Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1129

Capítulo 1129: Clever Chinese & SP Camera on sale!

16th October 1694

Ministry of Health headquarters, imperial capital, Bengaluru

A middle-aged official, who had an air of sophistication around him with his black Shearwani that was only assigned to a high-level talent within the government, stood clasping his hands and showing utmost respect in front of a silver-haired old man who sat in front of a large Ashoka Chakra.

“So? How did the event go? ” Lokesh, the Minister of Health, enquired with interest.

The middle aged man, who was a high level manager in the events department of the Ministry of Special Affairs, maintained the respectful attitude as he spoke out, ” It went better than expected, sir, not only were the Chinese traditional medical doctors intrigued by our scientific Ayurvedic methods, even the shaman priests from Africa, as well as the medical scholars from Europe who studied the methods of Volkhva, were left impressed. ”

“That’s good”, Lokesh nodded, satisfied. He knew that the emperor was doing a lot of things in order to extend the influence of the Bharatiya Empire as far as possible, so he thought, even if he was in a ministry that would not be considered influential globally, he still had to try.

Hence, he came up with an idea to host the World Ayurvedic Summit, where doctors, scientists, and scholars proficient in scientific Ayurvedic medicine of the Bharatiya Empire would hold seminars and presentations on how to logically prove if an ancient remedy works scientifically or is simply a placebo.

Turns out he succeeded,

He was in a good mood.

Lokesh once again looked at the middle-aged man and asked, ” How many people showed interest in participating in the programme? ” He looked forward with interest; this was the part which he was most curious to know.

Lokesh had been in the government for long enough to understand how to maximise the value of a policy, so when he got the idea for the World Ayurvedic Summit, he also got another idea, ‘ Since I’m going to invite all the people from around the world to showcase the scientific Ayurvedic methods of the Bharatiya Empire, it wouldn’t be too much to ask them to do the same, right? ‘ He felt like it was a very good idea, so he made a proposal and took it directly to the emperor’s office, and to his delight, it got accepted within a week.

Hearing the minister’s question, the middle-aged man stayed silent for a few moments as he remembered the numbers in his mind, and he finally responded, ” The Africans and the Eastern Europeans readily accepted, sir; they are willing to join the programme. ”

Lokesh listened with excitement. ‘ How could they not accept the offer?’ he thought, the offer he had made was simply too good to refuse, not only would the Bharatiya Empire fund the research to identify whether the ancient medicinal remedy could live up to the scientific scrutiny, but also help mass produce and sell it to all the markets the Bharatiya Empire has access to.

Not to mention, the programme promises the nation of origin would get royalties for every medicine sold that uses the medicinal remedies of that culture. The royalties were not small either. In the profits that are left after paying all the expenses, the Bharatiya Empire only gets to keep 35%, while the rest goes to the country of origin.

The middle-aged man had no idea that the minister had thought about so many things in such a short span of time, but he continued, ” But the Chinese, Japanese, and the Koreans, they showed a wait-and-see attitude. ”

“Huh, do you know why? ” Lokesh asked, his brows furrowed. The Chinese had the largest number of medicinal recipes, even when compared to their own civilisation. In a way, when he got the idea, the Chinese were the ones that came to his mind; now the main target itself is hesitating, how could this be? His fists were clenched under the bench, and they were slightly shaking.

He wished he could handle the event himself, but unfortunately, he could not since the Ministry of Health has no apparatus within its body to host an event, so it had to seek the help of the fellow ministry, the Ministry of Special Affairs, which handles all these things. He could have at least been in attendance, but unfortunately, the emperor called for a meeting to talk about investment.

Lokesh received an allocation of two billion Varaha, which will be invested in the construction of medical infrastructure and laboratories throughout Balochistan, Pashtun Pradesh, and Tibet, which was a very good thing, but doubts kept lingering in his mind about where the government got so much money. He realised that he had gone on a tangent, so he shook his head and came back to the current line of thought. The point is, he was not able to attend the event since he was in a meeting.

The middle-aged man shook his head, ” We did not, sir, but… ” He hesitated.

“But? ” Lokesh pushed on.

“I have a theory, the medical professionals from the three countries actually showed willing attitudes at first, but after the Chinese diplomats spoke with them, they showed a completely different attitude and refused to participate. ”

“If I am not wrong, the Chinese may be worried that we will steal their medicinal remedies, while the Japanese and Koreans might be waiting to see how we will deal with the Chinese for them to respond later. ”

“Hmm! ” Outwardly, Lokesh stroked his chin and leaned back, but in his heart, he was cursing the Chinese profusely and clicking his tongue repeatedly. He eventually calmed down. ” You may be right, ” he commented. ” Countries and civilisations with a lot of history tend to have their own view of looking at things thanks to their heritage. ”

Although Lokesh did not think what he was doing was stealing, since the empire was paying 75% of the profits of the actual medicinal remedy and the empire was only playing the role of a manufacturer, he had to admit the Chinese may have instinctively sensed something was wrong.

Honestly, Lokesh subconsciously knew that the Chinese were not entirely wrong, because although the Chinese would be paid 75% of all the profits that would be generated by using the recipes, further research could also be done on the basis of the recipe. The results that are generated using the research of the original recipe will not belong to the Chinese. But in order to keep a straight face and not slip up, he might have even hypnotised himself to not call it theft, but simply term it as taking advantage of a loophole.

But it looks like the Chinese were not falling for it.

