Named for British prime minister William Pitt the Younger, the act provided for the appointment of a Board of Control, and provided for a joint government of British India by the company and the Crown with the government holding the ultimate authority.

The Act provided for not more than six Privy Counsellors, including a Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be appointed "Commissioners for the Affairs of India".

The Act stated that the Board would henceforth "superintend, direct and control" the government of the Company's possessions,[2] in effect controlling the acts and operations relating to the civil, military and revenues of the Company.

The Act also stated that to pursue schemes of conquest and extension of dominion in India are measures repugnant to the wish, the honour and the policy of this nation.

By a supplementary act passed in 1786 Lord Cornwallis was appointed as the 2nd governor-general of Bengal, and he then became the effective ruler of British India under the authority of the Board of Control and the Court of Directors.

The reports they presented were openly used as an arsenal for weapons against the Company by party orators in Parliament.

The act mandated that all civil and military officers disclose their property in India and Britain within two months of their joining.

This new Act created a committee of six government appointees, known as the Board of Control, who were appointed to monitor and direct the Company’s policies.

Pitt’s India Act brought important changes in the constitution of the Company.

For example, the head of the Board was first the Secretaries of State without a special salary, but after 1773 a special President of the Board was appointed and this officer was ultimately responsible for the government of British India until he was succeeded in 1858 by the Secretary of State for India.

The Governor-General had to serve both the East India Company and the British Crown, which was set up for failure.