Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

With the announcement of 20 inland industrial zones, ripples were sent throughout the northern part of the empire, which had been nothing but stagnant water without any vitality to be felt. Until now, a person from the northern part of the empire could either choose a traditional job to do, like farming, hunting, fishing, animal husbandry, and other things, or he could become a labourer for the multiple contractors who are doing infrastructure projects for the government. However, with the establishment of twenty different industrial zones, another route for the people has been opened.

Although the vast majority of the people are unlikely to benefit directly from the industrial zones, it is still a sign of change, signifying a better tomorrow.

All the new industrial zones added up barely occupy a few thousand kilometres, and the jobs they produce are bound to be insignificant compared to the huge 140 million population. But like the saying goes, drop by drop, the ocean gets filled. Although small in size, just like the water droplets, the significance of it is immense.

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The twenty industrial zones, spread across eleven different states, have become talent magnets, drawing skilled individuals from hundreds of thousands of kilometres away. Overnight, it seemed as if twenty beacons had been lit in the dark ocean of the north.

The five major banks of the empire—Bank of Aryavarta, Ahom Bank, Raya Royal Bank, Shetty and Co. Industrial Bank, and Bharatiya Southern United Bank—along with the leading investment banks, including Bhonsle Investment Bank, Bakshi Investment, Hima Investment Banking, Berunda Investment Banking, and Marco Investment Banking, acted without hesitation. As soon as the central government publicized the new industrial zones, they moved at the fastest possible speed to open branches in these areas.

To ensure they did not miss any potential customers, even before the permanent bank branches were fully constructed by contractors, temporary tents were set up to provide loan and financial services to the influx of high-class clients arriving from all over the northern part of the empire.

The villages, towns and cities near the industrial zones began to benefit greatly as the land prices soared. Unemployed rates in the local area began to go down. Small-scale farming in the surrounding areas was reduced, and northern farmers holding hundreds of acres of land were created.

Unable to handle so much land by themselves, they decided to evolve. They began to adopt large-scale farming practices by inviting professionals from the southern part of the empire to guide them, and they started renting harvesters. Eventually, after gaining experience, they even bought them, but this is something that happened in the future.

Almost within a week, all the space within the industrial zones had been bought up by private manufacturing companies, both from the southern part of the empire and the northern part of the empire.

Industrial machinery manufactured in the southern part of the empire began to be transported to the industrial zones continuously. Sri Ranga Industrial Tools, as the manufacturer of various types of industrial machinery, benefited greatly from the establishment of the twenty industrial zones.

Overnight, orders for over 60 million Varaha had been placed for different industrial tools, and the twenty industrial zones had been turned into construction sites where multiple construction firms started working tirelessly on constructing a whole new industrial town out of nothing.

The companies that were lucky and fortunate enough to buy a plot of land and gain support from local and national administrators to build the manufacturing plant had already started recruiting workers for the production plants and newly graduated engineers from the state. For the first batch of BIT University graduates, before, the only option for their job was to emigrate to the southern part of the empire since the northern part of the empire did not have a platform to utilize their skills and talent. But now, all of it has changed. With the establishment of twenty industrial zones, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being generated, with the demand for engineers reaching tens of thousands.

The universities in the northern part of the empire experienced a rare event of companies coming to the door and snatching up students even before they officially graduated.

Overall, the economy of the empire as a whole has been given a booster shot. Now that the rich resources in the northern part of the empire are being unearthed for industrial production, the GDP of the empire is only going to soar to much greater heights.

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The establishment of the northern part of the empire might have greatly benefited the northern states, but the southern states did not receive less benefit.

The creation of the industrial zones created a huge demand for certain production machinery and tools, which only companies from the southern part of the empire could produce. Filling up the sinkholes that are the industrial zones, profits of various machine tool manufacturing companies and industrial tool manufacturing companies went up by several million Varaha.

Not only that, seeing the step taken by the government, even the transition from riverbank industrial zones to inland industrial zones began to accelerate.

"If the people from the north can do it, then why can't we?" This was the thought of a few industrialists. They started to migrate inland to a location nearer to the raw material.

Large-scale enterprises like the companies owned by Pawan Kalyan, Ravi Shetty, Arjun Bhakshi, Ghana Prabhu Berunda, Ambani, and other top rich people of the empire started to increase their diversification of production plants. Before, more than 70% of their production plants were located near the water bodies, but now all of them have decided to reduce this number to 50%. They have decided to move their production companies inland and use manual, animal, and human power to turn the wheels until His Majesty's steam engine is widespread.

