[RESEARCH] YourStory and Vakilsearch present an overview of India’s incorporation landscape in Q1

Startups and small and medium enterprises are seen as important drivers of growth for the Indian economy, given their role in job creation, income generation, and disruptive innovation. Over the past few years, they have rightly gained the attention of policymakers, who've launched initiatives and outlined policies that facilitate entrepreneurship and the start of new businesses.

To study the impact of such policies on the number of incorporations and trademark registrations in the country, YourStory Research, the research arm of YourStory, and Vakilsearch, an online legal services platform, have partnered to bring you an overview of the incorporation landscape in India in a report titled 'Business Registrations and Trademark Trends'.

Types of companies registered in India in Q1

The key takeaways in our report have been derived from extensively scanning Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) data.

Download: YourStory Research and Vakilsearch report titled 'Business Registrations & Trademark trends'.

As the election fever gathered pace, India’s biggest political parties – the BJP and the Congress – also pushed the cause of startups in their manifestos. From a Rs 20,000 crore fund to launching several accelerators and incubators, the attention has been unprecedented.

To be clear, entrepreneurs and startups have taken centre stage ever since the launch of Startup India, a Government of India campaign that seeks to encourage India's youth towards entrepreneurship. Since then, the central and the state governments have adopted several measures to ease doing business in the country. State governments, including Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand among others, have launched their own startup initiatives to promote entrepreneurship.

These favourable business policies and initiatives have helped India improve its Ease of Doing Business (EODB) among global peers. In 2018, India jumped 23 places to reach the 77th position in the EODB rankings. In the year earlier, the country was ranked 100th among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.

Over the past few months, there have also been amendments made to key policies such as the Companies Act, 2013, to help new companies being set up in the country. But the larger question remains: how have these measures impacted the number of new companies being incorporated in India?

To find these answers, YourStory Research and Vakilsearch analysed the MCA filings of new business incorporations and trademark registrations to bring you a comprehensive report on the incorporation landscape in the first quarter of 2019. The report also looks at the type of companies registered, the states that have seen the maximum number of business incorporations, and other related trends.

Download: YourStory Research and Vakilsearch report titled 'Business Registrations & Trademark trends'.