India's dematerialization rollout (1996–2005)
India began moving stock ownership from physical paper certificates to electronic demat accounts in 1996, creating depositories NSDL and CDSL to hold records. The shift took nearly a decade and required a national campaign because brokers and investors distrusted electronic records.
Trading halts and conversion backlogs as firms switched certificates in batches.
Virtually all Indian securities now exist in demat form, and the two depositories are core national infrastructure.
Demat 2.0 repeats the pattern — same depositories, same accounts, new recording technology, phased rollout — after India's first dematerialization took ten years to complete.
