SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 7 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.

How did Pitt’s India Act contribute to unifying British administration in India?

(a)By allowing Governors to act independently.
(b)By dissolving the Court of Directors.
(c)By giving the Governor General supreme authority over Presidencies.
(d)By merging civil and military departments.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Pitt's India Act, 1784 made the governors of Bombay and Madras subordinate to the Governor-General-in-Council in Bengal, depriving them of the independence they had kept.

With the presidencies answering to one authority, British administration in India had a single head. That subordination is what option (c) describes.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
By allowing Governors to act independently. — The Act did the opposite. The governors of Bombay and Madras were deprived of their independence and placed under the Governor-General in Bengal.
(b)
By dissolving the Court of Directors. — The Court of Directors survived the Act and kept the Company's commercial affairs. It was abolished by the Government of India Act, 1858.
(d)
By merging civil and military departments. — The Act put civil, military and revenue affairs under a new Board of Control in London. That is a change of oversight, not a merger of departments.

Concept

Pitt's India Act, 1784 was passed to repair the Regulating Act of 1773. It set up a six-member Board of Control in London for the Company's political affairs and left commerce with the Court of Directors, the arrangement called dual government.

It also cut the Governor-General's council to three members and subordinated the Bombay and Madras presidencies to the Governor-General-in-Council in Bengal.

The Regulating Act of 1773 had first made the Bombay and Madras governors subordinate to the Governor-General of Bengal. Pitt's Act of 1784 tightened that control.

Key facts

Pitt's India Act, 1784 created the Board of Control in London.
It left the Court of Directors in charge of the Company's commercial affairs.
It reduced the Governor-General's council to three members.
It made the governors of Bombay and Madras subordinate to the Governor-General-in-Council in Bengal.

Study next

The Regulating Act, 1773 and the Governor-General of BengalThe Amending Act of 1786 and Cornwallis's powersThe Charter Act, 1833 and the Governor-General of India

Common traps

Crediting Pitt's Act with abolishing the Court of Directors: it kept the Court for commerce, and the 1858 Act abolished it.
Mixing the two early Acts: the Regulating Act created the Governor-General of Bengal, and Pitt's Act created the Board of Control.

Here the Act is tested by one of its effects. The Board of Control it created is asked at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9 and 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.5, and its 'half-loaf system' nickname at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.