“This is troublesome… Alright, I’ll inform his majesty about it. You can leave ”

Vijay had no idea that the plan of his Minister of Health had failed, but even if he knew, he wouldn’t be too surprised. From his intelligence, he could tell that the Bharatiya Empire’s action to promote Varaha as a currency for trade throughout the eastern hemisphere had already pushed a lot of buttons in the Ming Empire, so he wouldn’t expect the Chinese to send their best medical doctors just like that without a shrewd diplomat.

Financial capital, Mangaluru, Vijayanagara State, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

Vijay was currently surrounded by guests from all over the empire, even from around the world, because the first showroom for the sale of the SP camera, the Subramanyam Pillai camera, had finally opened, and he arrived as the chief guest for the opening ceremony.

The showroom was unlike anything the people had ever seen, its layout was completely different from normal shops or even the car showrooms, it was more like an art gallery with the images taken at the Olympics, the F1 racing, Deepavali, Ganesha Chaturthi, Yugadi, various city landscapes, the opening of the metro train and other important things being the centrepieces all hung around the three massive walls of the showroom.

Seetha Mahalakshmi Subramanyam, the woman who was responsible for discovering the chemical processes for capturing and developing light on silver plates, when asked if she would like to shift to the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences or even join the Pillai Research Institute altogether, Sita Mahalakshmi, after knowing that the reason why this question was asked was because of her research being used to make cameras that would be commercialised very soon, chose neither of the options but decided to start her own research institute.

Due to the sensitivity in the field she was working with, in order to protect the secrecy of her older work, Vijay had no choice but to keep the camera under lock and key despite using it extensively ever since he attended the Olympics.

Meanwhile, when Ganapatra Pillai was informed of his virtual research partner’s decision, without being disappointed, he took the opportunity to mass-produce over 10,000 units of the SP camera in order to eventually put it on sale.

“Hey, isn’t that the governor of Frankfurt?” A European merchant leaned forward in amazement, recognising a familiar figure captured in the painting of the Olympic ceremony.

“This woman is extraordinarily beautiful. Who is she?” The Prince of the Kingdom of Egypt asked with genuine curiosity, glancing at his butler as he pointed to the image of a Bharatiya athlete standing proudly on the podium.

“Wow, is this a new Metro train? It looks incredible,” the Minister of External Affairs of the Kingdom of Israel exclaimed, his eyes lighting up at the sleek silver train depicted in the artwork.

“God… is this what Bengaluru looks like from the sky? My heavens, it’s breathtaking. Perhaps this is what the Garden of Eden looked like in the legends,” murmured the Marquis’ daughter from Portugal, her eyes shining with fascination while her father stood beside her, completely helpless against her growing obsession.

“Amazing… look at the architecture. Is that the Kailasha Temple that was carved out of a mountain they speak so highly of?” whispered a Dutch envoy, nudging his colleague as he stared at another painting showing the city’s illuminated skyline.

“Is that balloon real? They actually fly those?” a young ambassador from the Polish Lithuanian kingdom asked in disbelief, captivated by the artwork depicting Hampi’s fair.

“I wonder if I can buy this painting,” Gangadhar muttered under his breath. He had arrived in the empire merely out of curiosity, never expecting to stumble upon such a stunning collection of artwork that captured the empire’s grandeur so vividly.

Vijay, seeing all this from the side, felt extremely comfortable now that he was not the focal attention around a group of people. Not that he was complaining about his normal situation, he simply felt this change was nice. With all the people busy observing the photographs and Pillai busy welcoming the guests, he casually walked around the showroom with a beverage in his hand, remembering all the things that had happened in the empire over the last few years, picturised in the form of the photos.

People say that when you are having fun, time moves quickly, and it is true. Unknowingly, an afternoon passed by, and the sky had already begun to dim.

Vijay turned his attention to Ganapatra Pillai, thinking that it was time, and sure enough, Pillai motioned to his son, Parushiram Pillai, to speak up.

“Attention please, everyone, “Parasuram, a refined young man with combed back hair, a tilak, and a white shearwani, with a light brown complexion, attracted everyone’s attention the very first time he came into sight of the high-class society.

“It is our utmost pleasure and honour, on behalf of the entire Pillai family, that our respected guests have shown such interest in these works of art. Taking this opportunity, I would also like to inform our esteemed guests that the SP Camera, the very device used to capture every image displayed on these gallery walls, is now available for purchase.”

These words immediately caused a commotion.

“Really? ” The new president of the United States of the Philippines asked with amazement.

“Butler, have we brought enough money with us? ” The son of the Egyptian king looked at his butler and inquired.

Some people even began to whisper among themselves.

Parushuram saw all this with his own eyes, and due to a lack of experience, he ended up showing slight excitement, but thankfully, he recovered quickly and motioned respectfully towards the counter.

“The sale starts right now. Guests could look at the brochure and purchase one right away. We have enough for all of you in stock. And since this is an inauguration event, we will take care of all the transportation charges for our overseas guests. ”

Vijay smirked, looking at the people. Their actions couldn’t be hidden from his eyes. They were extremely eager and restless to be the ones to purchase the camera, but in order to act reserved, no one was coming forward. In the end, with the young and somewhat headstrong prince of the Egyptian kingdom taking the lead, everyone slowly moved and arrived at the counter.

As for Vijay, he had no need to join those guys. He already had a couple of them custom-made for his family, not to mention the SP cameras were not being sold under the company of Pillai Optics, but a new subsidiary called the Clear Vision Camera Company, in which he personally took a 15% stake, while Agni took a 15% stake, with a valuation of 400 million Varaha.

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