Business Birth Rate Index (BBR Index): methodology

1. At a glance

2. Data source and key terms

Every month the MCA publishes a report of the companies (Indian and foreign) and limited liability partnerships incorporated during the month. Each file has three lists:

• Indian companies, each identified by its CIN;
• LLPs, each identified by its LLPIN;
• foreign companies that have established a place of business in India, each with its own registration number.

From each row we use the identifier, the name, the date of registration, the activity (industry) code and, for companies, the codes embedded in the CIN. No other source is used for counts, and no BizExpress client data is used. The MCA file has no address or city field, so location comes only from the ROC code inside the CIN.

Processing. All monthly files received so far are read together. Rows are de-duplicated on the identifier, and each entity is assigned to a month by its date of registration, not by the file it arrived in. A CIN that does not match the standard 21-character pattern is excluded and flagged for review.

Timing. Index Day is the 5th of each month: a month's reading is published on the 5th of the following month, whichever day of the week that is. MCA usually posts a month's file 2 to 10 days after the month ends, so a late file can leave little time; if the file is not ready for Index Day, a late-file notice gives the new date.

Key terms

Registrar of Companies (ROC)

The office that registers companies and limited liability partnerships and keeps their records. The Central Government establishes ROC offices under Section 396 of the Companies Act, 2013, each with its own jurisdiction. A company's ROC code is the pair of letters in its CIN that identifies the state or union territory of its registered office and, where a state or union territory has more than one ROC office, the office (section 6).

Corporate Identification Number (CIN)

The 21-character number the Registrar allots to a company on incorporation, as Section 7(3) of the Companies Act, 2013 requires (the Act calls it the corporate identity number). It encodes the company's listing status, industry, ROC code, year of incorporation and category (section 5).

SPICe+

Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically Plus (e-form INC-32), the web form through which a company applies for incorporation under the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014. When the Registrar registers the company it issues the certificate of incorporation with the CIN, and the MCA file lists the company under that date of registration.

Limited liability partnership (LLP)

A body corporate registered under Section 12 of the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and identified by an LLP Identification Number (LLPIN). LLPs are counted separately from companies (section 4).

Section 8 company

A company licensed by the Central Government under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 because it has as its objects the promotion of commerce, art, science, sports, education, research, social welfare, religion, charity, protection of the environment or a similar object, intends to apply any profits or other income to those objects, and prohibits the payment of any dividend to its members. Its CIN carries the category code NPL.

One Person Company (OPC)

A company with only one person as a member, as defined in Section 2(62) of the Companies Act, 2013.

Foreign company

A company incorporated outside India that has a place of business in India (Section 2(42) of the Companies Act, 2013). It must deliver prescribed documents to the Registrar within 30 days of establishing that place of business (Section 380).

Working day

The BBR Index's own unit for comparing months, not a statutory term: each weekday counts 1, each Saturday 0.5 and each Sunday 0, and any day on which the MCA file shows no incorporations counts 0 (section 7).

3. Coverage

Period covered: 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2026, from nine monthly MCA files.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

State and union territory totals add every ROC office in the state, so they run continuously from January 2026. ROC-office detail and the Bharat sub-index start in March 2026, after MCA split several ROC offices on 16 February 2026 (section 20).

4. What we count

• Companies: every entity in the Indian companies list with a valid CIN, whatever its class: private limited, One Person Company, public limited, Section 8 (non-profit), subsidiary of a foreign company, government company, or company limited by guarantee. The BBR Index counts all of them.
• LLPs: every entity in the LLP list. LLPs are not in the BBR Index itself. They have their own LLP sub-index and are included in the "companies and LLPs" milestones and the clock line.
• Foreign companies: counted only in the Foreign Entry sub-index and in the all-entities total. Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies are Indian companies and count in the BBR Index as well.
• Date: the date of registration given in the file.
• Place: the ROC code in the CIN, which follows the company's registered office and maps to exactly one state or union territory. A company is counted where it is registered, not where it trades or employs people.

5. Decoding the CIN

A CIN has 21 characters in six parts. Illustrative example (not a real company): U62099KA2026PTC012345.

Category codes

The meanings follow the class and type fields that the MCA file gives for each company.

6. States, union territories and ROC offices

Every ROC code maps to exactly one state or union territory, so the BBR Index counts places that are alike: states are compared with states, and union territories with union territories. The files contain companies from 27 states and 7 union territories; Sikkim and Ladakh have no companies with their codes.