This move once again generated hundreds of thousands of jobs across the empire. The unemployed population drastically began to reduce, and due to northern minerals also coming into the economy, the GDP of the empire began to rise sharply.

If someone asks how the people were in the Bharatiya Empire in early 1660, then the answer would be busy. Millions of people in the empire were busy earning hundreds of thousands of Varaha for themselves for the first time in their lives and generating billions of Varaha for the economy.

In such an atmosphere, innovation was appreciated throughout the empire.

The inventions brought from this development of northern industries were many.

And Akshay Purohit, who had suddenly got an idea, was about to be one of them.

Akshay Purohit is a mechanical engineer who graduated from BIT Solanki Puri. He is among the first batch of graduates from the state. As soon as he graduated, he was employed by a company called Gaur Agricultural Tools, a manufacturer of harvesters and agricultural tools. Akshay Purohit majored in mechanical design, so the company suited him greatly.

His normal job was to make sure that the production of harvesters was going on properly, and if there was a problem with the production, he was tasked with solving it.

He was paid handsomely for his work too. He earned over 100,000 Varaha per year. He was doing quite well for himself, putting him in the higher class of society.

"This should do it," Akshay smiled as he closed the safety latch of the machine tool after he had replaced the gear, which had some cracks in it. He wiped the sweat on his face, causing a few smudges of grease on his forehead, but he did not mind. He looked towards the operators and ordered, "Start the power transmission."

"S-Sir."

In a few moments, the machine tool was soon attached to the spinning gear of the water wheel. The machine tool began to roar to life, and the production resumed.

Akshay Purohit nodded his head with great satisfaction. The sound was much smoother than before, and the gears seemed to be working smoothly.

Looking at the spinning crankshaft, glancing around at the sweating technicians, and feeling the heat in the production plant, Akshay suddenly got an idea. He immediately went to meet with the owner and submitted a research proposal. Gaur Agricultural Tools is a large-scale manufacturing company, so it does have its own research facility tasked with researching better agricultural machinery. Submitting research proposals was not something new, but when the owner of the company, Pranav Dixit, saw that the project was submitted by Akshay, he was surprised because Akshay had never been known for innovation. His strength lay in his excellent management of the production plant and hands-on problem-solving of the machines.

But still, Pranav Dixit went through the proposal and was surprised. He had graduated from BIT University himself, so he could understand the design principles, and he knew that the plan was highly feasible.

"It's a very good design, Akshay. I approve its research, but you can only work on it after work hours."

"Thank you, sir."

That evening, Akshay created a frame and mounting out of wrought iron along with a few blades made of wood. He made it slightly curved. He did not have much knowledge of aerodynamics, but he still knew the basics of curving the blades in order to direct the airflow in one direction. Next, using his expertise in gears, he installed a large primary gear and connected it with a small secondary gear to increase the speed at which the blades spun. Finally, he carefully manufactured brass bearings in order to reduce friction.

If it was before, the fan he was about to invent would have been impossible because the bearing he created could only be made with the 5th generation of machine tools. That means the mechanical fan he was about to invent might be one of the first inventions from the 5th generation of machine tools.

Akshay, looking at the fan spinning rapidly and producing a gust of air, smiled happily. But leaving the blades in the open made it feel dangerous, so he stopped the fan, manufactured an outer frame for it, and started the fan once again. To his surprise, the airflow did not reduce despite there being something blocking its path.

Pranav Dixit, getting the results of the experiments so quickly, was overjoyed. He immediately applied for a patent for the water-wheel-run mechanical fan and split the patent rights with Akshay Purohit 50% according to industry standards.

Akshay Purohit was greatly inspired by his invention and further went on to study aerodynamics and invented a few more versions of the fan. A week after he produced the industrial-scale fan, he improved the fan's aerodynamics and made it more effective. A few weeks after that, he invented a small portable version of the fan that could be hand-cranked to provide a cool breeze. A few weeks after that, he produced a fan that could be attached to the harvester so that the harvested crop could now be used to filter grain from the husk with the help of air, reducing the farmers' dependence on the natural breeze.

Surprisingly, a month down the line, a junior student from a private second-tier university actually realized that the aerodynamic shape of the fan blades could be used in other ways and invented the world's first boat with propellers.