6th February 1659


    Akhand Bharatiya Empire


    Millions of migrants continued to pour into the southern part of the empire, seeking job opportunities and hoping for a better living. Meanwhile, agricultural real estate in the northern part of the empire continued to be acquired by southern elites looking for high-quality, stable investment projects.


    Within a span of four months, nearly 400 agriculturalpanies were established. The rate of establishment for these agriculturalpanies was so rapid that itpletely dwarfed the number ofpanies emerging in any other industrial sector. All these agriculturalpanies, with the sole aim of producing crops on thergest and most efficient scale possible, own or at least control significant amounts ofnd. Even smallerpanies, established by a few middle-ss individuals, control several hundred acres of farnd, whilerger ones, like the Southern United Agricultural Company founded by the Kalyan family and its coborators, control nearly 4,000 acres in a single state. Currently, there are a handful of suchnd moguls in the empire.


    As the influx of capital into agriculture deepened, a few changes began to take ce.


    The division of interests, previously vague, was now clearly outlined afterrge-scale farming was introduced in the northern part of the empire. As a basic temte, each plot ofnd can be considered a separatepany or a subsidiary of apany. All thend within these plots is owned by thepany, while thendowner holds a percentage of stake in it. This percentage is dependent on the value of thend contributed to thepany.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    In this way, 90% of the agriculturalpanies'' shares are held by thendowners, while the remaining 10% is held by the managers and operators of thend, in most cases the farmers who actually work on thend.


    This division ofbour and a more streamlined approach to farming led to a further increase in capital influx due to reduced risk for the stakeholders. Given that there was no reaction from the government to this situation, even those hesitant to get involved in this profitable venture began participating, elerating the speed at which Southern capital infiltrated the north.


    In the end, although the overall economic impact was positive—since it increased per capita grain production and reduced thebour required for the same grain production—it, unfortunately, left many people without jobs and livelihoods.


    This situation became so intense that the number of migrants pouring into the southern part of the empire had actually surpassed the predictions made by the Research and Analysis Wing of the Emperor''s office by a full 1.3 million people. Such a situation immediately startled many sensitive and influential people in society.


    They immediately knew that things wouldn''t remain peaceful if migrants from the north continued to pour into the south. The matter even rmed various chief ministers of the states, who had received increasingints of public security crises from their policemissioners.


    Fortunately, with the Mega Projects Construction announced by His Majesty, all dissatisfaction was immediately suppressed.


    ---


    Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences, Auditorium


    Therge hall in the central part of the campus of the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences was visited by many constructionpany owners and professionals in the construction field.


    A hesitant middle-aged man and a confident young man with a schrly temperament entered the campus along with all the other business owners.


    "Manas, do you think we can snatch a few projects?" the middle-aged man asked with a worried expression.


    Manas shook his head, "Don''t worry, Director, haven''t you already read the newspaper? The two projects proposed by His Majesty are massive in scale. Even if we cannot take over arge part of the project, it should be no problem taking a small part and making some profit," he said as he patted the middle-aged man''s shoulder,forting him.


    However, the middle-aged man did not look reassured. "But you can already see all these people around you," he said, pointing at the Construction Industry professionals attending the event just like them. "They are in this industry too, and some are much more experienced than our ownpany. Do you think we canpete with them?"


    The young man immediately fell silent after hearing this; naturally, he could see all the people around him, most of whom were hispetitors. But as a graduate of the Bharatiya Institute of Technology, majoring in civil engineering, he was extremely confident in his abilities.


    "Don''t worry, boss. Even though weck a lotpared to mostpanies when ites to experience and scale, we are actually much ahead of them in technology, especially the new construction technologies developed using cement."


    The middle-aged man''s eyes immediately lit up, and he looked at the young man with anticipation and appreciation. He couldn''t help but feel that he had made the right choice when he decided to go against his wife and give out 20% of thepany''s stake to a young man who had just graduated from BIT University. Even though graduates from BIT University are highly valued wherever they go, they are still not considered valuable enough to readily give out a 30% stake inpanies, especially asset-heavypanies like construction firms.


    But the middle-aged man''s foresight seemed to be right; even though he had not yet proven hispany''s capability, he could already tell that the quality of the buildings and the technology utilized in hispany had already surpassed most small and medium-scale constructionpanies in the empire.


    He was even more amazed to find out that the techniques used by hisbourers, under the instruction of the chief engineer, were the same techniques utilized by the Kalyan constructionpany—the secondrgest constructionpany in the empire, second only to Shetty Construction Company, a fully owned enterprise of the Shetty family.


    "That''s right, Manas, I almost forgot! With your technology, it should be easy for us to secure a few contracts, hahaha," the middle-aged man suddenlyughed out loud in happiness, attracting the attraction and weird gazes of the people around him.


