Dematerialization of Shares & Retail Investors in India-A Study

This paper is attempted to know the level of understanding on dematerialization of shares among the retail investors in India. In the process, the theoretical aspects of dematerialization like need and importance, benefits, and procedure for it are presented as a prelude to the empirical analysis. It is found from the study that all the sample investors had a demat account except very little amount. Majority of the investors had all their shares in demat form. Still there is a need to create awareness among retail investors and encourage them to dematerialize their shares that have not done. ‘Not understanding the dematerialization system and account maintenance charges’ are the major reasons cited for partial dematerialization of shares.