Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

19th March 1657

Akhand Bharathiya Empire, Anuradha Puri (Sri Lanka), Economic Capital - Colombo

"Sir, there has been an invitation for you from the Royal Capital," a man dressed in workers’ overalls informed Chandrakanta Tejaswi.

Chandrakanta Tejaswi is the technical director of all silica processing plants located at Pulmoddai Beach and throughout the state of Anuradha Puri. For the manufacturing of precise lenses, the raw materials must be of the highest calibre.

Given that Pulmoddai Beach and other coastal areas in Anuradha Puri have high-quality silica sand, the state of Anuradha Puri is the main supplier of silica raw materials for the glass industry in the Bharatiya Empire, where the biggest buyer is naturally the Pillai Optics Company.

Before the raw silica sand is purchased by glass manufacturers, it must undergo certain processing, and this is managed by Chandrakanta Tejaswi, the chief technical engineer for silicon sand processing in multiple plants across Anuradha Puri.

Chandrakanta took the invitation with a curious expression, as he did not understand what would prompt the capital to send him an invitation. Even though he is somewhat important in Anuradha Puri for his work, considering the whole empire, he is very insignificant.

Looking at the letter, His eyebrows were raised in confusion, "Huh! What is this Ministry of Standards? Did the Empire have such a ministry before?" Chandrakanta was doubtful, but as he continued to read the letter, his doubts were cleared. He came to know that this was a new ministry, and it sent him an invitation.

However, he hesitated about whether to attend the so-called Summit or not because he still had a lot of work to do. He had to inspect the processing facilities in two other plants across the state. But when he saw the signature from the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry, he knew that he had no other choice but to attend.

*Sigh*

After letting out a disgruntled sigh, he immediately wrote a letter to his assistants, ordering them to handle the maintenance issues until his return. He then travelled to Colombo Port and departed for the capital.

Chandrakanta Tejaswi was just one of many who received an invitation from the capital. Professionals from all over the Empire began travelling to the capital for the nation’s first industrial regulations and quality assessment summit or IRQAS.

This summit was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Trade Commerce Industry and the Ministry of Standards. The professionals had no clue why they were invited, but since the government obviously attached so much importance to this matter, they had no choice but to attend, additionally, this was a paid trip so they had nothing to lose.

Within a few days, the parliament grounds were filled again, not because of any expo, but because of the summit.

In addition to the professionals from various industries, scientists from the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences were also invited to the summit. This decision was made by Vijay, who did not want to hand over all the power of setting industry standards solely to the professionals in the field.

He knew that while most professionals are currently unbiased, there could be issues in the future. What happens when these professionals start their own companies? Will they still be unbiased? Will they recommend standards that are more beneficial to them than to the overall industry? Moreover, there aren’t many professionals in the same field at present—fewer than a dozen in some industries.

What if these people collude to form a standard that benefits them but is harsh on the rest of the industry? What if they fool the not technically proficient ministers and officials responsible for implementing the standards? Who will take the blame then? For this reason, Vijay took precautions and also invited scientists from the Academy of Civilian Sciences.

The scientists’ job is to provide a bottom line on what can be achieved theoretically and what cannot. It is the professionals’ job to convince the scientists about why there is such a big difference between theoretical regulation and practical regulation. With this process, worries about potential discrepancies could be alleviated.

The scientists essentially act as referees for the professionals setting the standards. They ensure that the standards set are not too far from the theoretically achievable standards, while the professionals are encouraged to push the boundaries of the industry, keeping it always moving forward.

In the Parliament Grounds

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the nation’s first industrial regulations and quality assessment summit."

It was Amit Shah who began the speech. He could have left this matter to his subordinates, but he apparently wanted to make a good first impression.

The next few days passed at the summit as the industry professionals learned their roles and fully cooperated with the government.

---

While the summit was happening, Vijay was at the Royal Palace having a secret discussion with the two intelligence department directors of the empire.

"So, Selvan, Roshan, are the preparations done?" Vijay asked with a serious expression on his face.

Selvan and Roshan looked at each other; they could see intense anticipation burning in each other’s eyes. "We are, Your Majesty. Please give the order," Selvan said, his fists clenched.

Vijay nodded, satisfied with what he saw. "Well then, you both can start your operations."

