Hey folks!

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has given cricket the green signal. And the T20 format could be all set to be a part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The game is the second most popular sport in the world after football with an estimated 2.5 billion people following it. So being included in the Olympics is actually a big deal.

But ever thought why cricket has never been part of the Olympics?

Actually, it has.

Cricket had a chance to be included in the 1896 Summer Olympics held at Athens, Greece. But lack of participation meant that it had to be scrapped. But it made its way to the next Olympics at Paris, France in 1900. Great Britain and France played the game with 12 players on each side in a 2-day Test match. Weird, We know. Ironically, the players in the teams hadn't ever represented their national teams. The British side was represented by a club called the Devon and Somerset Wanderers, who were touring France at the time. While France was also largely represented by British folks who emigrated to Paris.

And Great Britain won that match by 158 runs. Turns out they became winners of the only cricket match to be ever held at the Olympics.  Because even though cricket was scheduled for the 1904 games held in the US, again, the participation just wasn't enough. And it was cancelled at the last minute. And that’s how cricket stayed out of the Olympics for over a century.

But this time, IOC is probably sure that lack of participation isn't an issue. And who knows, maybe the Indian cricket team can fetch us an Olympic gold soon enough, eh? 😁

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

Raat by Aadha Adhura

Thanks for this lyrical gem, Mayank Jain!

A couple of things caught our eye this week 👀

A payment card without numbers?

Fibe, a fintech formerly known as EarlySalary has partnered with Axis Bank to offer what they say is India’s first numberless credit card. Yup, there'll be absolutely no numbers on the card. Just a smooth, free, card.

But why?

For starters, there's the aesthetics, of course. It's cool to have a numberless card. But the bigger thing that people claim is security. Prying eyes won't be able to note down the card details when you whip it out for a payment. And since PoS (Point of sale) or in-store card transactions still surpass online card transactions in terms of transaction volumes, it probably makes sense.

But here's the thing. It doesn't really provide security in the case of online transactions if you think about it. The card will have its details stored in an app linked to it. You'll open your app securely and still enter details online. Or as one expert told the Guardian earlier, “In the overwhelming majority of fraud cases, the  fraudster never sees the card as these attacks tend to happen online  ... So, if a card number exists – physically or digitally – it’s up for  grabs.”

Rather, maybe it's the RBI's card tokenisation program that might ensure more safety. You just encrypt your card behind a randomly generated token number and you will never have to punch in your card details again for repeated payments. The merchant also doesn’t store your card details like its number, expiry or CVV. They just have the token number. Safer, right?

So could numberless cards be just a marketing gimmick?

You tell us.

***

Why’s everyone flocking to Rajasthan?

In 2022, over 10.8 crore tourists visited Rajasthan. That was a 100% increase from the pre-pandemic levels. And now, within just the first 9 months of 2023, the numbers have surpassed the 10 crore mark! Everyone seems to be picking the state as their vacay spot. But why?

Well, it has a lot to do with the state’s tourism policy. Rajasthan realised that it had to do something to quickly recover from the pandemic shock that led to a tourism dip. So the state framed a new tourism framework. And one thing this policy highlighted was attracting tourists all year round rather than just the October-March period. So they came up with experiential tourism which focused on rural tourism, tribal tourism, desert tourism and even wedding tourism. And you could really say that this worked. Many Indian celebrities have tied the knot at aesthetic locations in the state. It has the perfect spots and royal backgrounds for wedding pictures which wedding planners prefer.

Then there was airport branding that the state has worked on. Rajasthan's tourism was advertised across over 280 locations in 18 major Indian airports including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. So that may have drawn a lot of people too.

The policy also encouraged investments into tourism startups, while also giving the idea of special tourism zones a push by converting vast land spaces into leisure spots. This was actually a concept that the Union Budget introduced back in 2017. So Rajasthan made sure to capitalise on it.

And it has surely worked since Rajasthan jumped from the 11th spot to the 7th position in the rankings of popular tourist destinations, both locally and globally.

Have you been one of those tourists who’s taken a Rajasthan trip recently? Let us know.

Jargon of the day ✏️

Money tips 💰

Why you shouldn’t stop an SIP

In 2022, over 1.36 crore SIP accounts were closed. They either completed their tenure or were discontinued. And this number went up to 1.42 crore within just the first 9 months of 2023.

People are probably unsure of how their investments will fare in a volatile market. Or maybe they think that it’s best to harvest profits when the market peaks. But is that a wise approach?

Well, first things first. SIP stands for Systematic Investment Plan. This means that you invest the same amount at the same time every month to build a bigger investment corpus. And it’s a great long-term approach. That’s anything over 3 years. So if you invest via an SIP you have to be clear what you're trying to build towards. It's meant to create investment discipline by investing a fixed amount regularly and seeing your money grow, while not touching it for your regular expenses.

The next thing about SIPs is that they help in Rupee cost averaging. It’s a simple approach wherein you protect your investments from market fluctuations. This means that you get fewer mutual fund units when the market goes up and more of them when the market dips. Sure, your investments may grow slower when markets fall, but you also have the advantage of being able to buy more mutual fund units at a lower value. And that'll come in handy when markets eventually rise. So what happens when you panic about future market corrections and just take out your money?

Well, you lose out because you tried to time the market.

So yeah, tie your SIPs to your goal, and not to the market levels. Just SIP it and forget it!

Readers Recommend 🗒️

All Else Equal by Stanford Graduate School of Business

Today we have another recommendation from our reader Nidhi Dhanani. It’s a podcast where the hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules Binsbergen talk to prominent business leaders. They discuss common flaws made while making decisions and how to go about it.

Thanks for the rec, Nidhi!

Finshots Weekly Quiz 🧩

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Himanshu Nayak! Congratulations. Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll get in touch with you soon to send over your Finshots merch.

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