Mumbai, Feb. 15 -- Indians are making a rapid shift in their saving patterns from traditional instruments such as gold, real estate and bank deposits to alternatives like stocks, showed data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The number of dematerialized (demat) accounts opened in 2018 was the most in at least a decade at 4 million, a 13% increase from the previous year, the data showed. More households in India began to prefer the stock markets after demonetization in November 2016 when the Union government banned high-value currency notes. According to capital markets regulator Sebi data, the total number of demat accounts rose to 34.8 million in 2018 from 30.8 million in the previous year. There were a total of 16.8 ...