“The wealth created by companies should be distributed to many more people. That is why we want to make an honest effort to get more companies listed,” he said, adding that his Ministry was chalking out the methodology and timeframe of the programme that would push companies to go in for listing.

Meanwhile, the Government started the trial run of the e-stamp project on Monday in 20 states and two union territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The remaining territories are expected to fall in line shortly. The formal launch of the project would be done in October. E-stamp project, one that is complementary to the MCA-21 project, cuts the time, cost and effort taken regarding completion of formalities of stamp duty payments at the time of registration of a company.

Also, the Government is carrying out an exercise to fine-tune the MCA-21 project for better governance and monitoring of the corporate sector. “The aim is to eventually get all companies in the MCA-21 programme and get their details. This would be analysed and if aberrations are found, the system would send out alerts or early warnings,” he said. The Secretary said Corporate Affairs Ministry is also working to solve all outstanding issues with other regulators like the SEBI. Besides, the Ministry would also soon hold meetings with industry chambers and other regulators on the proposed affirmative action programme that would give representation to weaker sections of society in companies.

On prosecutions initiated by his Ministry, he said though the conviction rate is over 50 per cent, there were many pending cases, adding that the Government was working to reduce the backlog.