Registrations & Licences
The registrations that come after incorporation — MSME/Udyam, Startup India recognition, import-export codes, trademark protection and NGO Darpan — each opening a different door.
Incorporating a business gets you a legal entity; it doesn't automatically get you every registration that entity needs to actually do what it plans to do. Selling to government buyers, importing raw material, protecting your brand name, or receiving CSR funding as a non-profit each sit behind their own, separate registration — and most businesses only discover which one they're missing when a deal is already on the table.
We handle the specific licences that come up most often once a business is trading: MSME/Udyam classification and the Startup India (DPIIT) recognition that follows a growth story, the Import Export Code and ICEGATE/AD code registration that international trade actually needs, trademark protection for a name or logo worth defending, and NGO Darpan registration for the Trusts, Societies and Section 8 Companies that need it before a grant or CSR conversation can even start.
Why ThinkOrange
We tell you which registration you actually need for what you're trying to do, not a bundle of everything that's loosely related.
Cross-registrations that depend on each other — an IEC before ICEGATE, a Darpan ID before CSR-1 — are sequenced correctly so you're not stuck waiting on a prerequisite you didn't know existed.
Every threshold and fee we quote is checked against the current Act, Rules or portal — not recalled from memory.
Every service in Registrations & Licences
What you need before you can trade
About Registrations & Licences
The questions people ask before deciding which of these services they actually need.
It depends on what you actually need it for. DPIIT recognition itself doesn't hand you funding — its practical value is a set of specific, confirmed procedural benefits (self-certification for certain labour and environment compliances, easier public procurement participation, and eligibility for a small number of government schemes). Whether it's worth the paperwork comes down to your eligibility and which of those benefits actually applies to your business — see Startup India (DPIIT) for the current criteria.
An IEC gets you the right to trade; it doesn't clear a shipment on its own. You'll also need to register on ICEGATE, India's customs portal, and link an AD code from your bank before customs will process your first bill of entry. See IEC Registration and ICEGATE Registration for how the two connect.
No — they're unrelated registrations. Incorporating a company reserves your name against other companies at the Registrar; it does not stop a competitor from trading under a confusingly similar brand. A trademark is the only registration that actually protects your name or logo in the market. See Trademark Registration for how the two differ in practice.
With an NGO Darpan ID, before anything else. A company legally cannot file Form CSR-1 — the MCA filing that lets it route CSR funds to your NGO — without your Darpan ID already in place. Get that first, then the CSR-1 and any specific corporate conversation can move. See NGO Darpan Registration for the process.
Related practice areas
Work in these areas usually runs alongside the services above.
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