I'm a Master in India

Chapter 276: Biting Off More Than One Can Chew

Jayalalitha rarely appeared in public, but every time she traveled, it would cause a stir.

There were five or six police cars,前后 armed with live ammunition, and in the middle, Jayalalitha herself rode in a custom-made Ambassador.

Her wealth was beyond doubt, but as Chief Minister, she sometimes had to set an example.

Imported luxury cars would not be her vehicle; the Ambassador, as a representative of domestic production, was the standard configuration.

Not only her, but most Chief Ministers or politicians across India would choose the Ambassador.

They needed to constantly display their patriotism, lest they be photographed by the media using other luxury goods.

Since they couldn't show off their wealth with their vehicles, they focused on pomp and circumstance.

The mighty motorcade drove all the way west to Adiva, with more than a dozen police motorcycles leading the way.

Ron and Kavya sat in their BMW, slowly trailing behind.

Honestly, just looking at this display, one who didn't know would think the Indian Prime Minister was on an inspection tour to the south.

Yet no one expressed dissatisfaction; the media and the public, on the contrary, seemed somewhat elated.

On both sides of the road, there were people waving "Amma" flags, and some even had Jayalalitha's portrait printed on their T-shirts.

"Your aunt seems to be very much loved by them?" Ron slowly surveyed the crowd through the car window.

"Because they actually received benefits," Kavya shrugged, "and it's also due to propaganda."

As Chief Minister, Jayalalitha nominally received a salary of only 1 rupee.

Of course, she had other ways to make money, but the public didn't know about them.

All they knew was that she was the only Chief Minister in the history of Tamil Nadu who didn't take a salary.

The most crucial thing was that this Chief Minister really gave things away, and what she gave was what the people needed most.

Last time, she gave bicycles; no one knew what she would give this time, and many were secretly anticipating it.

Ron had traveled from south to north, and now he had truly broadened his horizons.

Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu—each one was more incredible than the last, and the election culture in each state was vastly different.

In a terrible place like Uttar Pradesh, would politicians give gifts to voters on a large scale?

Impossible; with so much money, politicians would have already pocketed it.

Jayalalitha's generous giving of gifts to voters seemed outrageous, but in India, she was truly considered a good official.

Regardless of where this money came from, whether it was corruption or embezzlement, it ultimately returned to the hands of the people.

Ahem, this might as well be "taken from the people and used for the people" in another sense.

Damn, it's absurd.

This godforsaken place, India, always manages to broaden Ron's horizons.

However, Jayalalitha's approach was also, in fact, building her own patronage network.

Politicians, voters, businessmen—a trinity.

Compared to Gujarat, the approach here was just more blatant.

Ron was the businessman in this role, but in different states, the businessmen's approaches also differed.

In Gujarat, it was about spending money to help local development; in Tamil Nadu, it was about directly providing benefits.

That's right, this trip to Adiva City was not just a simple inspection.

Jayalalitha launched a new public project: providing free Midday Meal for students, called the "Midday Meal" program.

This wasn't just for show; it involved real money to advance the project.

For students in some underdeveloped areas, attending school was already a burden for local families.

Although some basic education was free, if a child went to school, the family would lose a laborer.

Not only that, but parents also had to prepare meals for the child at school, which was a loss no matter how you looked at it.

Many impoverished families simply didn't let their children go to school; they either helped their parents with work at home or went to the streets to support themselves.

If this continued, the literacy rate of the new generation in Tamil Nadu would not significantly improve.

So Jayalalitha launched this "Midday Meal" program; if schools could provide free Midday Meal, children wouldn't have to beg for a living on the streets; they could support themselves at school.

Poor families reduced their population burden, and children gained knowledge—killing two birds with one stone.

The initial budget for this program was 20 million rupee, first addressing the schooling issues in several areas near Madras.

So who would pay for this money?

Well, that's right, it was Sule Electric.

The factory hadn't even started construction, but the reputation had to be built first.

In Jayalalitha's words: You must let people know that you are the one doing this.

She personally accompanied Ron to put on a show, just to help him gain prestige in front of all Tamil people.

Upon arriving at the local school, it was the same routine as seen on TV.

First, he cordially visited the students in the classroom, asking them what they ate and if they were full, then chatted with the school teachers about their difficulties.

Finally, he publicly announced the "Midday Meal" program, which was met with applause.

The entire process was recorded by cameras, and there was no shortage of flashlights.

Look, the Sule Electric brand hadn't even been hung up yet, but it had already made a splash in Tamil Nadu.

This was not the end; Jayalalitha formulated a series of social welfare plans for Ron.

In the following days, under her leadership, the Tamil government and Sule Electric jointly launched the "Cradle Baby" program.

In the current era, the patriarchal mindset in some parts of Tamil Nadu was very serious, even evolving into the evil practice of drowning female infants.

The "Cradle Baby" program would establish centers in these areas, primarily to adopt abandoned female infants and orphans.

The land would be provided by the government, and the equipment and expenses of the nurturing centers would be the responsibility of Sule Electric.

For this, they specifically went to a village called Khajuraho, where families with ten children were common.

However, the mortality rate for infants under one year old in the area was 18%, which was terrifying.

Some died due to environmental sanitation, others were drowned, with diverse causes of death.

