Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Chapter 752: Five months later... (2/2)



As for the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, Rajesh, there was no change in his position either since nobody wanted to Jinx the winning streak of Bharatiya industries dominating in the world. Not to mention, with the privatisation of a lot of public assets, the private organisations blew up from 49,000 last year to over 120,000. Even the amount of exports went up from 110 tonnes worth of gold to over 130 tonnes. As for iron and steel production, with the advent and popularisation of the Devaraya Atmospheric Steam Engine, as well as the 5th generation machine tools, the amount of iron produced in the Bharatiya Empire went up from 200,000 tonnes to 320,000 tonnes. Even the steel produced went up from 30,000 tonnes to a whopping 83,000 tonnes, thanks to the convenience brought by the Kabina Converter, making it much easier to convert wrought iron and pig iron to usable steel in machinery and industry.

Minister of Communication Kumar had a very good track record as well, earning him another five years in his post. Throughout the year, he established eight thousand different police stations across the empire and added several more thousand kilometres of Arkha Dristhi Communication channel, but his biggest achievement in the year had to be being able to communicate with the Kingdom of Persia, the Kingdom of Lalishtan, and several Southeast Asian kingdoms to form a platform where letters could be transported between civilians of different countries with the post offices of different nations as a middleman.

This single policy brought him a lot of popularity among the businessmen who were planning to expand their business overseas and were making preparations.

The Minister of Education, Raghavendra Bhatt, was also hugely popular. With the privatization of schools and colleges, along with free education schemes, the number of first-tier universities increased from 20 to over 32. The total number of universities across the empire reached several hundred, with hundreds of thousands of students graduating each year and the total university student population reaching millions.

His situational awareness was widely praised. When the rapid expansion of universities led to a shortage of teaching staff, he swiftly established government-run institutes to train teachers. Seizing the opportunity, he also introduced the Teachers Qualification Examination. This not only ensured that those educating students were competent but also supported private schools and colleges by supplying qualified teachers.

The Minister of Justice, Bhuvan, did all right for himself, increasing the number of courts from 15,000 to 21,000 and increasing the number of judicial personnel from 50,000 to over 80,000, thanks to the liberalisation of lawyers and law professionals as well as the founding of ABBE (All Bharat Bar Examination), which led him to be re-elected.

For the Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar, there wasn't any competition against him either. Ever since he took office, diplomatic relations have been formed with three Middle Eastern countries and nine Southeast Asian countries. Who was more capable than him? So, he won without any surprise.

Finally, after all this, the prime minister of the empire once again fell onto the head of Vinod. People did not want to change him not only because he was directly appointed by His Majesty and everyone respected His Majesty but also because his governance and ability were top-notch.

With everything considered, there wasn't a lot of surprise in the elections for the central ministers, as the people directly voted on the familiar names as soon as they saw them on the voting list. But there were several surprises in the state elections. Taking one example: in Solankipuri, the previous chief minister, Dhamodhar Das, a favourite candidate, actually lost the election and was won by contender Narasimha Modi. When this happened, it was a great shock not only within the state but also throughout the empire. But the shock would be short-lived because several similar changes of chief ministers were seen throughout the empire.

Some more surprising election results were Arvind Kejriwal, a very popular person who got into politics after telling his heroic tale of surviving a terrorist attack with his wife Nirmala Kejriwal and son Ujjwal Kejriwal, who had gained a lot of popularity in the state of Kakatiya Puri, his home state, but still unfortunately lost despite all the popularity he had accumulated. The main reason being the focus of his campaign—who would have thought the guy, instead of campaigning for the benefit of the people, started campaigning for the benefit of the literate populace, thinking that since only the literate people are allowed to vote, he didn't have to cater to the farmers, labourers, and coolies who were still working very hard. Unfortunately, his campaign backfired, and he lost decisively against the opposition. There were more examples like him—a politician from Lahore called Rahul Ghodi and a politician from Pala Nagari (Bengal) called Mamata Poster Ji, both of whom suffered similar setbacks.

"The election process is a scam. The opposition party is buying people with their disgusting money," Rahul Ghodi screamed like a shrew in front of an interviewer.

