The official company registers of India, and how to use them.
India records a business in more than one place. A company sits on the MCA register, tax status lives on the GST portal, small firms hold a Udyam number, importers carry an IEC, and a physical shop registers with its state. This guide explains what each official register is, what data is public, and how to look up or verify an Indian company by CIN, GSTIN or name.
Six official records that describe an Indian business
There is no single national business register in India. Instead, different bodies each hold one authoritative slice. Here is what each register is and what you can look up on it. For the same breakdown in other countries, see our directory of company registers or the Register Finder tool.
The register of every incorporated company and LLP in India. Each company has a 21-character Corporate Identification Number (CIN); LLPs get an LLPIN. Use "View Company/LLP Master Data" under MCA Services to look up status, incorporation date, registered office, directors and charges by CIN or by name. Basic master data is free to view without logging in; full filed documents can be bought. The portal now runs on MCA21 V3.
Where a business's indirect-tax registration lives. The 15-digit GSTIN embeds the entity's PAN and its state code. "Search Taxpayer" by GSTIN returns the legal name, trade name, constitution of business, principal place of business, effective date of registration, status and whether returns are being filed, all without a login. It is the fastest way to confirm a business is trading and tax-registered.
The official register of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which replaced the older Udyog Aadhaar system. A registered enterprise receives a Udyam Registration Number in the form UDYAM-XX-00-0000000 and an MSME certificate. Anyone, including banks and government departments, can confirm an enterprise's MSME status through the portal's verification page. Registration on the official portal is free.
Mandatory for any business importing to or exporting from India. The IEC is a 10-digit code (issued against the firm's PAN) by the DGFT, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The "View/Verify IEC" service returns the IEC number, business name, registered address, date of issue and current status. A valid IEC is a strong signal that a company genuinely trades across borders.
The tax identity layer. The Permanent Account Number (PAN) is the core 10-character identifier for any taxpaying entity and is the backbone of both the GSTIN and the IEC. The TAN is the identifier for entities that deduct tax at source. The Income Tax e-filing portal offers "Verify Your PAN" and "Know Your TAN" services to confirm that an identifier exists and matches a name.
The registration a physical shop, office or commercial premises needs to operate. This is state-level labour legislation, so every state runs its own Act and its own portal, and a business with premises in several states registers separately in each. It is often the only formal record a small, local, offline-first business holds, which is exactly why it is invisible to national databases.
Looking up an Indian company, step by step
You usually start with one piece of information, a name, a CIN or a GSTIN, and follow it across the registers. Here is the practical order that works for most checks.
Start on MCA by name or CIN
Open View Company/LLP Master Data at mca.gov.in. Enter the CIN if you have it, or switch to the name option and search. You will get status, incorporation date and registered office for free.
Confirm tax status on GST
Take the GSTIN (or find it) and use Search Taxpayer on gst.gov.in. The legal name, trade name and "active" status tell you the business is currently registered and, ideally, filing returns.
Check the specialised registers
If it claims to import or export, verify the 10-digit IEC on dgft.gov.in. If it claims MSME status or benefits, verify the Udyam number on udyamregistration.gov.in. Each returns name, address and status.
Match the details across sources
Line up the legal name, PAN and registered address from each portal. When they agree across MCA, GST and the rest, you have a real, verifiable business rather than a single unverified listing.
How to tell a genuine Indian business from a shell
A name on a website proves nothing on its own. Real verification means the same identity holding up across independent official registers. Here is what to trust, and what a scraped list quietly cannot give you.
// Signals that hold up
- A CIN or LLPIN with "active" status on mca.gov.in
- A GSTIN whose legal name and address match, and returns are filed
- The same PAN linking the GSTIN and, where relevant, the IEC
- A valid IEC on dgft.gov.in if the firm trades internationally
- A Udyam number that verifies for MSME claims
// Red flags and blind spots
- An identifier that returns nothing on the official portal
- Names or addresses that differ between MCA and GST
- "Cancelled" or "suspended" GST status
- A slick website but no traceable registration anywhere
- Relying on a resold database that was copied months ago
The registers are authoritative, but they are scattered
Each of these registers is authoritative for its own slice, and that is the catch. The truth about one Indian company is spread across the MCA, the GST portal, DGFT, the MSME portal, the Income Tax Department and a state labour register, each with its own identifier, its own login rules and its own search box. Checking one business by hand is easy; building a market view across thousands is not. This is exactly the gap AtlasForgeX closes: it reads these public sources together, on your own Windows machine, and hands you one scored, contact-ready record per company with the source attached. As a live read as of 1 July 2026, AtlasForgeX has surfaced 283,485 Indian companies from these public sources, including the offline-first firms that never built a website (see India: 96.8% have no website). It complements the official portals for verification; it does not replace them.
FAQ
One tool, every register, one record per company
AtlasForgeX reads India's public sources together and hands you scored, contact-ready leads with the source attached, on your own Windows machine, across 92 countries. Flat monthly access, all-in: no API costs, no token fees, no per-contact credits, and every company you find is yours to keep.