The Ministry of Corporate affairs plans to introduce an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system in the MCA 21 portal. The introduction seeks to make the compliance process easier as well as ensure routine enforcement activities are done on autopilot basis. It will be introduced when Ministry will roll out Version 3 of the MCA 21.
Earlier this year, the ministry sought applications from service providers to develop as well as operate the upgraded version of MCA 21 system.
AI in the MCA 21 portal:
MCA 21 is the electronic backbone for the dissemination of information to all stakeholders, including the regulator, corporates and investors. All filings under the companies law are submitted to the ministry through this portal.
It will look to rationalise all the forms, follow the principle of a single source of truth so that one is not required to fill in known details again and also interlink databases so that routine enforcement is done 24x7 on autopilot basis.
MCA 21 allows electronic filings of various documents under the Companies Act, 2013 and has fully automated all processes related to enforcement and compliance monitoring under the Act.
History of MCA 21:
Mission Mode Project (MCA21) is the e-governance initiative from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. It is one of the 31 Mision Mode Projects of the National e-Governance Plan. MCA 21 system was started in 2006.
In the year 2002, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (then known as the Department of Company Affairs) was faced with the problem of providing services to nearly 7.5 lakh corporate entities. Vast amounts of paperwork was to be processed. This was to be expected because with globalization and interest shown by foreign companies in India, the number of documents being handled was constantly increasing even as the expectations were increasing.
The task of managing the bid process was given to National Institute for Smart Government (NISG).The project was implemented by Tata Consultancy Services under a Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model, with project monitoring done by external reviewers/auditors. The second phase of the project is being implemented by Infosys for the period January 2013 - July 2021.