Demat Account
You cannot hold a paper share certificate any more, not in any way that matters. Everything lives in a demat account instead. A dematerialised account is the digital locker where your shares, bonds, ETFs and mutual fund units are stored electronically, replacing the old system of paper certificates that were slow to transfer and easy to lose or forge.
Without a demat account, there is no way to own shares of a listed Indian company.
Every trade on the NSE or BSE settles into a demat account, which is linked to a trading account that places orders and a bank account that moves the money. Opening one takes a few minutes online with a PAN card, an Aadhaar card and a bank account. Anyone under 18 can hold one only as a minor account operated by a guardian.
India had about 4 crore demat accounts in early 2020. By 2025 it had around 20 crore, as cheap trading apps, a pandemic stock boom and a wave of popular IPOs brought in first-time investors from small towns as well as big cities.