Chapter 276: Taking Too Big a Step
Jayalalithaa rarely appears in public, but every time she does, she always makes a grand appearance.
There were five or six armed police cars in front and behind, and Jayalalithaa herself was riding in a customized Ambassador car in the middle.
Her wealth is undeniable, but as the Chief Minister, she must sometimes lead by example.
She would not drive an imported luxury car; the Ambassador brand car, a representative of domestically produced cars, would be her standard vehicle.
Not just her, most of the Chief Ministers or politicians across India choose Ambassador car.
They need to show their patriotism at all times and are afraid that the media will photograph them using other luxury goods.
Since you can't show off your wealth with your car, then work on the appearance.
The huge convoy drove all the way to Adiva in the west, with more than a dozen police motorcycles leading the way in front.
Ron and Kaavia followed slowly behind in their BMW.
Honestly speaking, looking at this situation, someone who didn’t know would think that the Indian president was on a southward inspection tour.
Yet no one expressed dissatisfaction with this; instead, the media and the public seemed quite elated.
The roads were lined with people waving "Amma" flags, and some even had Jayalalithaa's portrait printed on their T-shirts.
"Your aunt seems to be very popular with them?" Ron slowly looked at the crowd through the car window.
"Because they actually benefited from it," Kavya shrugged, "and it also benefited from the publicity."
Jayalalithaa as the Chief Minister received a nominal salary of just Rs.
Of course she has other ways to make money, but the public doesn't know about them.
All they know is that this is the only time in the history of Tamil Nadu that the Chief Minister did not take a salary.
The most important thing is the Chief Minister. She really gave gifts, and they were the things that the people needed most.
Last time we gave away a bicycle, and no one knows what we will give away this time. Many people are already secretly looking forward to it.
Ron ran from south to north and now his horizons have been broadened.
Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, each one is more challenging than the other, and the electoral culture of each state is also very different.
In a place like Uttar Pradesh, would politicians give gifts to voters on a large scale?
Impossible. With so much money, politicians would have already put it in their own pockets.
Jayalalithaa's generosity in giving gifts to voters may seem outrageous, but in India she is actually considered a good official.
No matter where this money comes from, whether it is embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds, it will eventually return to the hands of the people.
Well, this is another way of saying “take from the people and give back to the people”.
Damn, that's outrageous.
India is such an amazing place that it always refreshes Ron's horizons.
However, Jayalalithaa's actions are actually to create her own patronage network.
Politicians, voters, and businessmen, the trinity.
Compared to Gujarat, the approach here is just a little more blatant.
Ron is the businessman, but businessmen behave differently in different states.
In Gujarat, money is spent to help local development, while in Tamil Nadu, benefits are given directly.
That’s right, this trip to Adiva City is not just a simple inspection.
Jayalalithaa started a new public program to provide free lunch to students, called the "Lunch Meal" program.
This is not just a show, but real money is being spent to advance this project.
For students in some underdeveloped areas, going to school is a burden for local families.
Although some basic education is free, when children go to school, the family loses a labor force.
Not only that, parents also have to prepare meals for their children at school, which is a loss no matter how you look at it.
Many poor families simply do not let their children go to school. They either help their parents with housework at home or go to the streets to support themselves.
If this continues, the literacy problem of the new generation in Tamil Nadu will not be significantly improved.
So Jayalalithaa launched the "Lunch Meal" program. If schools can provide free lunch, children will not have to go to the streets to make a living, and they can support themselves in school.
Poor families not only reduce their population burden, but their children also learn knowledge, killing two birds with one stone.
The initial budget of this plan is 20 million rupees, which will first solve the schooling problem in several areas near Madras.
So who pays for this money?
Yes, that’s right, it’s Sur Electric.
Before the factory is built, the reputation must be built up first.
In the words of Jayalalithaa: You have to let people know that it is you who is doing this.
She personally accompanied Ron to perform in order to help him gain popularity among all the Tamil people.
When I arrived at the local school, the process was similar to what was shown on TV.
First, he went to the classroom to comfort the students, asking them what they ate and whether they were full, and then talked to the teachers at the school about their difficulties.
Finally, he announced the "lunch meal" plan in public and won applause.
The entire process was recorded by cameras and various flashes.
Look, before the Sur Electric brand was even launched, it had already made a name for itself in Tamil Nadu.
That’s not all, Jayalalithaa has developed a series of social welfare programs for Ron.
In the following days, under her leadership, the Tamil government and Sur Electric jointly launched the "Cradle Baby" program.
In today's times, the idea of favoring boys over girls is very serious in some areas of Tamil Nadu, and has even evolved into the bad habit of drowning baby girls.
The "Cradle Babies" program will establish centers in these areas to adopt mainly abandoned baby girls and orphans.
The land is provided by the government, and the equipment and expenses of the foster center are borne by Sur Electric.
For this purpose, they went to a village called Kajulahou, where there were many families with ten children.
However, the local mortality rate for infants under one year old is 18%, which is very scary.
Among them, some died young due to environmental sanitation problems, and some drowned. The causes of death were varied.
Ron curiously asked a family if it was difficult to raise so many children.
