Nearly 38,000 firms set up in eight months of new Cos Act

Spread across diverse sectors, nearly 38,000 new firms have been registered in the first eight months of the new companies law coming into force in April last year.

Out of the total such entities, more than 1,100 are one-person companies, according to the latest data available with Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Most provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 -- that replaces the nearly six-decade old legislation governing corporates in the country -- became effective from April 1, 2014.

Interestingly, in the first month of the new law coming into effect, the number of new companies registered touched a low of 765.

Latest data compiled by Corporate Affairs Ministry reveals a mixed trend in terms of the number of new companies being set up every month since April 2014.

As many as 37,878 new companies have been registered during the nine-month period from April to November 2014.

In this period, the highest number of new entities in a single month touched 7,229 in July, climbing significantly from the June figure of 4,801.

Since July, the count of new entities has been varying with November witnessing registration of 5,471 companies, higher than 4,283 freshly set up firms in October.

With regard to economic activities, the new companies are spread across divers sectors, including business services, manufacturing, trading, construction, real estate and renting.

Among others, the new Act introduced the concept of One Person Companies (OPCs).

Till end of November last year, a total of 1,124 OPCs were registered with collective authorised capital of Rs 25.21 crore.

In terms of activities, the maximum number of OPCs are registered in the business services category at 646, followed by community, personal & social services (134), trading (96) and manufacturing (89).

OPCs are expected to facilitate easier access to funding sources for entrepreneurs.