Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 884

Chapter 884: Informants in the Government & Minister Appointments
Vijay, who had received the report written by Vinod, was pleasantly surprised by the idea that was brought forward: a ministry with no fixed tasks but that takes on responsibilities temporarily or on a long-term, case-by-case basis.

Such a ministry he had never heard of, even in his previous life, but the idea was brilliant. If such a ministry had existed, there would have been no need for so many obsolete departments to exist, and they wouldn’t have had to be maintained just for the sake of being maintained.

“Approved…”

He wrote an edict and sent it back to the parliament. But here came his trouble: he now had to pick two new ministers for the Cabinet — one for the Ministry of Industry and the other for the Ministry of Special Tasks.

—

Since there was too much work yesterday, Vijay did not go back home to the Shaurya Royal Palace. Instead, he stayed back at the Simhasana Bhavana.

The next day,

Vijay met up with Bhaskaracharya early in the morning, sipping the freshly brewed Ooti tea, as he inquired about the progress of training the employees in Dynasty Corporation and Sriranga Industrial Tools to make them capable of operating the Kesari Steam Engine.

Hearing the reply, thankfully it looked like he didn’t have anything to worry about, since the engineers and factory workers working on the factory floor of the Dynasty Corporation—a military conglomerate of which the royal family is the largest shareholder of— mastered the operation of the Kesari Steam Engine fairly quickly, even though they only trained with a dummy, non-functional prototype.

The situation was even better in Sriranga Industrial Tools. Being technicians working with machines that manufacture machine tools, various production plants and tools required for mass production, their quality was almost catching up with intermediate engineers in some of the medium-scale industrial companies in the empire. They picked up the operation of the Kesari Steam Engine within a few hours of being taught.

“This matter should be raising some eyebrows in the media, shouldn’t it?” Vijay knew that anything new done by even one of the three military conglomerates attracted a lot of attention in the military lovers’ circle of the empire. But now all three military conglomerates were doing something sneaky; he didn’t think the media wouldn’t pick up on it and make it mainstream news.

“Coincidentally, no, Your Majesty. Apart from some interested retail investors who might have noticed the unusual flow of funds from the three military conglomerates to Sriranga Industrial tools at the same time, the rest of the people are attracted by something else.”

Bhaskaracharya took out a newspaper from his bag and handed it over to Vijay.

“Eh? How did the news spread so fast?” Vijay was genuinely confused because what was written in the newspaper was about the formation of two new ministries in the Cabinet government, as well as in state governments. Although it was mentioned that it is still a rumour yet to be confirmed, being an insider and the sole reason why the ministries are being formed, Vijay naturally knew that the news was true.

He fell into a brief thought, imagining scenarios where the news leakage could have happened. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. He looked at the newspaper and then had Ganesh fetch another one. Looking at it, everything became clear.

The newspaper that Bhaskaracharya showed him was a regional newspaper with publication only in the capital, while the national newspaper that Ganesh brought did not have any such news. Instead, it had news about rich opportunities in the new autonomous state of Kalsa raj.

Vijay’s expression turned stern as he leaned back in his chair, his gaze becoming sharp. If he was not mistaken, the news must have been leaked by informants in the government who had joined hands with local media companies for personal profits and given that the news was only published in regional newspapers, it all adds up.

“What to do…?” Vijay was in a dilemma because the formation of the ministry was no secret. By the end of the day, the government would officially make it public even without the leaks. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not a big deal since no loss happened to the government. But if he did not do anything about it just because no loss happened and, in a way, covered up for abnormalities in the military conglomerates, people would take it as an example and do it more in the future.

He thought for a while, but he did not get any idea, so he asked for Bhaskaracharya’s suggestion.

“Your Majesty, like you said, a clear line has to be drawn about what can be done and what cannot be done. Today, they only informed the newspaper company about relatively non-critical news, but tomorrow, what if they leak out state secrets? So, in my opinion, they should be removed from their post and they should be sued in court.”

Vijay thought for a while and agreed, “It can only be like this.” There was a hint of helplessness in his tone because, although using tough means can scare the civil servants and keep their crooked thoughts to themselves, it can only last for a few years. There will always be a day when the deterrence is reduced and they start acting up. Everyone knows that even with all the Intelligence Departments combined, they cannot monitor every civil servant in the empire. Knowing this truth, people will eventually become brave in the face of interest.

Unfortunately, this is a problem with no solution. He could only take up another cleaning task to get rid of these bugs from the government once in a while, just like every other department in the empire.

“Forget it, let’s put that aside for now. Have you contacted Rana Bhatia?” He rubbed his temples and took up the tea that was about to go cold.

When the Ministry of Special Tasks was proposed by the government, Vijay immediately had a person in mind to take over as its minister. And it’s none other than Rana Bhatia, the Director of Raya Petroleum, who not only took care of the two refineries, but also handled logistics work, procurement work, prospecting work, and drilling work all by himself, increasing the amount of kerosene and other crude oil byproducts produced by 1000%.

Currently, the Ministry of Special Tasks has two departments under its umbrella: the Mega Project Management Department, which handles all the government-planned and -invested infrastructure projects throughout the empire, and secondly, the Special Economic Zone Management Corporation, a new department that will be established shortly. To be the Minister of Special Tasks, although the person who will become the minister does not need bureaucratic skills, he/she should definitely have excellent micromanagement and macromanagement capabilities. And Rana Bhatia has all of it.

“I have, Your Majesty, and I have informed him of your proposal. Unsurprisingly, he agreed. He is currently on his way after handing over his post to a promising executive manager among his group of executives, called Devaratta.”

Vijay was very satisfied, “With this, the problem of selecting a minister for the Ministry of Special Tasks is completed. The only one remaining is the Ministry of Industry. This is a little tricky.”

When the cleanup operation for corrupt civil servants and intelligence agents happened throughout the empire over a decade ago, the Department of Industry was one of the hardest-hit areas. Even the deputy director of trade, commerce, and industry, who was then the director of industry, Dharmesh, was caught red-handed colluding with private businessmen to embezzle state assets.

Since then, the director of the Department of Industry has always been changing without a permanent leader. Although this ensured that the chances of corruption were reduced, the objective and unity were also dispersed, making the department less efficient than it could be.

“Um, Your Majesty, I have a candidate.” Bhaskaracharya hesitantly voiced out,

Vijay suddenly came to his senses. “Go on!”

“Why don’t you choose Jitendra Sehwag, Your Majesty?”

“Jitendra?”

“Yes, Sire. Jitendra Sehwag, during the time of the War of Unification, when most of the industries were still state-owned, was one of the people who stood out for his managerial capabilities. If it weren’t for the fact that the war had reached its climax stages, he would have already become one of the directors of the military logistics department, which at that time was a huge behemoth that even the government couldn’t shake.”

“In my opinion, Your Majesty, keeping such a talent as the director of Raya Mobility is a waste of resources. He is capable of much more. Why don’t you choose him, Your Majesty?”

Vijay’s eyes brightened. Although he wanted to laugh at Bhaskaracharya’s comment that Raya Mobility was too simple and not capable of providing enough room for Jitendra Sehwag to perform, since in the future the fate of a nation’s heavy industry would be directly correlated to its ability to manufacture automobiles, he knew where Bhaskaracharya was coming from. Without hindsight, it did look like working in Raya Mobility, a relatively famous boutique manufacturing company, was a waste of talent for a person capable of handling the logistics of millions of troops.

“It is a good suggestion. Send the offer letter and see if he is interested.”

“Right away, Your Majesty.”