MCA developing in-house data mining capabilities

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is developing in-house data mining and analytics facilities to assimilate information about the corporate sector in a more effective manner.

Besides, the ministry -- which is implementing the Companies Act -- is making efforts to update the corporate registry maintained by it.

To disseminate corporate sector data in a structured manner, work has started on the Corporate Data Management (CDM) project, according to an official.

Under this project, the ministry is developing in-house data mining and analytic facilities to effectively utilise the vast repository of information held in its corporate registry.

In the Union Budget for the current fiscal, Rs 4 crore has been set aside for the CDM project and Rs 1.50 crore towards the Data Mining System (DMS).

Further, the ministry has initiated the work of cleaning and updation of corporate registry being maintained by it.

This is aimed at "strengthening of the integrity of data, filling in the gaps, census of the companies and reconciliations with sectoral regulators in a time-bound manner," the official said.

Among other initiatives, plans are on the anvil to have a an archive of the legacy corporate documents having archival or historical value.

There are more than 16 lakh registered companies in the country.

At the end of April this year, little over 3 lakh companies had been closed and more than 24,500 firms were in the process of being struck-off.

"... there were 13,15,892 active companies as on April 30, 2017," as per data available with the ministry.