In a move that will ensure that a more detailed data of companies registered in India is made available to the public, regulators and other agencies, the ministry of corporate affairs has proposed a centrally sponsored scheme, called Corporate Data Management, which entails conversion of statutory information of 13.94 lakh registered companies into readable statistical information for data analysis and research.
The proposed scheme intends to analyse the current information base of registered companies.
“The proposed scheme is likely to aid in bringing more objectivity and transparency in reporting by the corporates. Dissemination of company level data comprising both financial and non-financial parameters, and analysis thereof would enable evidence based policy formulation, strengthen decision making process, encourage high quality empirical research on various aspects of corporate governance,” the ministry said.
Initially, data of about 7,000 listed companies will be mined and tabulated in readable form, it said.
The corporate data management scheme will require an additional budgetary support of R33.94 crore (to be spent over next three years). This amount, the ministry said, will be above and beyond the Budget allocated for the 12th Five-year Plan period. A proposal for obtaining the necessary clearances from the Planning Commission has been moved by the ministry.
To execute this scheme, the ministry will obtain the services of professional IT companies via tendering process and a forward linkage of MCA 21, the e-governance project under which it is mandatory for all registered companies to file their company-related information online. The IT companies hired for this project will have to develop software/IT tools for data cleaning, data mining and data analysis.
As per the proposal, the third-party IT company engaged for this project will clean the data stored with MCA21 and make available financial aggregates and non-financial information relating to Indian corporates in the public domain for individuals, research agencies and regulators.
“Given the importance of such statistical information for planning, research, economic analysis and other such important purposes, it is imperative that this Project is established as a forward linkage of MCA21,” the ministry said in a note moved seeking comments from stakeholders.
‘‘An extended Plan Scheme could be considered for the next Plan Period to cover a larger canvas if the present pilot yields gratifying results,’’ it said.
The ministry will also constitute an Inter-Ministerial advisory group under chairmanship of Additional Secretary having representation from various ministries, to provide apex level guidance and monitoring for efficient implementation of the Project.