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1- What is demat?
A demat account, the abbreviation for dematerialised account, is a type of banking account which dematerializes paper-based physical stock shares. The dematerialised account is used to avoid holding physical shares: the shares are bought and sold through a stock broker.

2- Is demat compulsory?
If you want to trade than demat account is mandatory. If you just want to buy and keep shares, than you can keep as a paper-based physical stock shares (without demat account).