| Governor-General | Tenure | Highlights |
| Warren Hastings | 1773-1785 | -Founded the Calcutta Madrasa for promotion of Islamic studies, first educational institute in 1781. |
| Sir John Macpherson | 1785-1786 | – Held temporary post. |
| Lord Cornwallis | 1786-1793 | – Establishment of the thanas. |
| Sir John Shore | 1793-1798 | – Followed a policy of non-intervention. |
| Lord Wellesley | 1798-1805 | – Introduced the Subsidiary Alliance. |
| Sir George Barlow | 1805-1807 | – The Indian soldiers killed many English officials in the Mutiny of Vellore. |
| Lord Minto I | 1807-1813 | – Treaty with Shah of Persia and Treaty of Amritsar. |
| Lord Hastings | 1813-1823 | – Published the first vernacular newspaper Samachar Patrika. |
| Lord Amherst | 1823-1828 | – First Anglo Burmese war and mutiny of Barrackpur. |
| Lord William Bentinck | 1828-1835 | – Introduced English education in India and abolished sati. |
| Sir Charles Metcalfe | 1835-1836 | – Removed the restriction on the vernacular press. |
| Lord Auckland | 1836-1842 | – The outbreak of first Anglo-Afghan war. |
| William Bilforce Bird | 1842-1843 | – Held temporary post. |
| Lord Ellenborough | 1843-1844 | – The end of the first Afhgan was and incorporation of Sindh to the British Empire. |
| Lord Hardinge I | 1844-1848 | – The First Sikh War |
| Lord Dalhousie | 1848-1856 | – Introduced ‘Doctrine of Lapse’, brought Railways and Telegraph to India. |
| Lord Canning | 1856-1858 | – Enactment of Hindu Widow Remarriage Bill, establishment of universities at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. |
| Lord Louis Mountbatten | 1947-1948 | – Governor-General of Indian Union, declared Indian Independence Act. |
| C. Rajagopalachari | 1948-1950 | – First Indian Governor-General of Indian Union. |