Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

The auction was quite surprising, as out of nowhere, three new players emerged and became partners of the royal family.

To keep the process fair, Vijay had come up with a formula to score each bidder and decide the winner of the auction. The company with the highest score would naturally win.

The score was based on three main factors. The first was the technical ability score, rated between 0 and 10, which measured the company's technical strength and capability. The second was the investment score, also rated from 0 to 10. This score was calculated by dividing the bidder's investment by the highest bidder's offer and then multiplying by ten to get a normalised score. The third factor was the reliability score, again between 0 and 10, based on the company's trustworthiness and track record.

Each of these factors carried a different weight. Technical ability was the most important, so it carried a weight of 0.4444, investment carried a weight of 0.3333, and reliability carried a weight of 0.2222, all weights adding together making 100%. The sum of the variables multiplied by the weights determined the final result, and the company with the highest score walked away the winner.

Without any surprise, the first winner of the auction was Aakarsh Carriages, the biggest carriage manufacturer of the empire, with a reliability score of seven and a technical score of 8, and with an investment of 35 million Varaha, Aakarsh Carriages was easily able to get a score of 6.5687.

The second winner was Gaur Agricultural Tools with an investment of 40 million Varaha. As for its technical abilities and reliability, there was no doubt that both were 8 points. In terms of reliability, it is even a point higher than Aakarsh Carriages due to Gaur Agricultural Tools primarily focusing on the agricultural market, which requires much more durable machines than other industries.

It is the third winner that came as a surprise. It was a company formed by Hima Investment Firm and Behrunda Investment Firm after acquiring and merging several high-quality manufacturing companies throughout the empire, called the Hima and Berunda Industries. Although their technical ability and reliability scores were only 5 and 5, the investment was a whopping 80 million Varaha, the highest in the auction, almost doubling the values of every other bidder, so this was the only bidder to get a whole 10 out of 10 in the investment variable. Hence, even though their technical abilities and reliability were questionable, due to the high investment alone, the score was able to reach 6.666.

As for the 4th and 5th winners, it was a little unexpected but not surprising, as it was Surya Carriages, the second-largest carriage manufacturer of the empire, and Mengal Carriages, a new and up-and-coming carriage manufacturer based out of Balochistan, who have been making waves in the western part of the empire for boutique, reliable carriages that are extremely durable and built for the desert.

With an investment of 40 million Varaha, a reliability score of 9 points, and a technical ability score of 8, Surya Carriages was able to get a score of 7.2215.

As for Mengal Carriages, they had the lowest investment of only 29 million Varaha, but when it came to technical abilities and reliability, the engineers who were analyzing all the details of the companies in the back of the auction room were shocked to discover that the quality of carriages made by Mengal Carriages was equivalent to the quality of Raya Mobility carriages, and in the desert areas, it was even better than Raya Mobility.

So with a score of 9 for technical ability and 9 for durability, the highest ever in the auction, despite the lower investment, the score was able to reach 7.2076.

After the auction ended, the matter of the stake was discussed. Thankfully, Vijay had provided a formula for this as well, so Bhaskaracharya did not have to go through any negotiations.

The formula was simple; it was the maximum stake that was 49% minus the score divided by 10, and the whole thing multiplied by the maximum stake minus the minimum stake, which is 25%.

Using this formula, Vijay was able to obtain 33.2% stake in the newly formed Aakarsh Mobility, 32.2% in the newly formed Gaur Locomotive, 33% in Hima and Berunda Industries, 31.7% in Surya Corporation, and finally, 31.7% in Mengal and Brothers.

After the auction, all five winners left. They were in a hurry to quickly set up the factories; the faster they are able to build the body of the locomotive, the faster they are able to recoup their investment.

" Oh, Shiva, how was this thing even designed? How can we even build it?" The chief engineer at Aakarsh Mobility exclaimed. He was pretty excited when he was transferred from Aakarsh Carriages to Aakarsh Mobility, thinking that he would have more prospects in this new company, but after seeing the design drawings, he did not know if his choice was correct or not.

With over 3 thousand parts in the locomotive alone, he didn't know where to start.

