Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 802: KSE: Kolkata Stock Exchange & Street Lamp

Kolkata, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

The city centre of Kolkata was unusually bustling with activity. A large area in the central location had been evacuated. Hundreds of carriages were parked in a neat line, while people, all wearing exquisite clothes, walked towards the city centre.

The king of Ahom, Raja Jaya Dwaj Singha, was talking and laughing with the five largest shareholders of the Bank of Aryavarta.

Today was the day when the foundation for the Kolkata Stock Exchange, the second-ever stock exchange in the Bharatiya Empire, would be laid down.

Soon, Jayadwaj noticed a figure in the crowd.

"Mr. Badradri, hello! How are you doing?"

Badradri Ramachandra, the Director of the Securities and Commerce Exchange Commission, a board focused on monitoring the activities of the stock market, came forward with a kind smile on his face.

"Congratulations, Your Highness. You have finally set up the stock exchange for the people in the northern part of the empire."

"Haha, thank you, sir. But the credit is not all mine. My friends here have also been a great help."

Badradri Ramachandra immediately turned his attention to the neatly dressed, middle-aged men beside Jayadwaj Singha.

looking at them, he smiled Apologetically,

"Oh yes, sorry, my mistake. How can I forget the five major families behind the Bank of Aryavarta?"

"Mr Sisodia, Mr Chauhan, Mr Paramara, Mr Bundela, and Mr Tomar, I hope you can forgive me."

"Oh no, Your Excellency Badra, what you said is indeed the truth. It was His Highness Jaya Dwaj Singha who was instrumental in making the stock exchange possible. If anyone Apart from his highness Jayadwaj Singha deserves the credit, it can only be His Majesty and the Raya Royal Bank—not us."

The chat continued between the big shots of the empire. After a while, there were exclamations as a carriage carrying the emblem of the royal family, escorted by the Royal Guards, slowly came to a halt in front of the construction site.

Vijay, getting out of the carriage, smiled and immediately congratulated Jayadwaj as well as the major families behind the Bank of Aryavarta.

The Kolkata Stock Exchange, similar to the Mangaluru Stock Exchange, was a stock exchange founded by three different banks: namely, Raya Royal Bank, Bank of Ahom, and Bank of Aryavarta.

Almost half of the stocks of the Kolkata Stock Exchange are set to be made public. 15% are said to be allocated to industry professionals as well as board members, who will be rotated throughout the year. 4% will be allocated to executives of the stock exchange who will be in managerial positions, handling the logistics of the stock exchange, while the remaining will be shared between the three banks.

Raya Royal Bank is currently the only bank that has stakes in both the Mangaluru Stock Exchange as well as the Kolkata Stock Exchange, being the only underwriter in the empire capable of listing any company throughout the empire.

"Please, Your Majesty," Jayadwaj Singha Ha handed over a coconut to Vijay respectfully.

Vijay picked up the coconut with one hand and immediately smashed it down on a rock.

"Clap!"

"Clap!"

"Clap!"

Cheers and claps broke out from the people watching the inauguration ceremony with bated breath.

Vijay once again congratulated Jayadwaj Singha as well as the five noble families, after which he quickly left Kolkata. On his way back, he visited Chittagong and inspected the eastern refinery, which had been put into use. After being satisfied with the operation, he returned to the capital for the qualifiers of the Pro Kabaddi League.

---

In the meantime,

Imperial capital Bengaluru,

Abhimanyu Desai, the Chairman of Bengaluru Panchayat after receiving the news about the completion of the kerosene street lamps research by the Kartavya University, immediately set off on his carriage to inspect the prototype.

Abhimanyu was soon at the main door of Kartavya University. To his surprise, Siddegowda, the director of the university personally welcomed him to the University.

Abhimanyu had never been to Kartavya University despite it being only 10 to 15 kilometres from the city centre, but now as he was looking at the facilities of the university, he was quite impressed. Although he could tell that the facilities were not as complete as in the Bharatiya Institute of Technologies, he could tell by the qualifications of the teaching staff he had met, who were all graduates from BIT universities at a relatively high ranking during his tour, that the quality of Education wouldn't be any less, he realised the great ambition of Siddegowda, especially after he met with two of the first foreign exchange students in a private university of the Bharatiya Empire.

