New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): Opening of new dematerialised accounts monthly wise, on an average, increased seven-fold since financial year FY20, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the virtual event organised by the National Stock Exchange to celebrate the 25 years of the launch of Nifty50 index and 20 years of Derivatives Trading in India.

In FY20, average new demat accounts were at 4 lakh per month, whereas they increased to 12 lakh in FY21. In FY22, till the month of November, it rose to around 29 lakh, which is more than seven times as against FY20, Tyagi said.

"The cumulative demat accounts which stood at 3.6 crore as on March 2019 were 7.7 crore as on end of November 2021," he added.

"So what was achieved in two decades has been achieved in last two-and-a-half years."

According to NSE MD and CEO Vikram Limaye, internet technology and mobile-based investing platforms were key enablers in the democratisation of the equity market culture among the masses in India.

"We see close to 54 per cent in the equity segment turnover being contributed by non institutional and non proprietary category," he added.

At the virtual event, Union Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, put forward seven "formulas" to deepen the capital markets in the country.

Goyal said that exchanges must launch financial products keeping in mind the needs of retail investors and MSMEs.

Besides, bourses should ensure that the disclaimers must be prominent and it must be clear and slow-paced for people to understand. Exchanges must encourage investors on diversification of portfolios instead of speculative trading.

He urged the exchanges to launch products in regional languages, besides collaborating with schools and colleges to sensitise and educate students about investing at a younger age.

"We need to reduce the volatility and the sudden spikes to enlarge the investor base and induce robust capital formation," Goyal added.

He also urged the exchanges to follow international best practices.