company's Indian territories.
The Court of Directors kept the Company's commercial affairs, giving the dual system of government.
Under the Government of India Act 1858, a Secretary of State for India succeeded the President of the Board of Control.

Study next

The Regulating Act of 1773 and the Governor-General of BengalThe Charter Acts of 1813, 1833 and 1853The Government of India Act 1858 and the Secretary of State for India

Common traps

Choosing (b) because revenue was within the Board's remit. It was one part of a wider civil and military mandate.
Mixing up the two bodies: the Court of Directors ran commerce, the Board of Control ran politics.

The same Act is asked from the other end at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9, which describes the Board of Control and asks for the Act. The Regulating Act of 1773 is at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.14, and the 1858 transfer of power to the Crown at 9 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.12.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 154 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.