Ron curiously asked a family if it was difficult to raise so many children.

The other party replied indifferently, "How could it be? Children can help with work; the more, the better."

Just by the roadside, three children, appearing to be only five or six years old, drove two water buffaloes pulling a cart. They were three brothers.

Each was bare-bottomed, with snot dragging, and their dark skin was even blacker than the buffaloes'.

Child labor was rampant in this village; laws and regulations were simply not followed by anyone.

There was also a school in the village, and children studied under the shade of trees. The village chief proudly introduced that there were as many as five classes.

However, like the three brothers pulling the cart, there were also many who made a living on the streets.

Finally, Ron, of course, stated that he would donate a sum of money to the village school.

These were tangible good deeds, widely reported not only by Tamil news but also by federal media.

The rumored Mother Teresa, upon hearing of this, specially came to Madras to visit Jayalalitha, praising their charitable work.

Ron also took a photo with this Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Mother Teresa's first words upon seeing him were, "Doctor Sur, you are a good man."

Alright, this halo was becoming more and more solid.

After this interview, Ron, the great philanthropist, once again became a media darling.

He had clearly become a benchmark for new-era businessmen in India, creating wealth, driving industrial development, and finally giving back to society through charitable endeavors.

A perfect entrepreneur image, the most favored subject of official media reports.

After a few days of bustling news, Ron quietly signed a contract with the Tamil Nadu government.

The land, he got it. Ennore Port, he also got it.

Everything was as originally stated; no one objected.

Local newspapers even spontaneously promoted Sule Electric, and Ennore Port was described as necessary for exports; in short, the plan was perfect.

See, after a few charitable endeavors, the project progressed exceptionally smoothly, with no obstacles whatsoever.

The new factory would soon begin construction, with its site located precisely between Madras Port and Ennore Port.

According to the plan, there would be ten black-and-white television production lines, ten color television production lines, and several other home appliance production lines for juicers, rice cookers, electric fans, etc.

That's right, Su'er Television was already prepared to launch large-scale color television projects.

The technology still came from the East, where color televisions had severe overcapacity due to price wars.

Taking advantage of the low prices, Sule Electric was also throwing orders over there like crazy.

The factory in Mumbai was already assembling two 18-inch color TV lines, expected to start production soon.

The color TVs from the East were indeed slightly inferior to those from Japan, but they had the advantage of being cheap, which was sufficient for the Indian market.

The factory here in Madras, if all went well, would start production this year; what was lacking now was simply the factory buildings.

Equipment installation and debugging—Sule Electric and the East had been cooperating on these tasks for over a year, so they were extremely familiar with them.

Although Sule Electric was blooming all over India and expanding extremely rapidly, Ron did not face significant financial pressure.

The Su'er Television production line was his money printer. The entire market was in short supply; whatever was produced was sold.

The Sur Industrial Park in Mumbai already had ten lines, eight of which were 14-inch lines and two were 18-inch lines, with a total monthly output exceeding 100,000 units.

Since its launch in September of last year until January 1995, Su'er Television had sold 320,000 units.

After deducting various costs, the net profit was 1 billion rupee; if the revenue from water air conditioners and electric fans was added, the money in his bank account was approximately 1.2 billion rupee.

All of this would be used as funds for factory expansion; Ron himself would hardly keep a single rupee.

No choice, there were too many places to spend money.

Gujarat plans to invest 1 billion rupee this year, and the Indian People's Party will provide him with a 500 million rupee loan, with the rest to be covered by himself.

The development of the Mundra mine also required 400 million rupee, and Ron planned to increase cement production to 500,000 tons in the first year.

The branch factory in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, has already begun construction, with a scale only slightly smaller than Mumbai. Fortunately, the entire 300 million rupee is a bank loan, so Ron doesn't need to pay extra.

Tamil Nadu has the largest investment, with Sule Electric also investing 1 billion rupee, similar to Gujarat.

Ennore Port was the heavyweight; Ron had an international design team do an assessment these past few days.

If it were to reach Jayalalitha's expected four specialized berths and several docks, the development cost would be at least 200 million US dollars.

Totaling 6.2 billion rupee, this astronomical figure made Ron gasp.

Although Jayalalitha gave him a 2 billion rupee loan, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the huge budget.

Finally, Ron decided to first build a multi-purpose terminal to get the port operational, and then gradually work on the specialized berths.

Anyway, there were still two years left, by which time Sule Electric would be flourishing everywhere, and 200 million US dollars should not be difficult.

Carefully calculated, 900 million out of 1.2 billion rupee would be invested in Gujarat, for the branch factory and the mine.

The remaining 300 million would be used to support the construction of the Tamil Nadu branch factory.

Other shortfalls, including the port, were temporarily all covered by loans.

He was biting off more than he could chew, feeling a bit uncomfortable, and Ron suddenly realized that he already owed the bank 3.2 billion rupee.

It's just that Jayalalitha didn't dare to lend him 6 billion, otherwise he would have wanted to finish Ennore Port all at once.

After finishing official business, Jayalalitha returned to her role as a family member.

She invited Kavya and Ron to be guests at a high-end apartment in the heart of Madras.

It was here that Ron truly witnessed another side of Jayalalitha's life.

The luxury was beyond compare.