Which kinds of Indian company are struck off most often?
An analysis of 14,44,721 older Indian companies finds computer-related businesses were struck off more often than their age alone predicts.
Among 1,05,592 older companies classified under Computer and related activities, 59.8% now carry the status Strike Off. Companies of the same ages across the register would lead us to expect 48.4%.
That gap is the useful finding. A raw ranking of industries mostly tells you which industries have older companies. Comparing each industry with companies incorporated in the same years asks the harder question: which differences remain after age is taken out?
Computer-related companies stand out among the large divisions
The table covers companies registered before 2015 in every NIC-2004 division with at least 5,000 companies. “Expected for its age” applies the all-India strike-off rate for each incorporation year to that industry’s own mix of years. The final column divides the observed rate by that expectation.
| NIC-2004 division | Companies | Struck off | Expected for its age | Observed ÷ expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92, Recreational, cultural and sporting activities | 17,550 | 60.3% | 48.7% | 1.24 |
| 72, Computer and related activities | 1,05,592 | 59.8% | 48.4% | 1.24 |
| 52, Retail trade, except motor vehicles and motorcycles; repair of personal and household goods | 37,147 | 58.2% | 48.6% | 1.20 |
| 65, Financial intermediation, except insurance and pension funding | 69,097 | 64.2% | 53.8% | 1.19 |
| 74, Other business activities | 2,08,060 | 49.4% | 49.7% | 1.00 |
A ratio of 1.24 does not mean 24 percentage points more. It means the observed rate is 1.24 times the rate predicted from the years in which those companies were incorporated. For division 72, the percentage-point gap is 11.4.
Computer-related businesses are therefore unusual in two ways: the division is large enough for the difference not to rest on a small sample, and the result survives an adjustment that makes the comparison fairer. The pattern also agrees with a weaker test based on words in company names, but the industry code is the evidence to prefer because it is the register’s own classification.
The wider analysis of how long an Indian company actually lasts shows why that boundary matters. Strike-off records when the registrar removed a company. It does not record when the underlying business stopped or why.
Why the industry code changes after 2022
Characters two to six of a Corporate Identity Number carry the activity code recorded for the company. The codes on the older side of the register follow the National Industrial Classification 2004, or NIC-2004. MCA’s INC-7 instructions explicitly required applicants to select their main industrial division from that classification. The labels in the table come from MoSPI’s official NIC-2004 broad structure.
That vocabulary changed when MCA moved incorporation forms to V3 on 23 January 2023. MCA’s SPICe+ guidance says the revised form uses NIC-2008 and permits three business activities at the five-digit level. Both MCA links here are to archived copies: the Ministry no longer serves either document at its original address. Computer and related activities sat in division 72 under NIC-2004; Computer programming, consultancy and related activities sits in division 62 in MoSPI’s NIC-2008 code list.
The break is visible in the register. Division 72 carries 24,942 incorporations in 2022 and 2,220 in 2023. Division 62 moves from 448 to 18,116. That is a classification change, not evidence that one industry collapsed while another appeared.
This post avoids the problem by using only companies registered before 2015. Every named division is read against the older classification, and every cohort has had more time for the registrar’s process to catch up. A future analysis of what India is registering now must show the two code systems separately rather than drawing one continuous industry line across 2023.
What this does not establish
The status field is not a record of business success. Active means the registrar has not removed the company. Strike Off means the company has been removed and stands dissolved. Neither status tells us when trading stopped, why it stopped, whether creditors were paid, or whether the venture met its owners’ aims. The company-status guide explains the legal distinction.
The activity code has limits too. It records the activity selected at incorporation and may not follow what the company later did. A diversified company is reduced to one main division in this older classification. Invalid codes are another warning: division 00 is not a valid NIC-2004 division, yet 9,685 older companies carry it in their CIN. We excluded that code from the named comparison instead of inventing an industry for it.
Finally, standardising by incorporation year removes one large bias, not every difference between industries. Capital needs, regulation, ownership structure, mergers and registrar enforcement may all vary by activity. The table finds a pattern. It does not identify its cause.
How this was counted
The analysis uses the Ministry of Corporate Affairs company master, taken state by state from the Ministry’s own register on 18 September 2026 and stated there as on 6 August 2026. An earlier version counted a different published copy of the same register; the two agree closely on this table, differing by 7,968 companies in the denominator and by no more than 0.01 in any ratio.
- We retained 21-character CINs that could be parsed as company identifiers.
- We read the two-digit division from characters two and three of each CIN.
- We retained incorporation years from 1857 through 2014.
- For each incorporation year, we calculated the share whose current status is exactly Strike Off.
- For each division, we averaged those year-specific rates across its own companies to calculate the expected rate.
- We reported named divisions only where at least 5,000 companies remained.
That leaves 14,44,721 companies. Across them, 49.7% show Strike Off. The
calculation is reproducible in scripts/register_activity_codes.py; the exact
output and source checks are recorded in the research note for this post.
For the full denominator, the companion analysis counts how many companies and LLPs on India’s register still exist across every status, including newer entities excluded here.
The register-wide count is useful context, but it cannot answer the decision in front of you. Search the company itself, confirm its current status, and then read its filing history before treating an industry average as evidence about one counterparty. What those filings contain is where an industry average stops and the company in front of you starts.
Frequently asked
Which industry has the most struck-off companies in India?
There is no single honest answer without accounting for the age of each industry's companies. Among large NIC-2004 divisions and companies registered before 2015, computer and related activities had 59.8% struck off against 48.4% expected from the age of its companies. Financial intermediation had a higher raw share, 64.2%, but its companies were older and its age-adjusted ratio was slightly lower.
Are software companies more likely to be struck off?
Among 1,05,592 companies registered before 2015 whose current CIN carries division 72, Computer and related activities, 59.8% now carry the status Strike Off. Their mix of incorporation years predicts 48.4%, giving an observed-to-expected ratio of 1.24. This is an association in the register, not proof that a software business was more likely to fail.
Why does the analysis stop before 2015?
Recent companies have not had equal time to become eligible for strike-off or for the registrar to remove them. Restricting the comparison to companies registered before 2015 reduces that age bias, and every included company also falls under the older NIC-2004 classification used in MCA incorporation forms.
