How to form a (P) Ltd company in India - My experience

Ok, you may or may not be knowing that I started my entrepreneurial journey a couple of months back. In this blog, I will try to describe the steps I went through to get my company, "Deep Thought Systems (P) Ltd." registered.

The first thing was to decide to start a business, particularly embedded system product development ( the only thing I know to make a living :-)). A few of my friends also joined me, some as investors and some as active people willing to shoulder some responsibility. Next question was the type of company to be formed. As you probably know, there are different kind of companies like proprietorship partnership, limited liability partnership, private ltd and public ltd companies. Due to the nature of our business and also due to the fact that we will be dealing with international clients, we decided to form a Pvt Ltd company. 

The next step was to decide on a chartered accountant to carry out the formalities of forming the company. The first person, who was referred by a contact of one of our members, didn't appear to be knowledgeable enough on these matters and hence we did not go with him. Then we got a reference for a firm in Cochin from one of my entrepreneurial friends, Dhanan. He was Paulose from Paulson Associates in Ernakulam. On a telephonic talk with him, we found him capable and thus we decided to entrust the task to him.

A private ltd company needs a minimum of 2 directors and we decided to have 3. Next thing to decide was the capital we want to raise. The minimum authorized capital should be INR 1,00,000/- and the registration fee is decided based on this amount. We decided to go with a figure of 10L since we plan to invest that much amount. The first step was to get the Directors Identification Number (DIN) and the digital certificate for one director. For the above steps, photo copies of PAN card and address proof of directors along with 2 passport size photographs are required. A consent letter signed by each director separately should also be given which authorizes the CA to file the documents on our behalf. All these are done online now a days and they can get this done in 1 to 2 days.

 The next step was to give the application to get the name for the company. CAs can check the proposed name online to see the availability. We need to give the preferred name along with a couple of alternatives to them. We need to specify the purpose of the company and the nature of business. CA advised as not to be too specific and try to be more generic while defining the purpose so that we get some leeway to diversify to similar or related areas.

On 9^th October, 2012, we met the CA at his office and gave all the necessary details and required advance (Rs. 6500). All the formalities were completed and the name was allotted to us on 14^th October, 2012. Then we transferred the remaining amount for the registration which was Rs 44,600/-.

The next step was to submit the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association. CA prepared these docs by October 24^th, but we could meet him only on October 27^th. All the 3 directors have to write a few details, like name, address, etc in own hand writing and sign on all pages of these documents which are about 8 pages (MoA) and 12 pages (AoA). The catch is that you are not allowed to make even a single mistake ! So if one make mistake, others will also have to write again ! So this was like a test especially since we hardly write now a days but only type J

These documents are then scanned and uploaded to the ROC (Registrar of Companies) website. Fortunately for us, everything was alright and we got the certificate of incorporation by 31^st October. So the total time taken to register the company was just 22 days.

Here is a summary of main expenses

1.      RoC filing charges – 27,000

2.      DIN application for 3 – 4800

3.      Digital certificate – 750

4.      Professional charges – 13,000

5.      Others (stationery, printing, etc) –  6000 (aprox)

Total was 51,100/-

Hope this will help some of you who want to start something on your own !

My wine making attempt

Making Wine at Home !

Wine is a beautiful drink and I salute those who invented this. As the middle age started settling in, I started liking and preferring wine more and more over other variations of Alcohol. However, as a wine drinker, the problem I face here is the lack of availability and affordability of good wine. The closest one which gives a balance between affordability and quality is "Cabernet Shiraz" from Grover Winery which is about Rs. 550 here for a bottle. Better wines can be obtained for half that price in west.  The most funny things while buying that stuff from a Bevcco outlet is the facial expression of other drinkers in the queue when I ask for wine and its price and finally buys it :-).

So I started thinking about the alternative, ie, making wine at home. Googling for wine making at home yielded plenty of results. Some of them were simple and some were very complex. I decided to try some simple recipes. A very helpful site was http://www.kosukadi.com/make-wine-at-home-easy-and-cheap-home-made-red-wine-recipe/ and I followed more or less the same procedure there.

The first step was buying grape. On a Saturday, I bought 2 Kgs of black grapes with seeds for Rs.80 from a nearby fruit vendor. Then socked it overnight in water. We had 2 ceramic urns(bharanis) for pickling mangoes. Since they were empty and my wife didn't get good mangoes for making the pickle, she graciously consented to use them for my wine making endevour. Next day, the grape was cleaned and sorted to remove all the overripe and torn ones. It was a team effort with my wife and daughter joining in.

Sorting grapes

Cleaned grapes

The next step was preparing the sugar solution. About 750gms of sugar was added in 2 liters of water and the water was boiled and then cooled. The ceramic jars were sterilized using hot water. Then the cleaned grapes were lightly crushed in a juicer (which was also sterilized). The crushed grapes were put in the jar and  the cooled sugar solution was poured over it and mixed with a wooden spoon. In the meanwhile about 15 gms of yeast which was bought from Big Bazaar was activated in a cup of sugar solution. The activated yeast was finally mixed with the grape and sugar solution in the jar. The lid of the jar was closed and the jar securely put in a dark corner ! Thats the end of step 1 :-)

Making sugar solution

Bharani

Sugar solution 

Yeast

Yeast

Then every evening for another 2 weeks, I had a special job. A wooden churning thing was sterilized and used it to thoroughly mix the concoction in the jar. On the first day there were a lot of form and gas and lot of grape skin floating on top. This started reducing day by day and the alcohol smell got stronger. The best part of this activity was sampling of the liquid ! At the end of 2 weeks, I felt that it is enough and there is no more sugar left to be converted to alcohol. So with the help of my wife, I filtered the stuff.  This was a laborious process. A fine cotton cloth (sterilized) was used as the filter. All the grape skin, dead yeast, etc were removed and the liquid was transferred to another sterilized  ceramic jar. 150 gms of sugar was dissolved in a about 250 ml of water (boiled and cooled) and it was added to the jar to make it full. Now the lid was closed real tight with additional cloth covering to make it really air tight.

This time it was a longer wait. No privilege of daily tasting ! We waited with anticipation for 3 weeks. On a Saturday, I hunted for a siphon and finally got one. That Sunday was a very important day ! I had already collected a few bottles which were cleaned using hot water and then dried. The "wine" was transferred to the bottles cleanly using the siphon. After filling 3, 750ml bottles and a 2 litter bottle, half a bottle of wine was remaining, which was finished immediately. Wine was shared among relatives and friends and was finished in  a few days time.

Siphoning

End result !

The impressions.

It was a fairly strong wine, the estimates varied between 15 and 20% alcohol by experienced drinkers :-). It gave a nice high without any hangover. The "smell" was also there.

But it was lacking in color, not red, but rose. It had a feeling of being "thin" or "diluted" when compared to the commercial ones.

The economy of making wine at home is impressive. I would have spent about Rs.150 for making about 4 litters of wine ! So it is really economical.

For the next try I intent to put about 4 Kg of grapes without any water so that it will be "thicker" and about 2Kg of sugar. I will also add about 100gms of wheat to the mixture for the malt. The next big change is going to be the yeast. I managed to get some real wine yeast through ebay ! I will be using that. Hope the result will be a better wine :-)

The second attempt

I tried to make the wine again, this time with the new formula, I outline above. But I failed miserably :-( What I got was a really sweet liquid. So I added some spices to it and made a sort of "Aristam". I suspect the imported yeast was the culprit and it could not handle the grape here :-)

Wayanad Trip - Part 1 : Prelude

Wayanad, the northern district among hills in Kerala, was a place I wanted to visit for years. On a January afternoon while having lunch in our office pantry, I overheard one of my colleagues describing the trip he and his wife had to Wayanad that December. This rekindled my desire to go there and I shared the idea with my wife, Maya, on that night. She was thrilled and we decided to do it during the summer school vacation this time so that our daughters would also have a nice, relaxed vacation trip. We spread the word that we would be visiting Wayand in summer among our near and dear. My two sisters with their families and my brother-in-law with his family immediately jumped in to join us in our trip. My mother and my in-laws also agreed to come with us, thus making the total number to 18 !

We decided to start from Trivandrum on 8th April, 2009 and come back home by 13th April. We would be travelling by train to Calicut and would be hiring a van with driver for 4 days to see the beautiful Wayanad. Train tickets were booked 2 months in advance. Van was booked through a contact of Hari, my brother-in-law.

I researched through the Internet and made a list of must sees in Wayanad and also looked at various accommodation options. I gathered information from people who had been there. We decided to spent 2 nights at Kalpetta and one night at Thirunelly. Hotel Woodlands was booked for our stay at Kalpetta and the accommodation at Thirunelly was booked at the lodge run by Thirunelly temple. Then started a month long wait for the departure day to arrive !

April 8, 2009

Finally the day has arrived, 8th of April, 2009. My sisters and family arrived in the morning in my home. Kids started running around enthusiastically. There were questions and funny suggestions on how to escape from a wild elephant if one comes to attack us ! It is Wayanad, home to numerous wild elephants !

A mini bus was arranged to pick us up and drop us to the railway station which is 6 KM away. We started at 7.30 PM from my home and reached railway station by 7.45 PM through the city traffic. We boarded the Mangalore express which was on time. With a long whistle the train started chugging along at 8.15 PM and thus we started our long awaited journey to Wayanad !

We had packed our dinner from home and had it in train in a short while. Then we were ready to retire for the day but the kids with their natural energy reserves continued their plays for some more time and eventually everyone fell asleep dreaming of a wonderful trip to Wayanad !

Part-2 will follow shortly. Till then bye !