Receiving the orders, excitement ran through Selvan and Roshan as they immediately got up and left.

Vijay couldn’t help but show a small arc of satisfaction on his lips. The next operation was none other than to thoroughly investigate for any corruption and dissidents within the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya. In the crackdown that had occurred a few days ago, the only intelligence department that was not investigated was the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya.

Bharatiya Sainik Pragya’s limited involvement with civilian industries was only one reason why it was not investigated; the other reason was that Vijay wanted to use the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya as a blade to first clean up the other two intelligence departments.

The Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry was only a coincidental starting point for the operations, which made the cleanup of all the bad apples in the two intelligence departments, Internal Pragya and External Pragya, possible.

But now, what Vijay had just started was like a domino effect. It could not be stopped until the final domino fell, resetting the entire playing board in the Bharatiya Empire.

---

Selvan and Roshan had already set up a joint operations unit, as they both cooperated to fully investigate the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya.

"It’s my turn now," Selvan said to himself as he eagerly went through the list of agents in the Bharatiya External Pragya and carefully examined any inconsistencies in the data.

Roshan, although not as intense as Selvan, was also eagerly reviewing all the information and setting up tasks and operations for the agents for on-field investigation.

For this joint operation, the analytical units of both intelligence departments were combined to assist in the investigation.

The eagerness of both directors, especially Selvan, stemmed from their belief that they had been treated unfairly. Although they did not harbour any great resentment toward the emperor for launching an investigation into their department, they found it uncomfortable that they were the only ones subjected to such scrutiny while no other department in the empire faced similar investigations.

They were annoyed by the amount of corruption that had been revealed in their departments, and the feeling of being targeted left a very bad taste in their mouths.

This feeling was especially more intense in Selvan because the number of corrupted agents that were revealed were mostly from his intelligence department.

Although there was nothing he could do because his intelligence department was too vast and more spread out, leaving him no choice but to defuse some of his power to his subordinates, which in turn left the agents more room to play tricks, he was still angry.

’Is it only my department that has so many scum? I am sure every department has such people. I will prove it,’ Selvan had such thoughts.

Roshan, who was in the Andaman Islands when the operations went down, naturally did not experience what Selvan did, but having learned the information after coming back due to His Majesty’s order, he was also very uncomfortable being targeted. For this reason, he stationed Deputy Director Jalandhar in the Andaman Islands in his stead.

He is currently fully focused on weeding out every vermin in the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya.

If Vijay had known the thoughts of Selvan and Roshan, he would have been overjoyed because his plan had worked.

Initially, when setting up the intelligence department of the Empire and structuring the government, Vijay set it up in such a way that there would be checks and balances in everything. For example, In the last operation, the two intelligence departments not only ensured that the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry was doing its job correctly but also inspected each other. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

In order to inspect both these intelligence departments together, he brought in the Bharatiya External Pragya as an outsider to root out the deepest rodents in the political and economic system of the empire.

It could be said that Vijay utilized the same principle for the next operation of investigating the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya. Although Selvan and Roshan knew they would be investigating the Bharatiya External Pragya, they had absolutely no clue that Vijay still had not let go of investigating their departments.

Vijay set up a system where, for core and important departments of the empire, the investigation takes place step by step for three consecutive times, each time more secretive and severe than the last.

Additionally, his design was such that, to avoid alerting the enemy during the cleanup operation, the wave of the investigation comes in various forms and is flexible regarding which departments launch the investigation.

In the current situation, the Election Nobility and Examination Council (ENEC) of the Empire are overseeing the whole process of Selvan and Roshan investigating the Bharatiya External Pragya. This is to ensure that there aren’t any interest chains combining people within these three intelligence agencies, which should never happen.

In order to provide more help to the ENEC department, Vijay had assigned the analytical wing of his personal royal guards to the Election Nobility and Examination Council and entrusted the task to Kishore Balabadra.

Vijay, back in the Royal Palace and looking at the block diagrams and decision charts he had drawn, making sure that his plans were tightly connected and he had not left out anything, let out a contented smile.

"Well, the empire’s rise will be unstoppable for the next decade after the coming months of chaos," he thought to himself, his eyes bright.

"Dada!" Suddenly an innocent voice rang out from Agni, who had walked into Vijay’s study room.

Seeing the child, Vijay happily picked up his son and went to play with him.