"Women have no respect in this society. The sole reason I lost the election is because I am a woman," Mamata Poster Ji said with tears in her eyes, completely ignoring the fact that the Chief Minister of the neighbouring state Maurya Nagari (Bihar), is a woman.

Reading her reports, some people even joked that someone was cutting onions by the side, making it more convenient for the drama queen.

After getting to know the reviews she was receiving from the people and the reaction to her interview, Mamata Poster Ji threatened to have the people arrested by the Pala Nagari police. Unfortunately, she learned the hard way that the police did not only work for her—when she made unreasonable demands, she was actually detained for a few days herself. Of course, many people wanted to put her behind bars, but unfortunately, she did not commit any actionable violence that would warrant such a level of punishment.

"If this is the mandate of the people, then I will wholeheartedly accept it, and I will try to do better next time," Arvind Kejriwal, with a black scarf on his head, muttered his whole expression like someone whose hopes have been crushed, put in a blender, and turned on at full speed.

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The newspaper played a critical role for all the politicians who won against the odds and even the people who lost against the odds. Both had great examples in these elections, and even the Department of Analytics and the Department of Psychology in the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences opened research topics in order to know more about how the newspaper affected the choice of people on a micro and macro level.

Putting aside the elections, other major things that happened in the empire in the last five months include the completion of the Nakavaram Port. The port's main infrastructure had already been completed five months ago, but throughout the five months, the finishing touches had been added, and people have been appointed to their posts in Nakavaram Port, ready to take on the brunt of trade between the Bharatiya Empire and the Southeast Asian nations.

The inauguration of the port started with a container-type Guwahati-class merchant ship docking at the Nakavaram Port, loading up all the goods, and travelling to all eight coastal Southeast Asian nations the Bharatiya Empire has diplomatic relationships with.

The Nakavaram Port, built with a throughput of four million or more tonnes in mind, is ready to become the brightest pearl in the Bengal Sea.

In the past five months, a couple of innovations also took place which took the nation by storm. For one, a ship designed by the Southern United Naval Design Bureau won the hearts of all the merchants with its design and price.

Even Vijay was a little surprised because the ship designed by the Southern United Naval Design Bureau was very similar to the East Indiaman sailing ship of the British, albeit a little bigger.

For a naval vessel of 1,500 tonnes with a cargo capacity of more than 600 tonnes, a speed of 19 kilometres per hour or 10 knots, and defensive armaments of over thirty 15-kilogram calibre cannons and ten Puckle guns, and has met the standards compliance of both the BSO 50000 series and 9000 series, and a price only a fraction of the Guwahati-class merchant ships, the merchants were simply unable to resist its charm.

Oppenheimer Goldstein and Co. trading company immediately ordered 10 vessels, Brown Logistics immediately ordered 16 vessels, and VRL Logistics, who newly opened a naval shipping department, directly ordered 30 vessels, with more orders flooding in.

Apart from the invention of the Ganga-class merchant ship, four interesting inventions took place in the Bharatiya Empire.

The first one is the large mechanical clock invented by a Frontier Research Institute in the field of theoretical and fundamental physics in the Bharatiya Empire, and possibly even the world, Nalanda Institute of Fundamental Sciences, managed under the Brahma branch of the Imperial Committee, who took the lead.

Vijay was so impressed by this invention that he directly ordered a 15-story-tall skyscraper to be constructed in the capital with the clock face spanning over four stories tall.

With the invention of the clock tower, the institute also theorized and built prototypes of a large mechanical clock and a pendulum clock.

The patent for this device was immediately snapped up by Venkatapathy Scientific and other laboratories and companies.

Finally, a college student, in order to test out the principle of tension taught by his teacher, made an invention of a spring-powered toy carriage that looked a lot like the bus in Vijay's past life.

The Toy car, when pulled back and released, moved forward on its own at great speed.

This invention attracted a lot of publicity for the young man. With the help of a well-established patent agent, he was able to commercialize his invention and made hundreds of thousands and eventually millions with royalties.

P.S. I realise that if I continue to write as I did I might even wright a million more words , so ill increase the pace.

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