Some states and union territories have more than one ROC office. A state's total adds all of its ROC offices. ROC offices are shown only as detail inside their own state or union territory; they are never ranked against each other or against a state.

Annex B lists every state and union territory with its ROC codes and offices.

7. Working days

Months differ in length and in their weekends and holidays. To compare like with like, each month's count is divided by its working days, using these weights:

The weights follow when companies are registered: from January to September 2026, 90.0% of new companies were registered on weekdays, 8.0% on Saturdays and 2.0% on Sundays. Companies registered on a Sunday or on a zero-weight day still count in the month's total; they simply add no working-day weight.

September 2026 example. September had 22 weekdays and 4 Saturdays. The MCA file shows incorporations on every weekday and Saturday: 22 weekdays at 1.0 plus 4 Saturdays at 0.5 gives 24.0 working days.

8. Base period and the BBR Index

In words. The base is the average number of companies registered per working day from January to August 2026: total companies divided by total working days in that period. The BBR Index for a month is 100 times that month's companies per working day, divided by the base. A reading above 100 means the month ran faster than the base period's average pace.

B = 1,80,429 / 181.5 = 994.1 companies per working day

BBR Index(m) = 100 × (C(m) / W(m)) / B

where C(m) is the number of companies registered in month m and W(m) is its working days.

Reading the index. 100 is the January to August 2026 average pace. A reading of 102.0 means September ran 2.0% above that pace. Changes are quoted in index points. Because the base pools all companies over all working days, busier months weigh more than they would in a simple average of monthly rates. Published values are rounded to one decimal; calculations use unrounded values.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

9. Sub-indices

Each sub-index applies the same formula to its own count, with its own base: that count's average per working day from January to August 2026 (Bharat: March to August 2026).

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

Big-metro ROC offices (12): ROC Karnataka, ROC Telangana, ROC Gujarat, ROC UP-II (Noida), ROC Haryana, ROC Chennai, ROC Pune, ROC Mumbai-II (Navi Mumbai), ROC Mumbai-I, ROC Delhi-I, ROC Delhi-II and ROC Kolkata-I. The Bharat sub-index is built from ROC offices and never ranks any state, union territory or office. It starts in March 2026 because MCA redrew several ROC offices in February 2026.

Name-based flags (part of Green, and the themes in section 15) capture branding, not verified activity. Tech is defined by industry code only.

10. Business birth rate

In words. The business birth rate is the number of new companies registered in a state or union territory in a month, divided by its population in millions. It is a companion to the BBR Index, never a substitute for it:

Birth rate(s, m) = C(s, m) / (P(s) / 10,00,000)

where C(s, m) is the number of companies registered in state or union territory s in month m and P(s) is its population.

• Ranked within its own group. States are ranked among states (27 ranked in September 2026) and union territories among union territories (4 ranked). A union territory is never ranked against a state.
• Population. 2024 projected population by state and union territory, from the UIDAI Aadhaar report of 31 October 2024 as compiled on Wikipedia. Jammu & Kashmir includes Ladakh because both share one ROC code. Figures are held fixed through the year. Annex E lists every figure.
• India. The national rate divides all companies by the sum of the state and union territory populations in Annex E (1,40,22,16,624).
• Eligibility. States and union territories with at least 10 lakh (1 million) people are ranked; smaller ones are shown but not ranked. The Birth Rate Crown goes to a state.

Caveats. Rates are monthly, not annualised, and are not adjusted for working days. Companies are counted by registered office, so a place that hosts many registered offices can show a rate well above its resident population's. Rates for small populations move sharply on small counts.

11. The Founders' League

The Founders' League turns the same data into a monthly scoreboard. States compete with states; union territories have their own table (section 14). It rewards two things: registering many companies, and gaining share of India's new companies.

11.1 Members and divisions

The 20 largest states by new companies in March 2026 were seeded into two divisions of 10: the Premier Division and the Challenger Division. The smaller states play outside the divisions as Emerging states.

• Premier at seeding: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Kerala.
• Challenger at seeding: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh.
• Emerging states: Goa, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. They score no league points but can win the Volume, Birth Rate, Tech and Green Crowns when they meet the rules.

11.2 Seasons and matchdays

A season runs from April to March, the financial year: Season 2026-27 runs from April 2026 to March 2027. Each data month is a matchday; September 2026 is Matchday 6. Points restart every April; divisions carry over from one season to the next.

