India Inc. is a common term used by the Indian media to refer to the formal (comprising government and corporate) sector of the nation. It employed 7 per cent of the workforce in 2000[1] and contributed 60 per cent of the nominal GDP of the nation. The informal sector consists of 44 million non-farm enterprises as per recent labour survey.
The Companies Act 1956 allows a variety of formations in the mixed economy of India.. The Ministry of Company Affairs estimates that as of 31 October 2005, there were 712,800 companies registered in India (excluding foreign companies) as detailed below:
| Category | Non-government | Government | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private companies limited by shares | 628,957 | 612 | 629,569 |
| Public companies limited by shares | 78,473 | 724 | 79,197 |
| Companies limited by guarantee | 3,530 | 7 | 3,537 |
| Companies with unlimited liability | 497 |
There were 821,212 companies by the end of 2009. Almost one-fifth of these companies were head quartered in Maharashtra, another one-fifth in Delhi and one-eighth in West Bengal.