MCA seeks proposals for review of corporate data management scheme

The corporate affairs ministry has sought proposals for a third-party evaluation of its Corporate Data Management Scheme to set up an in-house data mining and analytics facility linked to its MCA21 data repository.

“The objective of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, impact of the scheme in meeting its intended goals and to develop strategies for transition of the corporate data management to a self-sustaining model,” the ministry said in its request for proposal (RFP).

The scheme, set up in FY16, aims to transform statutory filings by companies with the ministry’s MCA21 portal into a data warehouse and build an advanced analytics hub to cater for growing demands for accurate and updated company-level information from various stakeholders.

“The evaluation is a positive move towards aiding the government in decision-making and proactive policy review, and providing all stakeholders logically and analytically derived data for research,” said Anjali Malhotra, partner (Regulatory) at Nangia Andersen LLP.

According to the RFP by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs ( MCA), the entity that will qualify for this exercise will have to evaluate the scheme’s deliverables, impact, and user satisfaction, and identify operational gaps. It will also benchmark this corporate data management with global best practices and suggest steps to bolster its operations, human resource structure and future scalability.

Corporate Data Management Scheme

In the request for proposal, the MCA has also explained the rationale for introducing the scheme in FY16. Companies registered with the ministry are mandated to file documents relating to incorporation, compliance, approvals, annual statutory returns, etc. electronically through the MCA21 system.

These filings have resulted in the accumulation of a plethora of information and MCA21 became the electronic repository of the Indian corporate sector.

But the MCA21 repository remained largely untapped due to its nonmachine-readable format. This warranted a mechanism whereby raw data undergoes processes like data cleaning, pre-processing, mining and data analytics.

In order to undertake the activity of data mining, cleansing and implementation of data warehousing and business intelligence systems, on top of the existing information stored in MCA databases, the ministry had launched the Corporate Data Management Scheme.