11.3 Races and points

Every matchday has two races inside each division: a volume race (most new companies) and a momentum race (biggest gain in share, section 11.4). States earn points only against states in their own division, so points in the two divisions are never compared. Places 1 to 10 in each race score:

A state's matchday points are the sum of its two races. Worked example: in September 2026 Tamil Nadu was 4th in the Premier Division volume race (12 points) and 1st in its momentum race (25 points), for 37 matchday points.

11.4 Momentum

In words. A state's momentum is its share of all companies registered in India in the month, divided by its average share over the previous three months, minus 1, shown as a percentage. It is positive when the state is gaining share and negative when it is losing share.

Momentum(s, m) = S(s, m) / average of S(s) over the previous 3 months - 1

S is the state's share of all companies registered in India that month. Because state totals are continuous, the baseline uses months from January 2026.

11.5 Form

Each matchday a state's form is W if its momentum is above +3%, L if below -3%, and D (draw) otherwise. The table shows the last five.

11.6 Quarters, promotion and relegation

The season has four quarters: Q1 April to June, Q2 July to September, Q3 October to December and Q4 January to March. Quarter points restart at the start of each quarter. At the end of a quarter the two Premier states with the fewest quarter points are relegated and the two Challenger states with the most quarter points are promoted. Ties on quarter points are broken by companies registered in the quarter. Zones shown during a quarter are provisional. The tables for the matchday that ends a quarter show it as played: each state in the division it played in, with its points there, and the states that move marked Promoted or Relegated. The moves take effect from the next matchday.

• After Q1 (June 2026): West Bengal and Kerala were relegated; Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were promoted.
• After Q2 (September 2026): Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were relegated; West Bengal and Kerala were promoted.
• How Q2 was decided (September 2026 data): on quarter points, Bihar (22) and Madhya Pradesh (35) had the fewest in the Premier Division, with Rajasthan safe on 37; West Bengal (120) and Kerala (87) had the most in the Challenger Division.
• The moves take effect from Matchday 7 (October 2026 data, published on Thursday 5 November 2026), when the four states that moved start again from zero in their new divisions. Q3 runs from October to December 2026 and is decided on December 2026 data, published on Tuesday 5 January 2027.

11.7 Division points and the season table

Season points count only inside a state's current division: a state that is promoted or relegated starts again from zero in its new division. The season table ranks each division by these points; ties are broken by companies registered in the season. Example: West Bengal, promoted after Q2, starts Matchday 7 in the Premier Division on zero points.

11.8 Tie rule

Tied values share the higher place and its points, and the next place is skipped.

12. Crowns

Seven crowns are awarded each month from April 2026. They mix size and share: Volume and Birth Rate go on counts; Tech and Green go on the share of a state's new companies, among states with at least 500 new companies that month, so a smaller state with a high share can win; Momentum, Rising State and Comeback go on change. Every crown goes to a state. Streaks count consecutive months held.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

Ties: equal values go to the state with the bigger share gain, then by state code. If no league state climbs the national ranking in a month, Comeback of the Month is not awarded. Union territories do not win crowns; the union territory table (section 14) shows their leaders.

13. Derbies

Four fixed pairings of states are scored every month on weekly rounds: days 1 to 7, 8 to 14, 15 to 21, 22 to 28, and 29 to the end of the month (February has four rounds in a non-leap year). A round goes to the state that registers more companies in those days; equal counts make a drawn round. The state that wins more rounds wins the derby; equal rounds make a drawn derby. The season record counts monthly results as wins, losses and draws (W-L-D) for the first state named.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

Worked example: the Class of 2000 Derby, September 2026. Uttarakhand registered 245 companies and Chhattisgarh 224. The derby goes by weekly rounds, not by the month's totals: it was drawn 2-2.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

14. The union territory table

Union territories are ranked among union territories only, by new companies in the month, with their business birth rate (for union territories with at least 10 lakh people) and momentum (shown for union territories with at least 50 new companies that month). Union territories do not play in the league divisions and do not win crowns.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

15. Sector and theme market

The sector market shows how fast each part of the economy is forming companies, in the language of a market board. It is not a financial market: nothing is traded, and a "price" is an index number.

In words. A sector's price for a month is 100 times its companies per working day that month, divided by its own average per working day from January to August 2026.

Price(g, m) = 100 × (C(g, m) / W(m)) / B(g)

C(g, m) counts companies in group g in month m and B(g) is that group's January to August 2026 average per working day, exactly as for the BBR Index.

• Change on month: price this month / price last month - 1.
• Change versus three-month average: price this month / average of the previous three months' prices - 1.
• Sector of the Month: the sector with the biggest change versus its three-month average. The top three are the month's climbers and the bottom three its sliders.
• Sectors: 27 groups of NIC divisions (Annex C). Themes: name-based flags (Annex D); a company can carry several themes.

