Equity Basics: Shares, Dividends, Splits, and Corporate Actions

A ground-up, India-specific guide to what actually happens when you buy a share and hold it. Built for college students, first-time demat holders, salaried professionals, homemakers, and retirees who have opened a Zerodha or similar trading account but never had anyone explain what a share really represents, where it physically lives, why a dividend lands in your bank account on some random Tuesday, or why your holding suddenly shows double the shares at half the price overnight. Covers ownership and share types, NSDL and CDSL depositories, reading your demat and contract note, how dividends are declared and taxed, and how stock splits and bonus issues actually work, using real NSE and BSE examples, screener.in data, and SEBI rules throughout.