India ranks 19th out of the 180 countries covered under the leaked data in terms of the number of names involved, on Monday.

Further, according to the report, 714 Indians find mention in the papers. The leaked data, obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, as was the case with the Panama Papers, and investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), originates from two firms – Bermuda's Appleby and Singapore's Asiaciti – as well as from 19 tax havens across the world.

A huge new leak of financial documents has revealed how the powerful and ultra-wealthy, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens, media reports said on Monday.

The details come from a leak of 13.4 million files on Sunday that expose the global environments in which tax abuses can thrive and the complex and seemingly artificial ways the wealthiest corporations can legally protect their wealth.

The material, which has come from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, was obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with 100 other media organisations including the Guardian, the BBC and The New York Times.

Some of the revelations in the Paradise Papers include millions of pounds from Queen Elizabeth II's private estate, US President Donald Trump's cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law to the shipping group of the US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross.

The leak shows how social media giants Twitter and Facebook received millions in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions along with aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including Nike and Apple.

It also includes information about a tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief wealth manager.

The publication of this investigation, for which more than 380 journalists have spent a year combing through data that stretches back 70 years, comes at a time of growing global income inequality.

Offshore finance is about a place outside of one's own nation's regulations to which companies or individuals can reroute money, assets or profits to take advantage of lower taxes, reported BBC.

These jurisdictions are known as tax havens to the layman, or the more stately offshore financial centres (OFCs) to the industry. They are generally stable, secretive and reliable, often small islands but not exclusively so, and can vary on how rigorously they carry out checks on wrongdoing.

The leaked files, including those from offshore law firm Appleby, purportedly provide details of tax planning by nearly 100 MNCs, while more than 700 Indian companies and individuals are said to be among those named in the list.

Among the firms that have cropped up in the leaked list of 'Paradise Papers', shares of Jindal Steel & Power went down by 2.32 per cent on BSE, Essar Shipping lost 2 per cent, Videocon Industries fell by 1.82 per cent, Sun TV Network dropped by 1.74 per cent, GMR Infrastructure declined by 1.57 per cent and Apollo Tyres dipped 0.88 per cent.

On the other hand, shares of USL rose by 1.19 per cent on BSE.