Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

While hell is breaking loose in the Ottoman Empire, Vijay is back in the capital, leisurely going over the reports he hadn't seen for a long time.

Vijay discovered several surprising things while he did so, for example, the major thing was ICDC Research Centre Discovery, or rather, his daughter's discovery of the effectiveness of the Immunity Warrior Plan he had initiated when he first took the throne.

Reading the experimental log and the details that transpired, Vijay was a little surprised. He knew that his plan was most likely to work because even though such an experiment had not been conducted by any nation in his last life, there were people who experimented with such things for themselves, for example, like that one man who got bit by so many snakes that he developed an antibody against almost all the snakes, which was later extremely helpful in developing anti-venom drugs that worked for the majority of snake bites.

'Maybe I should expand the scope and actually make the experiment public and clearly explain its stakes?' He stroked his chin in thought. The death rate was still something holding him back from popularising this programme that provided training to the body's immunity.

Vijay looked at Ganesh, who was helping to rearrange his bookshelf, and asked, " What do you think, Ganesh? Would you join a programme that potentially gives you a healthy body for maybe the rest of your life, but the price you have to pay is that there is a 10% chance that you will die? Would you take it? "

Ganesh stopped his actions for a few seconds and ultimately shook his head, " I wouldn't want to, your majesty, especially not when the outcome of reward is so vague."

" The way you termed it means that the benefits of the programme are not omnipotent "

Vijay didn't deny it, "Well yes, it's like training your body, working out will make you stronger, more fit and healthy, but there are some things that will still kill you, it's the same here "

" That's the crux of the problem, your majesty, since I am going to get infected by some disease anyway, then what's the point of putting my life on the line and going through with the plan? Besides, for the weaker diseases, do we not have Ayurvedic concoctions and several new drugs that are very effective? Then what's the point? "

Vijay nodded and became silent. The Immunity Warrior Plan will probably not make sense for a lot of people in the empire, just like it didn't for Ganesh, but he is not willing to stop because the Immunity Warrior Plan is the only plan in the empire currently that even remotely moves towards the betterment of human DNA.

A person living in the 18th or 19th century had a far more robust and adaptable immune system than the average person of the 21st century. Constantly exposed to dangerous plagues and germs, their bodies were forced to develop powerful defences without the benefit of modern medicine or even a clear understanding of hygiene.

The only reason people in the 21st century live longer is due to improved healthcare and powerful drugs that help the body maintain a balance with germs.

But for how long could that balance last? Germs keep evolving, strengthening themselves and building resistance to drugs one at a time. In response, stronger drugs and more advanced treatments are developed, yet all of this remains external aid. Over time, would the human body lose the ability to fight even a common cold or viral fever on its own? Although this was only a speculation that he didn't want to find an answer to, so considering the worst, a question arises, can humanity truly survive?

Vijay pondered in silence. In the end, he decided to keep the plan running in secret, though with slightly less secrecy than before, and to expand the number of participants from a few hundred to a thousand.

Maybe by the end of his lifetime, the death rate can be reduced to less than 5% so that the Immunity Warrior Programme could be spread wider.

Putting the thought aside to think about it another day, Vijay went over the other reports, like the situation in the overseas territories, where the rate of crime is steadily increasing, not because there are not enough police officers on the ground, but because there is no way to hold them accountable from so far away.

This is one of the reasons why Vijay wanted to hand over the internal control of these territories to the titled kings of the empire, as there has to be someone breathing down the necks of the civil servants for them to work properly or else corruption will be rampant.

' Maybe after the war I should make it official, ' he thought. Until now, he had only told the kings about his plans and given them options to choose the territory so that they could prepare beforehand, but he had not had them resign from their current positions in the empire and have them shift their residences permanently to the overseas territories.

But since the overseas territories now have a stable population along with the basic industries needed for sustenance, it is best to hand over the internal security concerns of these nations to the selected kings, especially since if the Ottoman Empire is defeated, the Bharatiya Empire is unlikely to go to war with anyone else for a long, long time, unless the war with the Ottoman Empire triggers something else entirely different in the future.