The "Non-profit & social work" sector (NIC divisions 88 and 94) and the Non-profit sub-index (Section 8 companies, any division) overlap but are not the same: one is an industry code, the other a legal form.

16. Names

• Word counts. Company names are split into words (letters and digits), and each word is counted once per name. Legal and filler words are excluded (PRIVATE, LIMITED, OPC, LLP, AND, THE, OF, INDIA, FOR, LTD, PVT), as are one-letter words. The month's top word is the most frequent word in that month's new company names. Its signature word is the word most over-represented in that month compared with all months since January 2026, among words used at least 25 times in the month.
• AI terms. The share of the month's new companies whose names contain AI as a separate word, "Artificial Intelligence", "GenAI", "Agentic", or AI joined to Labs, Tech, Solutions, Technologies or Systems. It measures branding, not business activity.

17. Milestones, records, estimates and the clock

• Milestones are round numbers in three running totals: companies in calendar 2026 (every 50,000), companies in FY 2026-27 from 1 April 2026 (every 50,000), and companies plus LLPs in calendar 2026 (every 50,000 from 1,00,000). A milestone's date is the first day on which the running total, by date of registration, reaches it.
• Estimates. The expected date of the next milestone is the last data day plus the remaining count divided by the recent pace, rounded up to whole days. The pace is the average per calendar day over the last three data months: July to September 2026, 72,061 companies over 92 days = 783.3 a day (1,133.9 a day for companies plus LLPs). Every expected date, and the Company Clock widget, is an estimate, is labelled as one, and is replaced by the actual figure when the MCA file arrives. Each estimate uses its own pace: companies only, or companies and LLPs. An estimated date that falls on or before an edition's Index Day is shown as probably passed, never as upcoming.
• The clock line spreads a month's totals over every second of the month. September 2026 had 25,92,000 seconds: 25,92,000 / 24,325 companies = 106.6 seconds, or a new company about every 2 minutes; 25,92,000 / 35,202 companies and LLPs = 73.6 seconds, or one every 74 seconds.
• Records cover January 2026 onward: the busiest day (companies registered on one date), the busiest week (Monday to Sunday, named by its closing Sunday) and the busiest month.

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

18. Predictions: Call the Matchday

Call the Matchday is a free predictions game on https://bizexpress.in/business-birth-rate/founders-league/. Each month players answer the same questions about the coming data month:

• Which state wins the Volume Crown for October 2026?
• Which Premier Division state wins the Momentum Crown for October 2026?
• Silicon Derby: Karnataka or Telangana?
• Southern Derby: Tamil Nadu or Telangana?
• Will the BBR Index for October 2026 be above 100?
• Which sector group will be Sector of the Month?
• Tie-breaker: how many companies will India register in October 2026?

• Scoring: 10 points for each correct pick. Players with equal points are separated by the tie-breaker: the answer closest to the actual number of companies registered in the month.
• Where picks are kept: for now, a player's picks are kept only on their own device, and no leaderboard is published.
• Shared leaderboard (planned): players will choose a display name, their picks will be stored on the site and a public leaderboard will rank players by points. Email will be optional and used only to send results, with the player's consent. This section will be updated when the leaderboard opens.
• Timing: Picks lock at 23:59 IST on the last day of the month. Answers are settled from the MCA file, and each round's answers are published after Index Day.
• Free: free to play, with no entry fee and no prizes of any kind. One set of picks per person per month.

19. Born in India and the founder wall

Born in India (https://bizexpress.in/business-birth-rate/born-in-india/) makes keepsake cards for newly registered companies from public MCA data. Its founder wall is planned as a shared, moderated wall:

• A founder will be able to post the company name, its state or union territory, the month the company was born and one line about it, and optionally a city and a first name.
• Nothing will appear until a BizExpress moderator approves it.
• Any post will be removed on request to help@bizexpress.in.
• Until the shared wall opens, a wall post is kept as a draft on the visitor's own device and nothing is published.
• Director names from the MCA files are never published, on the wall or anywhere else.

