Over 15,700 new firms got registered in Jan, Feb

More than 15,700 companies were set up in January and February, and Maharashtra accounted for the maximum number of new entities registered in the first two months of this year.

Reflecting diverse interests of businesses, more than 7,513 new firms were registered in February and their cumulative authorised capital stood at Rs 901.95 crore (Rs 9 billion).

In January, 8,206 new entities were registered under the Companies Act. Their authorised capital touched Rs 943.21 crore (Rs 9.43 billion).

Together, 15,719 new companies have come up in the country in the first two months of 2014, according to latest data available with the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Of the total number of new firms set up in February, 7,484 were registered as companies limited by shares with an authorised capital of Rs 901.90 crore and 29 were limited by guarantees having an authorised capital of Rs 4 lakh, as per the Ministry’s

Maharashtra accounted for the maximum number of new companies that came up in January and February.

During these two months, the state accounted for 2,928 new entities.

India has nearly 14 lakh registered companies but only about 9.5 lakh entities are active.

As on February-end of this year, 2.69 lakh companies were shut, while 28,178 firms were in the process of being closed.

Among the registered ones, as many as 1.42 lakh companies have not filed their annual returns/balance sheets for more than three consecutive years. Such entities are classified as “dormant”.

Meanwhile, most of the provisions of the new companies law have come into effect from April 1.

The Companies Act, 2013, provides for stronger corporate governance norms and stricter measures to protect the interest of investors, among others.