Aakarsh, who observed his chief engineer from the side, furrowed his brow.

" Is building this impossible? " He asked, worried. He was already hesitating whether to get into this new field, but after looking at his chief engineer, his doubts became heavier.

" That's not it, sir," the middle-aged man with dishevelled hair and black spots shook his head.

" Technically, we can manufacture each and every part in this schematic, as none of these have parameters that the machine tools cannot manufacture, but the problem is each and every part is unique. The amount of repetitions in the locomotive is extremely small, so in order to completely manufacture the locomotive, we either have to employ thousands of skilled labourers to manually machine out each part by hand or set production lines for each and every part."

" Hmm," Aakarsh finally understood, " in that case, let us contract out the smaller parts to the 3rd party manufacturers. We can set up production plants for those larger and core parts ourselves."

Over the next few weeks, A miracle took shape as a whole new industrial chain solely based around manufacturing parts for the locomotive was brought into existence.

Aakarsh Mobility, based out of Satavahana, Gaur Locomotive, based out of Gangapuri, Hima and Berunda Industries based out of Kakatiya Puri, Surya Corporation based out of Solanki Puri, and finally, Mengal and Brothers based out of Baluchistan, all became the heart of the industrial chains in their home states.

Iron and steel from Gangapuri Special Industrial Zone poured into these newly emerging industrial chains like water being sucked into the roots of a tree. Nourished by these core manufacturing companies, several small-scale manufacturing companies simultaneously emerged like bamboo shoots after rain, manufacturing smaller parts for the locomotive.

Driven by this new industry, the profits of the mining company surged as the demand for iron and steel exploded. Over the coming weeks, the Kolkata Stock Exchange and Mangaluru Stock Exchange saw a rise of 9 to 15%, all because of the rising profitability in the iron and steel industries.

Additionally, the GDP of the states where the locomotive manufacturing companies existed began to surge. The surge was not very noticeable in most states since the money brought in from the economic stimuli by the locomotive manufacturing companies was too little when compared to the economy, but this was extremely noticeable in the state of Baluchistan, a state that was known for its minerals, coastal trade, and tourism.

Driven by the first-ever manufacturing industrial chain in the western part of the empire, the coastal region of Baluchistan was like a beacon attracting college students from the western region of the empire. Even new graduates from the neighbouring states of Sindhu, Pashtun Pradesh, and the new state Kalsanagri began to sign up for jobs in Baluchistan.

Additionally, industries connected with manufacturing and job seeking began to blossom, like the human resources companies, logistics companies, catering companies, insurance companies, and many other companies.

It was as if the locomotive manufacturing industry had poured new life into the state of Baluchistan and its surroundings, which were traditionally at the lowest point of the contempt chain in the hierarchy of the empire.

Of course, being the main organisation responsible for all the changes, the Raya Mobility Group, based in Nagpur, has put all the resources available in its control into the manufacturing of Balvaan B-2 engines.

Similar to the locomotive, the engine itself had thousands of moving parts, and each of these parts had different specifications and different ways of manufacturing it, but Vijay could not do what the private enterprises did and contract the parts to third-party manufacturers because inherently it is risky, since any part, no matter how small, in the engine is unique and highly confidential.

So he decided to use the dumb approach and transferred all the skilled labourers from his other industries who were simply doing repetitive work into Raya Power Company and had them individually manufacture each and every part using the machine tools for the Balvaan engine.

Although this method of manufacturing was not as efficient as placing a production line and simply using a conveyor belt-type manufacturing method, it was reliable and easier to maintain secrecy.

With the current pace, one Balvaan B-2 engine could be manufactured in a month, but with the workers getting more proficient, it should be able to reach two or three in a month. So by the end of the year, Vijay can expect there to be at least a dozen trains put in service throughout the empire.

The Giriraj train alone has completely revolutionised the transportation of military supplies from Nagpur to Europe, where the time has been cut down by a whole week, and the capacity has increased by several hundred tonnes. He wondered how things would be if all the tracks laid down in the empire had trains running on them. Thinking about it alone made his spine tingle.