I'm a Master in India

Halus, how much money do we still have in our accounts?

Several banks combined, it's about eighty million... but we need to set aside enough for two months of operating costs.

Halus, who was in charge of finance, tapped away on the calculator. Two minutes later, he looked up. "Sixty million. Any more and Sur Electrical Appliances' cash flow will be at risk."

Sixty million rupees. This was the profit of Sur Electrical Appliances over the past six months, tax-free.

This was thanks to Herulu's "import substitution" policy, which encouraged domestic Indian companies to fill the gaps left by foreign technology.

Ron's Sur Electrical Appliances belonged to the "first-tier" industries designated by the government, allowing it to enjoy certain tax and loan benefits.

In New Delhi, the Congress Party still held a dominant position, and this incentive policy remained effective.

"Prepare this money. It will be needed soon," Ron instructed him.

"Boss..." Halus hesitated.

"Speak your mind."

"Have you run into some trouble?" he asked cautiously.

"Why would you think that?" Ron asked, surprised.

"Mumbai has been very chaotic lately, you know. Those gangs specifically target rich people. They extort and do all sorts of evil."

"So you're worried I'm being extorted?" Ron laughed.

"The news is reporting that those gangs are getting bolder lately. I heard it's all instigated by Dawood behind the scenes."

"Dawood? Wasn't he already wanted by the Indian government?" Ron had heard Ajie mention him.

"He fled north," Halus said mysteriously.

"You mean Babayang?" Ron was a little surprised.

"Yes, the Indian government forced Dubai to hand him over. He didn't dare stay there anymore and could only flee north."

"It seems Babayang's support was indeed behind the Mumbai bombings."

"The news says the same thing. In short, Dawood is now acting recklessly. Everyone outside is saying he's deliberately seeking revenge on the Mumbai government."

"This guy is a lunatic. Why do his subordinates still listen to him? Their boss is practically a traitor."

"Boss, Dawood's gang are all herdsmen. Do you expect herdsmen to be patriotic?" Halus wasn't surprised at all.

In his eyes, or rather, in the eyes of most Hindus, it was impossible for herdsmen to be patriotic.

No matter where they were, herdsmen were first and foremost herdsmen. The country and nation were secondary to them.

They valued their religious beliefs too much, which blurred the concepts of country and nation.

Ron didn't know if this was prejudice, but most people around him thought this way.

"Don't worry, no gang in Mumbai is foolish enough to cause trouble for me," Ron said, waving his hand dismissively.

He had a deep friendship with Hadkhan and could also speak in front of Thackeray. Both the underworld and the legitimate world gave him some face.

Extortion, no matter what, wouldn't come to him. Those gangs weren't stupid.

Halus slapped his forehead. He had almost forgotten his boss's formidable reputation in Mumbai.

"Boss, you're a good person. The gangs won't make things difficult for you either."

"Alright, go get Ashish," Ron waved his hand.

Soon after, Ashish, looking eager, entered the office.

"What did the workers in the slums say?" Ron asked.

"They're overjoyed!" Ashish guaranteed, patting his chest. "A staff community at the Sur Electrical Appliances factory is something many people wouldn't even dare to dream of."

"That's good. This way, our chances are a bit higher."

Over 200 acres of land was enough for Ron to build a Sur Electrical Appliances park.

Within this park, besides the factory buildings, office buildings, and R&D center, there would also be supporting facilities like employee dormitories.

Workers could move into the employee dormitories by paying a certain rent each month, with the money directly deducted from their salaries.

Compared to the current wooden shacks, brick buildings were naturally much more appealing.

They wouldn't be bothered by intermittent water and electricity anymore, nor would they have to fear their legal slum suddenly being shut down one day.

The only drawback was the slightly higher rent, but it was all worth it.

People in the slums yearned for a fixed place to live, a home-like residence.

For them, moving into a building was equivalent to achieving a class leap.

Moving from the bottom to the middle class was a dream of several generations.

"The troublesome part is the illegal slums," Ashish said, a bit troubled. "They are unwilling to leave."

"Even if the legal slums move out?" Ron frowned. "Without the workers' consumption, how will they survive?"

"That's still better than being homeless. They will never go back to being sidewalk dwellers."

"What about the Municipal Committee?" Ron thought of Kallner, the "King of Demolition."

"They can't demolish a slum of twenty or thirty thousand people all at once. They don't have that many people," Ashish reminded subtly.

There were too many people. If they acted forcefully, protests and demonstrations would be the mildest outcome.

It could easily trigger riots, which was something neither the Municipal Committee nor Ron wanted to see.

Alright, Ron hadn't expected that one day he would also have a headache over the slum issue.

Perhaps he should have driven those people away in the first place, but it was difficult to do. Because that wasteland didn't belong to him, he didn't have the authority.

"This matter can only be resolved by the Mumbai government. Let's plan our internal issues first."

Ron decided to make it one of the later negotiation terms. Relying solely on him, it would be difficult to move a slum of tens of thousands of people.

It would be great if there was a solution that satisfied both sides. He also didn't want to be on the opposite side of the slum dwellers.

Putting aside this worry, Ron called an official from the Urban Development Bureau.

This kind of large-scale land transaction was no longer something the Municipal Corporation could decide on its own.

As expected, after asking a few questions, Ron's brows furrowed even deeper.

The land he wanted was too large, requiring coordination among multiple departments: the Municipal Corporation, the Urban Development Bureau, and the Housing and Regional Development Authority.

Who could command so many public departments at once? Only the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Damn it, Ron was about to clear all the big shots in Mumbai.

Unfortunately, Chief Minister Sharad Pawar was not in Mumbai at this time. He had recently been residing at the ministerial residence in New Delhi.

Ron also inquired about the transaction price of industrial land in Mumbai. Taking the area near Sur Electrical Appliances as an example, it was about 400,000 rupees per acre.

This price was only slightly cheaper than when he first bought the textile factory, and that was still under the influence of the bombing.

Land in Mumbai was very valuable, much more valuable than in Uttar Pradesh.

If Ron wanted to acquire those 200 acres of wasteland, he would need to prepare at least eighty million rupees.

Looking at the sixty million in the account, Ron sighed. Money was never enough.

He could, of course, take out a loan. The problem was he had just borrowed thirty million from the state bank recently.

This money was prepared for the cement factory in Uttar Pradesh, using the excuse of expanding Sur Electrical Appliances.

In other words, if he bought the land, the Sur Electrical Appliances facade could no longer be used.

It was a bit difficult. Perhaps he could wait a few more months until Sur Electrical Appliances had more abundant funds on its books.

But that would take time, and after buying the land, he couldn't just wait. He would need another large sum of money for construction.

If he waited like this, it might be two years before he could discuss this business again.

Who knew if there would be variables by then? There were more and more active businessmen in India now, and it would be bad if a competitor emerged.

After thinking about it, Ron still decided to call the Mayor of Mumbai, Chavhan, to ask.

In these times, who does business in India legitimately? Of course, you have to find some crooked ways.

On the phone, Chavhan promised him that he would introduce someone who could speak to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

It didn't matter if the money wasn't enough. Solving the problem with the person holding the stamp would suffice.

It would be best if he didn't spend a single penny. Ron also had to keep some capital to develop the Sur park.

Buying land costs money, and construction costs money as well.

Chavhan reminded him that to get what he wanted, it was best to present a beautiful and convincing development plan.

Alright, the pie had to be drawn in advance.

Ron prepared to arrange a meeting with Rahul from last time. He was a well-known urban planner in Mumbai, with some reputation internationally.

However, just as he picked up the phone, Luka came looking for him.

"Brother, have you forgotten that you still have the pharmaceutical business?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten, but didn't you say there were some issues in Brazil that needed to be resolved?"

Since Anand and the others went to Brazil two months ago, they hadn't made preparations for the next trip out to sea yet.

Luka said his brother had encountered competition in Brazil and was currently working on resolving the matter.

Ron had some impression. As early as April at the beginning of the year, Luka had mentioned that someone in Brazil was going to New Delhi to find channels for generic drugs.

After more than half a year, the competition between the two sides seemed to have entered a fierce stage.

"There's definitely no problem with my brother's side, but we have another business."

"You mean..." Ron seemed to remember something.

"Merck. Their laboratory is about to be put into use," Luka reminded him.

"Oh!" Ron suddenly realized. "I almost forgot about this."

"See, without the pharmaceutical business, we still have the human drug trial business."

In Luka's eyes, there wasn't much difference between the two; they both earned US dollars.

For Ron, it was pretty much the same.

With his current status, he shouldn't have looked down on this kind of grey business.

But this was US dollars. With the tourism industry in a slump, this was his only channel for earning US dollars.

He lacked rupees, and he lacked US dollars even more.

"So they need people lately?" Ron asked.

"At least 100 people."

"That many?" Ron was startled.

As far as he knew, clinical trials for new drugs in Europe and America usually involved groups of twenty or thirty people.

"Merck wants to speed things up, and that can only be done by using people to accumulate data. There's a lot of knowledge in this, brother."

"100 people," Ron sighed. "Are there any requirements?"

"This time it's Phase I clinical trials. In their words, it's to evaluate the safety of the drug. So, completely healthy people are needed, but considering it's an oncology drug, about ten corresponding patients are also needed."

New drug development has three experimental cycles in the clinical stage. Phase I requires the fewest people, mostly healthy individuals.

Phase II can involve up to several hundred people. This stage mainly verifies efficacy, which means patients need to participate.

Phase III is even more, with thousands of people being not uncommon.

According to their agreement with Merck, the per capita fee paid for Phase I and Phase II is the highest, ranging from three thousand to five thousand US dollars.

Phase III has too many people. After several years of development, the safety of the drug has also greatly improved. At this time, the per capita fee might only be a few hundred US dollars.

Merck put the two most dangerous stages in India. At this time, Ron and his people needed to play the role of local strongmen.

"These next couple of days, I'll call Anand, and we'll go visit the slums together."

Alright. Doing business in India, it's best to throw away your conscience.