India, Sept. 5 -- For several years, ever since the Narendra Modi regime came to power for the first time, the Government has initiated efforts to curb the expansion of what it calls shell companies. Over the past three year, it claims, more than 1,00,000 such firms were forcefully shut down. Shell companies are usually firms with just an address, minimal assets (maybe a chair and table, along with a computer), non-existent employees (probably a guard), and no transactions or operations (except for some paper entries). Experts feel that they are largely used for tax evasion, tax avoidance, money laundering, and siphoning off funds from listed or larger companies.

Now, the Government hopes to enhance its crackdown on such firms. The laws ...