The "India Digital" mandate was a seismic event that recalibrated the entire purpose of the Patel Empire. It was no longer about market share or profit margins; it was about building the central nervous system for a nation of nearly a billion people. Harsh reframed the mission for his team, calling it their "Digital Dharma"—their righteous duty in the modern age.
The project was bifurcated, with two colossal undertakings running in parallel.
Project JanCompute (People's Computer), led by Deepak: The goal was to design and manufacture a million units of a rugged, low-cost computer terminal. The "Sanskrit" processor was now the heart of the project. Deepak's team worked around the clock, stripping away every non-essential component. The result was the "Bharat-Net Terminal"—a sturdy, fanless box with the "Sanskrit" chip, minimal memory, and a custom, lightweight operating system developed in-house. It could connect to a network, run basic government and educational software, and little else. It was a masterpiece of focused engineering, and its target cost was a fraction of any imported machine.
Project BharatNet, led by Vikram: This was the physical spine of the digital India. The plan was to lay thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic cable, connecting district headquarters, post offices, and eventually, every village. Vikram's logistics and construction expertise was pushed to its absolute limit. He had to negotiate right-of-way with thousands of landowners, navigate fragile ecosystems, and manage a supply chain for specialized cable and networking equipment on an unprecedented scale.
The challenges were Herculean. Foreign tech giants, seeing a multi-billion dollar market slipping away, launched a fierce lobbying campaign in Delhi, questioning the "Bharat-Net Terminal's" capabilities and pushing for their own, more expensive solutions.
Harsh's response was a public masterstroke. He organized a live demonstration at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He placed a "Bharat-Net Terminal" next to a leading international desktop computer. Both were tasked with accessing a government database and running a standard educational program. The "Bharat-Net Terminal" booted faster and performed the tasks with equal efficiency, all while costing less than a quarter of the imported machine. The visual was devastating to the critics.
Simultaneously, the Shield—the Group Security and Liaison division—proved its worth. They preemptively exposed the foreign competitors' lobbying efforts in a series of carefully placed media leaks, framing them as "multinational corporations trying to derail India's digital self-reliance." The nationalist narrative resonated powerfully, silencing the critics and solidifying public support for the project.
Months of grueling work followed. Harsh became a nomadic leader, traveling from Bharat Electronics factories running three shifts to produce the terminals, to the front lines of BharatNet where Vikram's crews were laying cable through monsoon-soaked terrain. He slept in government guest houses and ate with the engineers on site. The $90 million in the Aethelred Trust was a distant memory; his world had narrowed to the smell of solder and wet earth, the clatter of keyboards, and the grim, determined faces of his team.
The first major milestone was achieved in a small village in Tamil Nadu. A "Bharat-Net Terminal" was installed in the post office, connected to the newly laid fiber-optic cable. For the first time, villagers could access land records online, apply for certificates, and their children could use educational software.
Harsh was there for the inauguration. He watched as an old farmer, with trembling hands, used the terminal to print his land record in minutes—a process that used to take weeks and countless bribes. The man looked at Harsh, his eyes filled with a profound, wordless gratitude.
In that moment, surrounded by the heat and dust, Harsh felt a sense of fulfillment that no stock market windfall could ever provide. The Digital Dharma was not an abstract concept. It was the light in that old farmer's eyes. The sovereign had found a purpose that transcended power and wealth. He was no longer just building an empire; he was helping to build a nation. The spear had been thrust, and it had struck true.