March 01, 2002

   During December, 2001, 1623 companies were registered in India under the Companies Act, 1956 as against 1857 companies registered during the corresponding month of the previous year and 1520 companies during the previous month. Of the 1623 companies registered during the month, 1614 companies were limited by shares including two Government companies Karnataka Sheep and Wool Development Corporation Ltd. And Pipavoy Power Development Company Ltd.

    Besides 1614 companies limited by shares, 5 companies were registered as guarantee companies and four companies with unlimited liability during the month of December, 2001. The total authorised capital of these companies limited by shares put together amounted to Rs.337.5 crores. One thousand six hundred and fourteen companies, limited by shares, registered during the month consist of 101 public limited companies with an authorised capital of Rs.158.0 crores and 1513 private limited companies with an authorised capital of Rs. 179.5 crores.

    The following Table indicates the position:

    The highest number of companies, limited by shares, registered during the month were, from the State of Maharashtra (336) followed by National Capital Territory of Delhi (314). The States of Tamilnadu (170), Andhra Pradesh (154), Karnataka (120), West Bengal (96) and Gujarat (90) also reported comparatively large number of companies registered during the month. These 7 States together accounted for nearly 79 per cent of the total number of companies registered during the month.

    The analysis of new registration by broad Industrial Classification during the month brings out that the highest number of companies were registered under the Industrial Classification "Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services" (500) followed by "Manufacturing" (450) and "Wholesale and Retail Trade, Restaurants & Hotels" (296). The other important Classification under which large number of companies were registered was, Construction (122) and Community, Social and Personal Services (111) and Transport, Storage and Communication (88).

    Of the Non-Government companies, one hundred and five each with authorized capital of Rs. 50 lakhs or above were registered during the month of December, 2001 as against 114 in the previous month and 135 in December, 2000.

    Thirty companies (16 Government and 14 Non-Government) ceased functioning, during December, 2001 either by going into liquidation or their names having been struck off under Section 560 of the Companies Act. Out of them, 11(6 Government and 5 Non-Government) were Public Limited Companies and 19 (10 Government and 9 Non-Government) were Private Limited. The number of such companies in the previous month was 19. Of these companies, 10 belonged to the State of Madhya Pradesh , 3 each to Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, two each to Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Kerala and 1 each to Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Goa and National Capital Territory of Delhi. Broad Industrial Classification wise out of the 30 companies, 16 belonged to Manufacturing, 8 to Agriculture and Allied Activities, 3 to Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and one each to Mining, Quarrying, Transport Storage and Communciation and Construction Services. Taking into consideration additional information relating to liquidation/striking off etc. of companies, the number of companies at work on December 31, 2001 is indicated below:

THE ESTIMATED NUMBER OF COMPANIES AT WORK as on December 31, 2001 is indicated below: