Listed Companies
Your Compliance Partner
Corporate Compliance, Without the Complexity.
Company Secretarial, Corporate Compliance, Governance and Advisory services for businesses across India.
From incorporation and ROC filings to corporate actions, governance, SEBI, FEMA, POSH and ongoing compliance, we help businesses stay compliant, organised and prepared for what comes next.
About Us
Who We Are
A Company Secretary Firm That Speaks Business, Not Just Law.
Most businesses think about compliance when a deadline is missed, a notice arrives or a transaction is already underway.
Nisha Tiwari & Associates takes a different approach.
We work alongside founders, directors, businesses and organisations to manage corporate compliance, governance and regulatory requirements before they become problems.
Our approach combines technical compliance knowledge with practical business understanding - so you know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and why it matters.
Know More About Us
Trusted by Businesses Across
Manufacturing
IT & SaaS
Real Estate / RERA
Trading & Distribution
Financial Services
Healthcare
Education
D2C
Why It Matters
Value of a
Company Secretary
Compliance Is Not Paperwork.
It Is Protection.
A Company Secretary does more than prepare and file forms.
Good corporate compliance helps protect your company's legal standing, directors, governance processes, business credibility and ability to execute important transactions.
Here's what that means in practice.
Understand Our Approach
Protect Your Directors
Corporate compliance responsibilities can have consequences beyond the company itself. Proper filings, records and governance processes help keep directors and the organisation on the right side of statutory requirements.
Stay Ready for Fundraising
Investors and their advisors conduct due diligence before capital reaches your bank account. Accurate statutory records, resolutions, registers and corporate filings help your business withstand that scrutiny.
Avoid Unnecessary Compliance Costs
Missed filings can lead to additional fees and administrative complications. A proactive compliance calendar helps identify obligations before they become expensive problems.
Make Business Decisions Defensible
Board resolutions, shareholder approvals, minutes and statutory records create the formal foundation behind important corporate decisions.
Build Business Credibility
Your corporate records can matter when dealing with investors, lenders, customers, tender authorities and other stakeholders. Keeping statutory records current helps demonstrate that the business is properly managed.
Have One Accountable Compliance Partner
Instead of managing disconnected compliance tasks across multiple professionals, work with a Company Secretary who can coordinate your corporate compliance and governance requirements.
Our Services
Corporate Compliance & Advisory Services
From setting up your business to managing ongoing compliance, corporate actions and regulatory requirements, we provide structured support across the business lifecycle.
Start-up & Setup
- Private Limited Company Incorporation
- LLP Incorporation
- OPC Incorporation
- Startup Compliance
- Business Structuring
- DPIIT / Startup India Advisory
- Statutory Registrations
- Initial Corporate Compliance
Companies Act & ROC
- ROC & MCA Filings
- Annual Filings
- AOC-4
- MGT-7 / MGT-7A
- ADT-1
- Director-related filings
- Share Allotment
- Increase in Authorised Capital
- Board & Shareholder Resolutions
- Minutes & Statutory Registers
- Strike Off & Closure
Listed & SEBI
- Listed Company Compliance
- SEBI Compliance Support
- Secretarial Compliance
- Corporate Governance
- Board & Committee Matters
- Regulatory Filings
- Disclosure-related Support
- Corporate Actions
Tax & Accounts (In association with CA)
- GST Compliance
- Income Tax Support
- Accounting Coordination
- Financial Compliance
- Statutory Documentation
- Tax-related Advisory Coordination
Brand & IP
- Trademark Search
- Trademark Registration
- Trademark Class Advisory
- Trademark Objection Support
- Brand Protection Guidance
- Intellectual Property Advisory
Global & FEMA
- FEMA Compliance
- Foreign Investment
- FC-GPR
- Cross-Border Transactions
- RBI-related Compliance
- International Structuring Support
- Overseas Business Setup Coordination
Governance & Advisory
- Corporate Governance
- Board Advisory
- Corporate Restructuring
- Corporate Actions
- Due Diligence Support
- Shareholder Matters
- Secretarial Advisory
- Regulatory Advisory
Labour & HR Compliance
- POSH Compliance
- POSH Policy
- Internal Committee Constitution
- External Member Services
- Labour Compliance
- HR Documentation
- Statutory Workplace Compliance
Specialized solutions for your industry.
Make the law simple, and make it work for the people building things.
The Founder
Meet The Founder
CS Nisha Tiwari
Practising Company Secretary | Corporate Compliance & Governance Advisor
Nisha began her professional journey within India's capital-market institutions, including BSE Clearing Limited and CDSL, working across compliance and law and serving as Interim Compliance Officer at CDSL.
That experience shaped her understanding of how highly regulated organisations manage compliance, not simply by responding to notices, but by creating systems and processes that reduce the risk of problems arising in the first place.
She later founded Nisha Tiwari & Associates with a simple objective: make corporate law and compliance easier to understand and more practical for the people building and running businesses.
Today, the firm works with businesses across different stages of growth, providing corporate compliance, governance, regulatory and advisory support.
Meet Nisha Tiwari
Trust & Credentials
Credentials
& Recognition
Certified. Reviewed. Accountable.
ICSI Peer-Reviewed Firm
Recognised through the Institute of Company Secretaries of India's peer-review process, reflecting an independent review of professional systems, documentation and quality practices.
Associate Member, ICSI
CS Nisha Tiwari is an Associate Company Secretary with a Certificate of Practice.
PCS Committee, ICSI Dombivli
Professional involvement with the local community of Practising Company Secretaries.
Empanelled External Member - POSH
Empanelled to serve as an external member on Internal Committees under the POSH framework.
Client Experiences
Trusted by Businesses,
Built on Relationships.
From incorporation and ongoing compliance to corporate actions, funding-related filings and advisory, our clients rely on us to make complex requirements easier to manage.
Common Questions
FAQ's
Asked before you call us.
A Company Secretary is the professional responsible for a company's compliance with corporate law. In practice that means keeping your company legally in good standing: filings with the Registrar of Companies, board and shareholder meeting documentation, statutory registers, and advice whenever the company does something structural such as issuing shares, changing directors or altering its objects. A Chartered Accountant looks after your accounts and taxes. A Company Secretary looks after your company's legal existence and governance. Most businesses need both.
A full time Company Secretary on your payroll is only mandatory above certain thresholds. The filings, however, are mandatory from day one for every company, no matter how small. AOC-4, MGT-7, ADT-1, board meetings and statutory registers apply whether you have one employee or five hundred. Most small companies engage a practising Company Secretary on retainer instead of hiring in house, which gives them the compliance without the salary.
Peer Review is an independent quality assessment carried out under the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. A reviewer examines how the firm actually works: its documentation, its systems, how engagements are recorded and how quality is controlled. It is a check on the firm, not just on the individual professional. For you it means the standard of work is not simply a claim on a website. It has been looked at by someone outside the firm and certified.
Every filing is checked by a second pair of eyes before it is submitted, and we reconcile forms against the underlying financials and registers rather than filing in isolation. Where a position is genuinely unclear we tell you it is unclear and set out the options, instead of quietly picking one. Quality is the reason clients stay with us, so we would rather take an extra day than file something that has to be corrected later.
Both, depending on the work. One off engagements such as incorporation, a trademark filing or a strike off are quoted as a fixed fee before we begin. Ongoing compliance is usually a monthly or annual retainer covering a defined scope. Government fees are charged at actuals and shown separately. You get the scope and the number in writing first. We do not start work on an open ended basis.
Yes. ROC, GST and income tax filings are online and jurisdiction neutral, so we serve clients across India routinely. For state specific registrations and physical requirements we coordinate with partners in the relevant state. We also support company formation in the UAE, with other jurisdictions being added.
For an initial view, just your CIN or LLP identification number and a description of what you need. That is enough for us to look at your public filing history and tell you what is pending. For the engagement itself we will ask for incorporation documents, the last set of financials, existing registers and digital signature details. We will send you a specific list, not a generic one.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day, usually the same day. WhatsApp is the fastest route. If your matter is time sensitive, say so in the first message and we will tell you straight away whether the deadline is still achievable.
It depends on three things: whether you plan to raise external investment, whether you want to give employees equity, and how much annual compliance cost is proportionate to your revenue. A private limited company is effectively required if investors are in the picture, because institutional investors will not invest in an LLP and ESOPs need a company. An LLP carries much lighter annual compliance and suits professional practices, family businesses and service firms with no funding plans. An OPC gives a single founder limited liability without a second shareholder, but you will likely convert out of it once you add a co-founder. Converting later is possible but costs time and fees, which is why this conversation is worth having before you register, not after.
Typically one to two weeks once we have complete documents from all directors and shareholders, assuming the proposed name is available and there are no queries from the Registrar. Name approval is the usual bottleneck. Sending us two or three name options in order of preference, rather than one, saves the most time.
It is a recognition granted to eligible startups that unlocks a set of benefits, including concessional trademark filing fees, self certification under certain labour and environment laws, and access to specific government schemes. Broadly it applies to newer entities below a turnover threshold that are working on innovation or a scalable business model. We assess eligibility before applying, because a rejected application wastes time you could have spent qualifying properly.
That depends entirely on what you do. Common ones are GST registration, Shops and Establishment registration, MSME or Udyam registration, professional tax, and PF and ESIC once you cross employee thresholds. Food businesses need FSSAI. Importers and exporters need an Import Export Code. Selling to government buyers needs GeM registration. We map the full list against your actual activity rather than handing you a standard bundle.
AOC-4 is how your audited financial statements get filed with the Registrar of Companies. MGT-7 is your annual return, a snapshot of who owns and runs the company. Both are annual, and both are counted forward from the date of your Annual General Meeting rather than from a fixed calendar date. AOC-4 is due within 30 days of the AGM and MGT-7 within 60 days. Small companies and OPCs file the simplified MGT-7A instead.
For a company with a 31 March financial year end, the AGM must be held within six months of the year end, so by 30 September. A newly incorporated company gets longer for its first AGM: nine months from the end of its first financial year. This one date matters more than any other, because holding the AGM late does not just miss one deadline. It pushes every dependent filing into default at the same time.
Late filing of AOC-4 or MGT-7 attracts an additional fee of â‚ą100 per day, per form, with no upper limit, and it keeps running until you actually file. The larger risk is personal. If financial statements or annual returns are not filed for three continuous financial years, directors are disqualified under Section 164(2) for five years, across every company they sit on. Filing even one pending year interrupts that chain, which is why a backlog is always worth addressing now rather than next quarter.
Almost certainly not. Backlogs are a large part of what we do and there is nearly always a route back: bringing pending filings current, sequencing them to limit additional fees, and using any relief mechanism available at the time. What makes it worse is waiting, because fees accrue daily and the three year disqualification clock keeps running. Send us the CIN and we will tell you where the company actually stands before you commit to anything.
It is the declaration for commencement of business, confirming that the subscribers have actually paid in the share capital they agreed to. It has to be filed within 180 days of incorporation, and until it is, the company cannot legally commence business or exercise borrowing powers. People miss it because incorporation feels like the finish line and nobody sends a reminder. The penalty exposure is significant and persistent failure can lead the Registrar to initiate strike off, so of all the first year items this is the one to get right.
Within the first 30 days: hold the first board meeting, appoint the first statutory auditor, and open a bank account in the company's own name. Appointing the first auditor is done by the board rather than at an AGM, which is exactly why first year ADT-1 filings are so often missed. Alongside that, set up statutory registers and minutes from the start rather than reconstructing them a year later, issue share certificates to subscribers, and display the company name and CIN as required.
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 applies to every workplace that employs ten or more employees, and the obligation does not depend on how many of them are women. If you meet that threshold you must have a policy, a properly constituted Internal Committee, and a redressal process. Companies also have to disclose their POSH position in the Board's Report. It is one of the most commonly overlooked compliances among growing businesses.
The Act requires the Internal Committee to include one member from outside the organisation, drawn from a non governmental organisation or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment. The purpose is independence. An entirely internal committee cannot credibly investigate its own employer. CS Nisha Tiwari is empanelled to serve in this role, and we provide External Member services to committees across sectors.
A policy drafted for your organisation and displayed as required, an Internal Committee constituted with the correct composition and a proper order of appointment, member consents on record, a complaint register and confidential minutes, a defined inquiry process, an annual report of the Committee filed with the District Officer, and the required disclosure in the Board's Report. We handle the full set, and we also review existing committees, which frequently turn out to be incorrectly constituted.
You may use the TM symbol from the day your application is filed. It signals that you are claiming rights in the mark and that an application is pending. The R symbol may only be used once the Registry has actually granted registration and issued the certificate. Using R before that point invites legal complications and is entirely avoidable, so we advise clients to stay with TM until the certificate arrives.
A clean application generally takes about 12 to 18 months from filing to certificate. The stages are filing, examination, publication in the Trade Marks Journal with a four month window for third parties to oppose, and then registration. An examination report or an opposition extends it. The government fee is charged per class, per mark, and is lower for individuals, sole proprietors, DPIIT recognised startups and Udyam registered MSMEs than for companies and LLPs. The concession has to be claimed correctly at the time of filing, with supporting recognition, and there is no refund if the wrong category is chosen.
Your protection extends only to the classes you file in, and India follows the Nice Classification with 45 of them. A business that sells a physical product and also runs a service around it usually needs more than one. Getting this wrong is the most expensive mistake in trademark filing, because you do not simply correct a class. You file afresh in the correct one, which resets your priority date and leaves the brand exposed in the meantime. A proper search and class analysis beforehand costs a fraction of that.
Read what it actually is: the issuing authority, the section invoked, what is being asked and the response deadline. Then reconcile it against your own filings, registers and financials before drafting anything, because very often the underlying issue is a genuine mismatch. Many defaults have a straightforward remedy such as filing the pending form with additional fees. Do not ignore it, because escalation is automatic, and do not send a hurried reply that contradicts your own record. If you are not sure what a notice is asking for, send it to us. Reading it and telling you what it means costs you nothing.
The usual route is voluntary strike off, for a company with no liabilities that has either not commenced business or has not been carrying on business for the prescribed period. If you may want the entity again later, dormant status keeps it and its name alive under a lighter regime. Either way, closure normally requires pending compliance to be brought current first, which surprises most people. It is genuinely counter intuitive that closing a company can require filing more than continuing it does.
No, and this is the most expensive option available. A company that has stopped trading has not stopped existing. Additional fees keep accruing at â‚ą100 per day per pending form with no ceiling, directors move toward disqualification after three continuous years of non filing, and the Registrar may eventually strike the company off on its own terms rather than yours, leaving the default on the record of everyone who was on that board. The cost of a clean closure is largely fixed. The cost of abandonment grows every day.
One Network. Every Expert.
We collaborate.
So you never have to coordinate.
Complex work rarely needs just one professional. We work hand-in-hand with a trusted network of specialists, so whether it’s an IPO, a fundraise, a valuation or a dispute, you get a complete team through a single point of contact.
- RTAs
- Chartered Accountants
- Lawyers
- Merchant Bankers
- Registered Valuers
- Insolvency Professionals
- Other Professionals
Collaborate with us
Are you a professional? Refer work, co-serve clients, or build something together through one coordinated practice.
Insights & Updates
Practical Insights on
Compliance, Governance & Business.
Clear explanations of corporate law, compliance requirements and regulatory developments—written for founders, directors and business teams.
