Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

The workshop of the Bharatiya Monetary Press, containing one of the largest line-ups of advanced Gutenberg and Raya printers in the Empire, had been lying without any work for the last few months.

Ever since the printing of currency had stopped, the printers had gone out of business, and since then, they had been burning a hole in the Imperial Committee's finances because if these printers are not used regularly, they are very prone to rusting, and their inks are prone to drying up and causing complications. So, every month, all the printers would have to go through maintenance, and the maintenance is very costly.

The problem could easily be solved if the printers were leased out as a service to the general public since, in their regular use, they would be oiled up, and maintenance would take place on the go. But unfortunately, this was not an option for the Bharatiya Monetary Press. Since they were responsible for printing the legal tender of the Bharatiya Empire, they had some strict requirements to follow. For example, they used a special kind of paper, which only they could produce, and even the printers had been modified in such a way that several security features were added to them, and the monetary press couldn't risk the general public knowing about all these measures by letting them use the machines.

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This is one of the main reasons why even though the two-revolution printer has already been introduced as a much better and more advanced solution, the Gutenberg and Raya printers have not been replaced. Maybe in a few months, they would be, since the new two-revolution printing press is already being modified to be used as the primary machine in the printing of the currency. But for now, the Gutenberg and Raya are still the trusty workhorses of the monetary press, and with the issuance of Aadhar cards for millions of people, it was as if the Gutenberg and Raya printers had gotten the final chance to live their most glorious days.

Throughout the month, the printing has been going on non-stop. Given that the Bharatiya Monetary Press is located in the windiest place in the subcontinent and is powered by windmills instead of water wheels, there was no need to worry about energy constraints since wind energy was always rich in Ramakkalmedu. The Bharatiya Monetary Press had already printed billions of Varaha worth of currency in its lifetime, so printing millions of Aadhar cards was not too difficult. If anything, the only constraint was time, but by working around the clock with thousands of printers in four shifts, 24 hours a day, the job was still completed.

24th November 1660

Excitement could be felt in every major city and town in the Bharatiya Empire since the syllabus for the voter certification exam had been published, and young adults, as well as the people who had failed to pass the test last time, were all eagerly going through the syllabus, excited to vote and exercise their constitutional rights for the first time.

Universities have all temporarily stopped their classes and started doing workshops on general knowledge of the empire, including the empire's general history, major figures, historical figures, geography, culture, climate, critical thinking, and the like. These are the majority of the questions that were asked for voter certification. Nothing too hard or complicated, a person, even if he does not go to school, if he is perceptive enough, or even a school student who has just gotten into high school, will be able to pass this exam. It was just to make sure that the voter is an individual who has normal intelligence and can decide for himself or herself what is good, and is not a blind voter who is swayed by public opinion.

In such an environment, when no one was expecting it, out of nowhere the government announced the issuance of the Aadhar card, and the people were shocked. Headlines of all the major newspapers in the empire were about it.

Bharatham Daily: "Aadhar card—what is it, why do you need it, how can you get it?"

Ahom Daily: "Aadhar card is your identity, says Prime Minister Vinod."

Nepal Times: "From now on, all government services will be linked to this special card issued by the government."

My Hampi: "Bharat One Locations in Hampi to obtain your Aadhar card."

Lanka Observer: "Aadhar card is to be delayed in Samudra Nagar and Anuradha Puri—what will you have to do?"

The news was not only on the front pages of newspapers in the Bharati language but also in the recently started regional newspapers like Kannada Nudi, Tamil Urai, Marathi Samachar, Gujarati Varta, Bangla Barta, Odiya Prabha, and others.

The streets were immediately filled with discussions about the big move made by the government.

Uncles, aunties, grandparents, and college students all set up meetings on their own and started talking excitedly about the Aadhar card.

In the village just outskirts of Mangaluru

"Hey Munna, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Oh, Uncle Deva, I am going to receive my Aadhar card. Have you already taken yours?"

"No, not yet. Why is this thing important anyway? Why do you need an identity to say that we are people of this empire?"

Gasp!

"Huh? What, kid? Do you need a beating or what? What's with that face as if you are looking at a fool?"

"Ugh."

"Erm, uncle, don't you know? From now on, all the services we get from the government can only be received if you have an Aadhar card. Meaning, that if you want to buy land, you'll need an Aadhar card. If you want to build a house and want to get a house permit, you will need an Aadhar card. If you want to obtain the rations, you will need an Aadhar card. No matter what, from now on, you will need the Aadhar card to identify yourself to the government."

"If it is not there, none of the services will be given."

"What! What you're saying is true?"

"Yes, uncle. Why would I lie to you? It was clearly written in the newspaper. Haven't you read it?"

"Mhm. Put that aside. Now tell me where the Aadhar card is being issued. Should we provide anything?"

"No, uncle, there is no need to provide anything. As for the location, the cards are being issued right now at the Panchayat. Bharat 1 office has been set up the--re?... "

"Hey, uncle, wait up! Why are you running?"

These sorts of scenes could be seen in all the villages, towns, and cities in the empire. People were hurrying over to various Bharat One offices established by the government at various points in the cities, towns, and villages.