    However, the attention on the middle-aged mansted only a little while, as the real sharks of the construction industry—Shetty Construction Company, Kalyan Construction Company, Bhonsle Construction Company, and finally, thetest underdog who had caught many by surprise, Singha Construction Company, an enterprise directly under the Ahom royal family—entered the campus.


    Ravi Shetty and Pawan Kalyan soon met each other and greeted cordially. Rana Pratap, the director of Bhonsle Construction Company, humbly went over to greet the two big shots in the construction industry. Finally, the three of them were joined by Vignyan Borphukan, a personal aide of the Ahom Raja Jayadhwaj Singha and the second son of the famous general Lachit Borphukan.


    Due to their respect for the general and Raja Jayadhwaj, even though in terms of industry standing, the Singha Construction Company does notpare in scale to any of the top three constructionpanies, the big shots greeted the young man one by one.


    "Wee, Mr. Vignyan. I believe this is the first time we have met. Let me introduce myself; I am Pawan Kalyan, Chairman of the Bharatiya Southern United Bank and the Director of Kalyan Enterprises."


    "I am called Ravi Shetty."


    "Hello, I''m called Rana Pratap."


    "..."


    In this way, as the big shots in the industryughed happily among themselves and showed the newbie the ropes, everyone gave way and let them pass, as no one wanted to interrupt or disturb their conversation.


    A few meters away, there stood the middle-aged man and the graduate from the Bharatiya Institute of Technology, looking at the top yers in the industry with admiration and even a hint of envy in their eyes.


    The young engineer, Manas, firmly clenched his fist, vowing to one day reach their position and even surpass them.


    ---


    Everyone got seated in the auditorium, and to everyone''s surprise, there were actually quite a lot of ministers and even a few unknown faces sitting at the top of the stage.


    The crowd eventually quieted down silently waiting for the conference to begin


    With a prayer wishing for prosperity from the primary god Ganesha, the tender conference officially started. Unexpectedly, the Minister of Standards, Amit Shah, took the dais. This was because not only did he have the least to inform among all the people present, but he also had the loudest voice and the best public speaking skills of all the ministers in the auditorium, well, except the Prime Minister, who sat quietly reading some documents.


    "Good morning,dies and gentlemen. I believe all of you are doing well," Amit Shah smiled while looking at the crowd. "I know that all of you are unwilling to listen to my hour-long greeting, so without wasting any time, let''s get straight to the point."


    There were a few chuckles in the crowd, as almost everyone present had once or twice witnessed the spirited speeches of Amit Shah, leaving them with a strong impression of his style.


    "The government intends to build two mega projects in the southern part of the empire, namely the Great 3 Nadhi Canal project, aimed at connecting the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal in order to solve the naval transportation problem between the East Coast and the West Coast, increase economic development in the ind areas of the southern part of the empire, reduce the risk of floods in the three major rivers of the southern region, increase irrigation in the states of Chpuri and Cheranadu, enhance the regional connectivity of the isted state Cheranadu, and other reasons."


    "Secondly, it is a railway construction project where each state within the southern part of the empire will have a dedicated railway transportation corridor, used only to transport cargo between one important part of the state and another at the fastest speed, without having to experience the hassle of road transportation."


    "So, ultimately the two massive projects are divided into 4 stages and 8,300 individual segments."


    "The official investment for both these projects together is 1,070,588,235 Varaha."


    *Gasp!*


    Exmations were immediately heard throughout the auditorium. Even though most of the people were elites of society and normally maintained public etiquette of not making any noise during a public speech, they were still too shocked to hold in their voices.


    "It''s really a massive project," Pawan Kalyan said to himself with a hint of expectation and eagerness on his face. When he read about the mega projects mentioned in the newspaper, he had only thought that it would involve the construction of a few more roads and a small canal connecting the three rivers in the central part, centred around the city of Coimbatore. But now, with the amount of resources put forward by the empire, Pawan Kalyan immediately knew that things were not so simple.


    Amit Shah Was satisfied by the reactions he had gotten, however unfortunately, he felt a little upset since he could not continue anymore .


    "More details about the project will be exined further, but let me end my speech by saying that all the construction projects and all thepanies present here should work ording to the standards set by the Ministry of Standards and follow the protocols and regtions set by the Bharatiya Standards Organisation."


    "Thank you all."


    There was a brief apuse as Amit Shah left the dais and took his seat. The auditorium soon became silent, hoping that Vinod would take the stage and guide them through the information and procedures of the massive tender, but it was actually a schrly middle-aged man who showed up.


    Everyone looked at each other with confusion, especially the big shots in the front row, as even they, who have a wide range of contacts, could not recognise the man.


    To be continued...