The other party looked disapproving, "How could that be? Children can help with things, and it would be better if there were more of them."
Just by the side of the road, three children were passing by, driving a cart pulled by two buffaloes. They were three brothers and looked only five or six years old.
They were all naked, with runny noses and skin darker than that of a cow.
This village is full of child labor, and no one obeys the law.
There is also a school in the village, where children gather under the shade of trees to study. The village chief proudly introduces the school, which has five classes.
But like the three brothers pulling the rickshaw, there are many people who make a living on the streets.
In the end, Ron of course expressed his intention to donate some money to the village school.
These are all tangible good things, and have been widely reported not only in Tamil news but also in federal media.
After hearing about this, the legendary Mother Teresa came to Madras to visit Jayalalithaa and praised their charitable work.
Ron also took a photo with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The first thing Mother Teresa said when she saw him was, "Dr. Soule, you are a good man."
Well, the more you wear this halo, the more stable it will become.
After the interview, Ron, the kind-hearted man, once again became the darling of the media.
He has become a benchmark for India's new-age businessmen, creating wealth, driving industrial development, and finally giving back to society through charity.
The perfect image of an entrepreneur, the most popular reporting subject in the eyes of official media.
After a few days of excitement in major newspapers and tabloids, Ron quietly signed a contract with the Tamil Nadu government.
He took the land. He also took the port of Ennor.
Everything was just as it was said at the beginning, and no one objected.
Local newspapers even spontaneously promoted Sur Electric Appliances, and Ennore Port was described as being needed for exports. In short, the plan was perfect.
You see, after swiping a few charities, the project progressed exceptionally smoothly, without any obstacles at all.
The new factory will be constructed soon and will be located right between Madras Port and Ennore Port.
According to the plan, there will be ten black-and-white TV production lines, ten color TV production lines, and several other home appliance production lines such as juicers, rice cookers, and electric fans.
That’s right, Sur TV is ready to launch a large-scale color TV project.
The technology still comes from the University of Tokyo, where the color TV production capacity is seriously oversupplied due to price wars.
Taking advantage of the low price, Sur Electric Appliances also threw orders there.
The factory in Mumbai is already assembling two 18-inch color cable lines and is expected to start production soon.
Tokyo University's color TVs are indeed slightly inferior to those of Japan, but they are cheaper and sufficient to cope with the Indian market.
The factory here in Madras will be put into production this year if all goes well. What we lack now is only the factory building.
Equipment installation and debugging, these tasks have been cooperated by Suer Electric and Dongda for more than a year and they are very familiar with them.
Although Sur Electric Appliances is expanding rapidly across India, Ron does not have much financial pressure.
The Sur TV production line was his money-printing machine. The market was in short supply, so he sold as many units as he could produce.
The Sur Park in Mumbai already has ten production lines, eight of which are 14-inch lines and two are 18-inch lines, with a total monthly output of more than 100,000 units.
Since it was launched in September last year, by January 2006, 320,000 Sur TV sets had been sold.
After deducting various costs, the net profit is 1 billion rupees. If the revenue from water air conditioners and electric fans is added, the money in his bank account is about 1.2 billion rupees.
All of this will be used as funds for factory expansion, and Ron will hardly keep a single rupee for himself.
There's no way, there are too many places to spend money.
Gujarat will invest 100 crore rupees this year. The BJP will provide him with a loan of 500 million rupees, and he will have to pay the rest himself.
The development of the Mundra mine will also cost 400 million rupees, and Ron plans to increase cement production to 500,000 tons in the first year.
Construction has already begun on a branch factory in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, only slightly smaller than the one in Mumbai. Fortunately, the 300 million rupees was entirely a bank loan, so Ron didn't have to pay any extra money.
Tamil Nadu has the largest investment, with Sur Electric also investing Rs 100 crore, which is comparable to Gujarat.
Ennoer Port is the heavyweight. In the past few days, Ron asked an international design team to make an assessment.
If the four specialized berths and several docks envisioned by Jayalalithaa are to be achieved, the development cost would be at least $200 million.
A total of 6.2 billion rupees, this astronomical figure made Ron gasp.
Although Jayalalithaa gave him a loan of 2 billion rupees, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the huge budget.
Finally, Ron decided to build a multi-functional terminal first to get the port up and running, and then gradually develop specialized berths.
Anyway, there are still two years left. By then, Sur Electric will have spread everywhere, and $200 million should not be a difficult task.
If we calculate carefully, out of the 1.2 billion rupees, 900 million will be invested in Gujarat, in the form of branch factories and mines.
The remaining 300 million will be used to support the construction of the Tamil branch factory.
All other shortfalls, including those for ports, are temporarily covered by loans.
He took a big step and felt a little uncomfortable. Ron suddenly realized that he owed the bank 3.2 billion rupees.
In other words, Jayalalithaa did not dare to lend him 6 billion, otherwise he would have wanted to complete the Ennore Port in one go.
After finishing her official duties, Jayalalithaa returned to her role as a family member.
She invited Kavya and Ron to her house, a posh apartment in the heart of Madras.
Only here did Ron truly see another side of Jayalalithaa's life.
The ultimate in luxury.
(End of this chapter)
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