Hey folks!

Over fifty years ago, sending a letter in India felt like playing a nationwide guessing game.

Back in the day, postmen had to rely on memory to sort mail. They had to navigate over 23,000 post offices, figure out whether ‘Ashoknagar’ referred to the one in Karnataka or West Bengal, and hoped incomplete addresses somehow reached the right door. Sounds like chaos, right?

That’s why in 1972, India rolled out a game-changer — the humble 6-digit PIN code. Crafted by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, this simple system brought order to the madness. Each digit had a role — region, sub-region, district and finally, your local post office. Suddenly, letters found their destinations faster, and the Post Office could even promote savings schemes more efficiently.

So it wasn’t just about mail, it was about building trust, access and financial literacy.

Fast forward to today, and the PIN code is still very much alive and kicking. But just recently it got a high-tech companion — the DIGIPIN.

India Post, with help from IIT Hyderabad and ISRO’s NRSC, has launched DIGIPIN — a 10-character digital code tied to a tiny 4x4 metre square on the map. It’s like giving every doorstep in the country a unique digital ID. Especially handy for places with vague or missing addresses.

But don’t worry, the old PIN code isn’t going anywhere. It’s just been digitally upgraded with geofencing and smarter boundary mapping. And if you’re wondering why, well, it’s about making addresses smarter. With better accuracy, deliveries are quicker, emergency services respond faster and apps can serve you more precisely.

It’s all part of building a postal system that’s sharper, more reliable and ready for the future. One that doesn’t just help India Post, but anyone relying on accurate location data — be it businesses, developers or people delivering to folks like us waiting for a parcel.

Just when we thought an age-old system couldn’t innovate anymore, it’s pretty cool to see how it’s still keeping up with the times, eh?

Here’s a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Dread by Yesterdrive

Ready to dive in?

What caught our eye this week 👀

No needles for blood tests

Some people faint, some look away, some pretend they’re fine while secretly cursing the lab technician’s entire family. Because no one is thrilled getting poked with a needle to get some blood drawn.

But what if you didn’t have to? Imagine walking into a hospital, sitting down for a minute and getting a full-body health check… with nothing more than a selfie. Yup! That’s what just happened in Hyderabad’s Niloufer Hospital that became the first in India to roll out an AI-based, non-invasive blood diagnostic tool called Amruth Swasth Bharath.

So how does this thing work?

Well, the tech behind it is something called Photoplethysmography or PPG in short. In simple terms, it measures how light reflects off your skin and then tracks tiny changes in your blood flow just below the surface. These light changes are then decoded by AI to estimate your blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiration, hemoglobin A1c (the diabetes marker) and even nervous system stress levels. All of this happens in under half a minute!

This could be a big deal because India still struggles with basic diagnostic access. In rural areas, one of the biggest hurdles in healthcare is not medicine, but testing. As per the National Health Profile 2023, only 12% of primary health centers (PHCs) have diagnostic labs and many of which don’t meet the basic standards. And the result, as an Economic Times story puts it is ‘...a massive diagnostic gap in rural India, pushing patients toward unregulated, low-quality private labs. The consequences are severe: delayed or missed diagnoses, prolonged disease burden, high out-of-pocket costs, and ultimately, preventable deaths’.

And there’s a market angle too. Globally, the non-invasive diagnostics market is booming and while Western startups are betting big, India’s approach is refreshingly different in terms of affordable, mobile-first and made for public health at a mass scale.

Sure, there are gaps. Accuracy, data privacy and large-scale reliability are still being tested. But for a country that produces over 700 tonnes of biomedical waste daily, much of it from single-use syringes, vials, and cotton swabs — even reducing diagnostic waste is a win.

So no, we might not be tossing out blood labs tomorrow. But as a first-level screener, this could be revolutionary. 

Fewer needles, faster results and maybe a future where you don’t need to look away :)

Would you trust a blood test that doesn’t need your blood?

Infographic 📊

This Day in Financial History 📜

12th of June, 2000 – Index derivatives enter Indian markets

At the turn of the millennium, Indian markets were still warming up to the idea of modern financial instruments. While countries like the US had been trading derivatives for decades, India’s regulatory ecosystem was still cautious, especially after the Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh scams that exposed gaping holes in oversight and transparency.

But reforms were brewing. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), keen to bring Indian markets up to global standards, finally gave the green light. And on this day, the NSE launched index futures on the Nifty 50, officially kickstarting India’s exchange-traded equity derivatives market.

It was a small beginning. Just one instrument, limited participants and lots of skepticism. But it set the ball rolling. Within a year, index, stock options and single-stock futures were added. Soon after, BSE joined in too. And over time, derivatives went from niche to mainstream, offering investors powerful tools to hedge risk, speculate or simply gain leverage.

Today, India has one of the world’s most active derivatives markets. And it all began with a single futures contract, launched on this day, 24 years ago.

Readers Recommend 🗒️

This week, our reader Chirag Jain, recommends reading ‘Margin of Safety’ by Seth Klarman. It’s a book that explains the philosophy of value investing and, more importantly, the logic behind why it works when other strategies often don’t.

Thanks for the rec, Chirag!

Finshots Weekly Quiz 🧩

It’s time to announce the winner of our previous weekly quiz. And the winner is…🥁

Sanjay Gupta! Congratulations. Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll get in touch with you soon to send over your Finshots merch. And for the rest of you, don’t forget to check out our Weekly Wrapup for the latest quiz. Answer all the questions correctly, and who knows, you might just see your name here next week!

Until then, send us your book, music, business movies, documentaries or podcast recommendations. We’ll feature them in the newsletter! Also, don’t forget to tell us what you thought of today’s edition. Just hit reply to this email (or if you’re reading this on the web, drop us a message: morning@finshots.in).

We’ll see you next Sunday!

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