'Nearly a million firms active in India'

India has 1.4 million registered companies but only about 987,000 entities were active at the end of August, according to official data. Out of the total registered companies, nearly 260,000 have been closed down while thousands of entities are in the process of winding up. Corporates are registered under the Companies Act, which is implemented by the corporate affairs ministry. Latest data from the ministry show that there were about 987,000 active companies as on August 31 and the figure includes 127,000 firms which were incorporated within the last one-and-a-half years. "As on August 31, the number of companies registered under the Companies Act was 14.16 lakh. Of these, 259,000 companies were closed and 27,218 companies are in the process of being closed," according to the Ministry's latest monthly newsletter.

Besides, around 142,000 companies were classified as 'dormant' - those which have not done their annual statutory filings for more than three consecutive years.