"Sir Chairman, the students are ready with their demonstration. Shall we proceed?" Siddegowda humbly asked as he gestured and led the way.

Abhimanyu looked at the chubby middle-aged man who wasn't very tall with a hint of admiration in his eyes as he followed behind him.

Entering the large laboratory, he met with a group of final-year students who greeted him with nervous expressions on their faces. Abhimanyu was a person with rich social experience after all. With a few light-hearted jokes, he managed to calm down the students greatly.

He looked at the lighting pole that looked at least two metres tall, from what he could tell in approval. He did not know if it would work or not, but from the looks alone—which had ornamentation like lotus, peacocks, and other motifs—the lamp pole looked very exquisite.

"Please introduce it to me," he said as he spread his hands and motioned towards the street lamp.

A brave girl who was wearing a pair of glasses stepped forward with a confident expression.

"Chairman, this is the Vishwaranthi Kerosene Street Lamp we have managed to design."

"Vishwaranthi, meaning ' rest ', it's a good name," Abhimanyu commented silently as he continued to listen to the young woman.

"The body of the pole is made up of wrought iron. However, it could be painted with black lacquer in order to make it corrosion-resistant. Research is going on in the empire for anti-corrosion paints, and anti-corrosion varnish, when these are available, we can replace lacquer with it."

"The lamp is enclosed with heat-resistant glass panels in an orthogonal brass frame."

"The fuel is naturally the refined kerosene."

"It has a fuel tank on the base which could hold up to 1.5 litres at a time."

"The street lamp has a burn time of 10 to 12 hours in continuous operation."

"It is a dual-wick flat burner with a wheel shielding chamber. It uses a manual spark ignition using a flint wheel mechanism used in older guns and a brass lever."

"It is capable of giving 80 to 100 Aman's of brightness."

"One minute," Abhimanyu suddenly stopped the woman. "Aman??" He had never heard of such a unit of measurement before. Even though he wouldn't consider himself an intellectual, he'd still cleared his pre-university examinations and he was almost admitted to a BIT university.

The girl immediately understood the confusion. "Aman is a unit of measurement that has recently been introduced by the Bharatiya Standards Organisation."

"It's a unit of measurement to measure how bright the light is."

"It was invented by a BIT Warangal University professor called Aman Krishna."

"Basically, he took a candle with the most reliable brightness and made it a standard for measuring the brightness level of other lights."

"The candle he chose is equal to 10 Amans, meaning the brightness of the kerosene street lamp which we have developed has a brightness of 8 to 10 such candles."

Abhimanyu was pleasantly surprised, "Is that so? In that case, the brightness is not low. Please continue."

"Yes, and on the top side, we have a copper vent with a conical rain hood and side louvres for ventilation."

"We have attached a hinged panel for refuelling and wick trimming."

"It has a four-legged iron pedestal base structure which will be embedded into the stone platform. It's the anti-theft locking system which we have come up with."

"Its wick has to be trimmed and the fuel tank has to be refuelled once a day, while full maintenance cleaning has to be done once every 7 days."

"And finally, its material costs reach 1500 Varaha, but with the channels of the government and if the parts are mass-produced, it can be reduced to one thousand Varaha or even more."

The next moment, the procedure to operate the street lamp was practically shown to Abhimanyu by the students.

A few boys in the group started to run their hands across the pole to check whether there was structural damage in the pole, after which, only a few feet from the ground, the brass maintenance panel was opened, in which he saw the fuel tank as well as a rotating gear mechanism. He didn't immediately understand what it was for, but after seeing the operation, he quickly understood.

The gear mechanism was then turned and the wick, which was at the top of the pole, was soon unwound, after which the boys cut the end of the wick.

The fuel tank was refuelled with kerosene, after which the flint wheel mechanism was used to ignite the wick.

"Keep in mind, sir, the lamp can also be ignited when the wick is on the top since the flintlock mechanism is designed to work there as well, but it's recommended to light up the lamp before sending it up, since the brightness level can be adjusted more accurately."

Abhimanyu nodded in understanding.

The wick visibility was adjusted using the gear knob to alter the intensity of the flame, after which the wick was sent to the top.

Finally, the lock hatch was closed.

Abhimanyu was more than happy with what he saw, so he made a report of the street lamp design and sent it to the Emperor's office, waiting for His Majesty's reply.

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