The corporate affairs ministry is exploring the option of launching a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for its prestigious e-governance project, MCA 21. The ministry's agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for this purpose comes to an end in 2012 and it is mulling options like extension of the project with TCS, awarding the contract to another system integrator and establishing an SPV to manage the project, corporate affairs secretary R Bandyopadhyay has said.

MCA21 is one of the first mission mode projects (MMPs) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) which facilitates the corporates in secure electronic filing (e-Filing) for all the services provided by the Registrar of Companies (ROC) like incorporation of a company, annual filing and other event based statutory filings. TCS is the private partner in the project.

Bandyopadhyay, in an exclusive interview with Governance Now, said the ministry had already provided for electronic generation of stamps for payments of fee under the State Stamp Acts and was working towards e-governance in the office of Official Liquidators (OL).

On the issue of companies not filing their annual returns and financial statements, the secretary said the ministry had launched two innovative schemes, Easy Exit Scheme (EES) 2010 and Company Law Settlement Scheme (CLSS) 2010, which would provide a window of opportunity to the defaulting companies to make good the non-filing of statutory reports.

In response to a query on affirmative action in the private sector, the secretary said the matter was not referred to his ministry and any opinion on this policy issue would be formed only when the issue comes to it.

Asked about better accountability and clarity on the role of independent directors, Bandyopadhyay said the new Companies Bill will address this issue. He, however, refused to give details as the bill was pending with the Standing Committee of parliament.

The secretary also spoke about the ministry's efforts towards investor awareness and mentioned that it was organising an Investors’ Week during July 12-18 across India. He added that the ministry had already released guidelines for corporate governance and corporate social responsibilities (CSR).