After knowing how important the Aadhar card was, people stopped what they were doing and stood in line in front of all the Bharat One offices.

It was as if the people had declared today a national holiday by themselves. Even the always bustling markets of Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, Colombo, Chennai, Kolkata, and Chabahar were all looking dull and lifeless. The Europeans who had just arrived were left scratching their heads in confusion. Wasn't it said that the ports of the Bharatiya Empire, especially Thiruvananthapuram, were the liveliest and most exciting places on the planet?

Now, why were they so empty, like a town that had just experienced a plague? It was not until their fellow merchants, who knew the news, informed them that they understood what was happening. But when they understood it, their eyes widened in shock—the logistical capability of providing hundreds of millions of identity documents throughout the empire was simply unimaginable in their minds.

"Haha, mate, this is the Bharatiya Empire—you will have to get used to it," the veteran merchants comforted while feeling a hint of nostalgia, looking at the shocked faces of the newly arrived merchants.

Bharat One Point, Sarjapura Village, Rural Bengaluru

"Here's your Aadhar. Next!"

"Your name?"

"Mahesh Babu, Sir."

"Idiot! I mean the name you usually give to the government."

"Ugh."

"It's V.H.H.S. Mahesh Babu."

"Hmm? Are you from Vijayanagar State?"

"Yes, Sir. I came to the capital for my work."

"Do you have insurance in your name?"

"Yes, Sir. It is included in my salary."

"Hey Chotu, check in that insurance bundle. Look for the person with the file name Vijay Nagara Hampi Hampi S Mahesh Babu."@@novelbin@@

Moments later, a young boy came out with a document.

The civil servant took over the document and carefully read through it.

"Let's see—height of 6'3", weight around 72 kilograms, square face, birthmark on the left hand, burn mark below the right eye, pointed nose, large ears, and a chipped tooth."

"Open your mouth."

"Ahhhh."

"Hmm, there it is."

"Alright, write something on this paper, press your left thumb in the ink over here, then press it onto the paper here," the man said as he showed the left and right sides of the paper.

Mahesh quickly did as he was told and handed over the paper to the civil servant.

The civil servant quickly took the paper and carefully compared it with the handwriting and fingerprint in the document. After a few seconds, he nodded in satisfaction.

He took out a card from the envelope, which had a very similar texture to the banknote, and handed it over to Mahesh Babu.

"Here's your Aadhar. Next!" he shouted.

In such a way, using both fingerprints and handwriting instead of a photo, the authentication was quickly done all over the empire. For those who were not literate and did not know how to write, only the fingerprint was used, but still, something was better than nothing—having one-factor authentication is better than having zero-factor authentication. The sorting out of names was not too complicated a process.

The initials of their place of birth were used to identify a person—for example, the initials of the state, district, city, village, or town—and then the initials of the father, after which finally the name. Putting all these variables together would create a unique identification code with not more than a few dozen duplicates.

In such a way, the logistics were taken care of, and the Aadhar cards that had been printed were transported to different states and districts according to unique identification codes.

However, unfortunately, migration happened a lot in the Bharatiya Empire, mainly in order to find work. This made delivering Aadhar directly to the people very hard since they couldn't be kept track of. But fortunately, at least in the southern part of the empire, where 70 to 75% of all employees were insured by insurance companies, the data had been imported into the database and updated with their place of work.

Though it is still a problem for the labourers and employees who are not insured by their companies, since the government has no way of knowing who they are and where they came from if they are not using any government services, everything is not lost. It does not mean that they would not be getting their Aadhar card; it only means that they would have to go back to their birthplace and collect it from there.

Surprisingly enough, this caused several strikes to break out in companies where insurance was not provided. Workers went to the streets to protest.

"We need insurance!"

"We need insurance!"

In the midst of this controversy, Bharatiya Internal Pragya might have or might not have silently doused some oil in this raging flame, but in the end, this unexpected incident became the last piece of the puzzle which made providing insurance to employees an industry standard.

There were some twists and turns in the issuance process because, every once in a while, due to human error, one in every hundred Aadhar cards issued had a problem in it—either wrong credentials, wrong physical details, or wrong location. In order to solve this problem, a whole new round of targeted research had to be done to find out which link went wrong and to identify who held the responsibility. But overall, this was not a big problem, as the person would only have to wait a few more weeks for his Aadhar card to be reprinted after verification. But what was surprising is that for every 200 or so, a person would be caught who had given fraudulent data in the past for whatever reason.

In such a way, a lot of thieves who were faking their identities and moving from one place to another were caught.

One thing about issuing Aadhar cards in this way, using the data collected on the people for the last decade, is that there is a very low chance of people lying because there is nothing to gain from lying. If they had known that the information they provided would be directly used to determine what class of family they belong to and would also inadvertently determine how much policy support they would gain from the government, they would definitely lie and make themselves look poorer. Fortunately, now there was no chance.

By the end of the month, most people were annoyed since the whole month had been hectic with the collection of the Aadhar card, right after which the voter certification exam had started, and right after which, at the end of the Year, Major newspapers both national and regional once again published news about the ration cards and tax certificates.