SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 8 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 13 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.

Fill in the blank: Pitt’s India Act 1784 created a six-member body called the ____ to supervise Company politics.

(a)Board of Control
(b)Council of India
(c)Privy Council
(d)Bureau of Revenue

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Pitt's India Act of 1784 set up a Board of Control in London: not more than six Privy Councillors, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Secretary of State.

The Board was to superintend, direct and control the Company's civil, military and revenue affairs → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Council of India — The Council of India came 74 years later, under the Government of India Act 1858: 15 members advising the new Secretary of State for India after the Crown took over.
(c)
Privy Council — The Privy Council, the British monarch's council of advisers, already existed in 1784. The Act drew the Board's members from it, which is why the name tempts.
(d)
Bureau of Revenue — No body called a Bureau of Revenue was created by the 1784 Act. Revenue was one of the matters the Board of Control supervised, which is why the word sounds plausible.

Concept

The Act is named after Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. It set up dual control over the Company's Indian possessions.

The Company kept its commercial functions through the Court of Directors. The British government took political authority through the Board of Control, whose President soon acted as the minister for Company affairs.

The 1858 Act abolished both bodies.

The stem's 'Company politics' is the paper's phrase for the Company's political affairs, the side of the dual system the Board took over.

Key facts

Pitt's India Act 1784: named after Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
Board of Control: not more than six Privy Councillors, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Secretary of State.
Dual control: the Court of Directors kept commerce, and the Board of Control took political affairs.
Government of India Act 1858: abolished both bodies and created a Secretary of State for India with a 15-member Council of India.

Study next

Regulating Act 1773 and the first Governor-General of BengalCharter Acts of 1813, 1833 and 1853Government of India Act 1858 and the Council of India

Common traps

Choosing Privy Council because the Board's members were Privy Councillors. The new body was the Board of Control.
Placing the Council of India in 1784. It belongs to the 1858 Act.

The Board is asked the other way round at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.9 (keyed: Pitt's India Act of 1784) and by its function at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.5. Other provisions of the Act appear at 16 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.5 and 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.