Even then, Vijay is not worried because the talent pool for military generals in the Bharatiya Empire is very vast, it should not be a problem to find capable commanders among the hundreds of lieutenant generals, not to mention if the day really comes where the Bharatiya Empire has to go to war, he could call up the overseas territories to the war as well, increasing the overall strength of the empire.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like it was the right decision. Without further ado, he decided he would officially hand over the internal control of the overseas territories to the selected titled kings, and would only maintain military control over them.

Moving on, Vijay could see that the devaluation of the currency is going on at a steady rate. The cost of 3.4 gm of gold has gone from 225 Varaha to over 280 Varaha. The amount of gold in the treasury has also increased by several tonnes, providing the foundation for the printing of money and devaluation.

Vijay calculated in his mind, and he nodded in satisfaction as he predicted that in utmost two or three years, the devaluation should stop at 314 Varaha, after which he doesn't plan to devalue the currency anymore and not add gold to the treasury any more than necessary.

The price of gold is already so high, and if he continues to use gold as the backing for the currency, he would inevitably end up choking the economy sometime in the future, not to mention the continuous increase in the price of gold means that it will get too costly to mine it and for people to own it.

" Decoupling from gold is definitely necessary", he muttered, making a decision, but decoupling from gold has its own problems, like people losing their trust in Varaha.

This happened in his last life as well, when most of the countries decoupled from gold after the Second World War, and it led to serious consequences. It wasn't until several weeks, if not months, that the economies recovered.

" I would have to do something similar to what the Americans did and couple the currency with energy "

The most obvious choice, considering the current situation of the Bharatiya Empire, seemed to be coal, but it is really a bad choice as it is too widely available across the world and he cannot dictate the prices of coal like the Americans did with oil.

He cannot couple it with oil as well, since the majority of the world has still not caught on to the usage of crude oil; heck, even the Bharatiya Empire has not. What the empire is doing now could only be considered as scratching the surface.

This was a dilemma he had to tackle:' Forget it, we'll think about what to do when the time comes, ' he made a decision and moved on.

The final report caught him by surprise; it was actually an intelligence report from the Bharatiya Internal Pragya about people wanting to reinstate the guild system, which existed in the past.

Vijay leaned back, falling into deep thought. The guild system was not something that is unique to the Europeans alone; it actually existed when he was enthroned, but he had to dismantle it along with Gurukuls because they were completely caste-based and not skill-based. He felt like leaving them to exist was more trouble than the advantages they brought, but now, could it be the correct time?

Even though too many people in the empire have not come out of the caste-based mindset, at least it has been made taboo to be mentioned openly in any legal and public setting.

But is this enough, though? Vijay doesn't know.

However, the advantages brought by the guild system are very tempting as well. A normal artisan, even if he comes up with something brilliant, has no way of maximising its profit due to various reasons like not having enough legal knowledge, not knowing the true worth of the invention, letting large companies take advantage of it, and most importantly, not having any backing.

But with a guild, all three of these services can be provided to the artisan, helping maximise profits, which in turn pushes more people to innovate.

Even if the matter of innovation is put aside, the guilds can negotiate on behalf of their members with industries to secure better treatment for workers.

This is something only organisations like the guilds can do, not the government. One of the reasons the basic minimum salary set by the government remains at 150 Varaha, unchanged for over a decade, is precisely because of this.

Vijay worried that making arbitrary decisions could trigger a ripple effect across the board. In the northern part of the empire, which was still undergoing construction and development, the minimum salary was actually fair. But in the southern part, it was highly unfair, as the low minimum salary is used as an excuse to keep the wages of low-level labourers very low.

With the guilds coming into existence, they could approach individual companies and negotiate on behalf of their members for the best possible pay under the existing conditions.

" That leaves me to only consider whether cliques are being formed in the guild, whether caste-based discrimination is going on, and finally, whether bribery and corruption is going on "

" Maybe I should make all the guilds semi-government institutions, with government taking the supervisory role, curbing caste discrimination, corruption, and clique formation, and leaving the managerial role to the top officials of the guild "

" Oh, and these officials should be changed once every five or six years as well, and they should be only given one term in their entire life "

Vijay wrote down all the ideas he had gotten. He decided to send it to the parliament for it to be deliberated over by the cabinet ministers to make it a bill.

P.S. Sudhanva_SH, thank you for the 3 Ice Cola gifts.

P.S. Siddhesh_Sawant_2828, I'm grateful for the 3 Ice Cola gifts.