A staggering 42 lakh new accounts were opened in December alone—50% higher than the previous month—taking the total number of demat accounts to 13.93 crore. The trading volume on stock exchanges has increased over tenfold since 2019-20. However, brokers are finding it tough to handle this frenetic activity. In recent months, users of several broking platforms have been crying foul after facing recurring outages and disruption in services.