India's Ministry of State for Corporate Affairs is clamping down on shell companies in an attempt to combat money laundering.

Having already reportedly de-registered 226,000 companies that it suspected of having been used for money laundering, the ministry has just de-registered another tranche of 120,000. In connection with these strikings-off, more than 300,000 people have been disqualified from being directors of companies, although it is not known whether any of the bans are permanent.

This stands in stark contrast with practice in the United Kingdom, where only judges can put people on the 'dodgy directors' list under the Company Director Disqualification Act 1986, although it is the Government that applies to the courts for the necessary orders. About 1,200 directors are banned each year for between two and 15 years, the average length of disqualilfication being just over six years. Only 5% of directors of companies that go into liquidation, administration or receivership are later disqualified from becoming directors again.