Adav knew that true technological self-sufficiency could not come from the British. Their colonial policy ensured India remained a market, not a manufacturing powerhouse. While supplying them with steel and chemicals was profitable, he needed advanced machinery, specialized patents, and technical expertise that the British would never willingly share. He needed a back channel.
His solution lay with Japan. Neutral at the war's outset, but with a burgeoning industrial base and ambitions of its own in Asia, Japan was an ideal partner. Adav, having meticulously studied Japanese from his future memories and refined it with the Codex, established discreet contact with several rising Japanese Zaibatsus, powerful industrial conglomerates like Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.
He offered them raw materials in high demand due to the European war: high-grade Indian iron ore, essential for quality steel production; vast quantities of raw cotton; and specialized rare earth minerals. In return, he didn't ask for cash, but for technology. Through a complex series of agreements, he began to acquire advanced German machine tools that Japan had either captured as war spoils or secured through pre-war agreements. He also purchased crucial chemical patents for processes far more sophisticated than anything available in British India.
The goods flowed through a secret trade route via neutral Siam (modern-day Thailand), bypassing British naval patrols. Adav's Bharat Merchant Marine ships, flying Portuguese or even Siamese flags, meticulously navigated these routes, delivering their illicit cargo to his expanding network of hidden workshops and research facilities. He was playing both sides of the war, a silent puppeteer, using the conflict to build the technological and industrial base of the future Indian superpower, one advanced machine tool and chemical formula at a time.