Nearly 33% out of a total of 13.59 lakh registered companies in India are either closed, dormant or in the process of being liquidated, the latest company data released by the ministry of corporate affairs showed on Wednesday.

As per the data, around 9.20 lakh are active companies as on November 30, whereas 2.66 lakh companies have been closed for various reasons, including court order and voluntary winding up. Another 29,310 firms are in the process of being liquidated, the MCA said in a statement.

As per the statement, there are 1.43 lakh 'dormant' companies that did not file their annual returns or balance sheets for over last three consecutive years.

In order to protect the interests of investors as well as to educate them, MCA organised 306 investor awareness programmes across the country in November last year, it said. With this, a total of 1,107 investor awareness programmes have been organised by the ministry, during the first eight months of the current financial year (till end of November), an official statement said.

As per the ministry, a total of 1,986 investor awareness programmes were organised in the last financial year (2012-13).

"For these programmes, an amount of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked in the budget of the ministry," the statement said. (Financial Express)