Infosys investing over Rs 100 cr to upgrade MCA21 portal

IT major Infosys, which is managing the Corporate Affairs Ministry's e-governance portal MCA21, is investing over Rs 100 crore to upgrade the system in view of expected rise in load as company filings surge on account of new Companies law.

 

The IT services company expects multi-fold increase in the number of filings by companies with the MCA due to various provisions of the new Companies Act, Infosys Vice-President and Head, India Business, C N Raghupathi said.

 

Provisions like new corporate social responsibility (CSR) norms and single-person company would increase the workload multi-fold on the system, he said.

 

"To meet this additional load, Infosys is investing over Rs 100 crore in a year to upgrade the system," he told PTI.

 

Through the MCA21 online portal, corporate sector stakeholders and investors alike gain secure access to an array of services provided by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

 

The portal also facilitates the mandatory filing of various documents by firms with the Ministry.

 

Infosys, which won the MCA21 mandate in November 2012, has revamped and transformed the project significantly, updating the infrastructure to provide for the rapidly changing needs of the industry, the company said.

 

Speaking on the number of filings by firms through the portal, he said the Ministry witnessed 23.3 lakh filings this year so far, up from last year's 17.4 lakh.

 

In October 2013 alone, the total filings were at 14.2 lakh (14,28,000), an almost two-fold increase over the October 2012 filings of 6.94 lakh.

 

This was made possible by the investments that Infosys has made in the hardware and software of the implementation of the MCA21 v2, Raghupathi said.

 

The number of filings would increase multi-fold as the MCA aims to make the process paperless in future, he added.

 

He also said that the company has plans to invest over Rs 200 crore in the project in future.

 

The new Companies Act was approved by the Parliament in August this year. The new legislation, replaces the nearly six-decade old legislation governing corporates in the nation.

 

The Ministry is in the process of finalising different rules and various provisions of the Companies Act.