Journey of dematerliazation of Securities

The dematerialization of Indian securities markets was a transformative shift in investment, addressing inefficiencies with physical share certificates. Initiated in 1996, a committee led by R Chandrashekharan recommended automation through Immobilization and Dematerialization. NSDL began operations in October 1996, marking the inception of demat accounts, followed by CDSL in 1999. SEBI progressively encouraged electronic share trading, first for institutional and then for retail investors. By March 2002, almost 100% of stock exchange trading occurred in demat form. The success is evident in the surge of demat accounts, surpassing 100 million by August 2022, with NSDL and CDSL having 3.41 crore and 10.09 crore demat accounts by November 2023. Policy interventions and digitization turned physical shares into digital assets, making dematerialization a significant success inspiring future generations.