20. Known data events

• ROC split, 16 February 2026. MCA split the Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur and Kolkata ROCs on 16 February 2026. State totals are unaffected; ROC-office detail and the Bharat sub-index start in March 2026. New ROC codes from that date: DC for ROC Delhi-II, MR for ROC Mumbai-II (Navi Mumbai), ME for ROC Nagpur, UW for ROC UP-II (Noida) and WR for ROC Kolkata-II.
• MCA data centre fire, June 2026. An MCA data centre fire on 5 June 2026 stopped incorporations for three days: the file shows no incorporations on 5, 6 and 7 June 2026. Those days carry no working-day weight, which removes most of the effect on the BBR Index; June's reading of 86.6 is still the lowest since the series began. Monthly counts and records for June are affected.
• Holidays. Days with no incorporations, such as 15 August 2026 (Independence Day), count as zero working days automatically.

21. Revision policy

• Monthly recalculation. Each month the full series is recomputed from all MCA files received, with duplicates removed. If MCA adds or corrects records for earlier months, past values, including the base, can change slightly.
• Which figure to use. The latest release replaces earlier values. Each monthly archive page keeps the figures as first published, for citation (for example https://bizexpress.in/business-birth-rate/2026-09/).
• What stays fixed. The base period (January to August 2026), the population figures and the definitions stay fixed. Any change is announced before it takes effect, and the full history is restated.
• Errors. To report a suspected error in a published figure, write to help@bizexpress.in.

Changes to this methodology. Each edition carries a version number; the words of the method change only between versions:

• Version 2.2 (October 2026): Index Day moves to the 5th of each month, from the September 2026 reading, published on Monday 5 October 2026 (sections 1 and 2); section 2 adds the late-file notice, and section 17 now says that an estimated milestone date on or before an edition's Index Day is shown as probably passed.
• Version 2.1 (October 2026): the shared leaderboard of Call the Matchday and the Born in India founder wall are described as planned (section 18 and section 19), with what a founder can post; the matchday that ends a quarter is shown as played, with the movers marked, and the moves take effect from the next matchday (section 11.6); a milestone estimated to fall before the release is shown as probably passed (section 17).
• Version 2.0 (September 2026): the first edition for the state league, published with August 2026 data.

22. Limits of the data

• The BBR Index counts births only. It does not net off companies that close or are struck off.
• A new company is not necessarily a startup, and registration does not show whether a company trades, hires or raises money.
• Location is the registered office. The MCA file has no address or city field, so the BBR Index never reports cities.
• Name-based themes capture what founders call their companies, not what the companies do.

23. Independence, privacy and non-endorsement

The Business Birth Rate Index (BBR Index) is an independent analysis by BizExpress of public MCA incorporation data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

• BizExpress helps founders register and run companies, so it has a commercial interest in company formation. For that reason the method is published in full and every number can be checked against the public MCA files.
• The BBR Index uses only public MCA data. It uses no BizExpress client data, and companies registered with BizExpress's help are treated like any other.
• Director and founder details are personal data. The BBR Index publishes counts, never director names.
• The BBR Index reports what happened. It does not forecast. Estimates (milestone dates, the Company Clock) are labelled as estimates.
• No government logos or emblems are used on any BBR Index material.

24. How to cite and reuse

Free to republish with credit to the BBR Index by BizExpress. Please do not describe the BBR Index as an official, government or MCA index.

The underlying MCA files are public records published by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; anyone reusing the raw files should check MCA's own terms of use.

25. Questions and answers

26. Contact

Press and methodology questions: pr@bizexpress.in

General enquiries: hello@bizexpress.in

Data requests, corrections and removal requests: help@bizexpress.in

The BBR Index, charts, data files and state pages: https://bizexpress.in/business-birth-rate/

Annex A. Monthly series

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

The same series as a data file: bbr_index.csv (CSV).

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

Bharat is n/a before March 2026 because of the ROC split (section 20).

Annex B. States, union territories and ROC offices

Code is the BBR Index's short code for each state or union territory; ROC codes are the two letters found in CINs, which can differ (Uttarakhand is UK in the BBR Index and UT in CINs). The table also shows the league division at seeding (March 2026) and now, and the ROC offices with their September 2026 counts where a place has more than one.

Annex C. Sector groups

Each company's NIC division (the first two digits of the industry code) maps to one of 27 groups.

Annex D. Name themes

Themes are regular expressions applied to upper-case company names. They catch obvious matches only and measure branding, not activity. \b marks a word boundary, | separates alternatives, ? makes the character or group before it optional, (?:...) groups alternatives and ^ anchors the start of the name.

Annex E. Population figures and September 2026 birth rates

Ranks are within each group: states among states, union territories among union territories.

States

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.

Union territories

Source: BBR Index by BizExpress, based on MCA monthly incorporation data.