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Shortly after the Great War at the request of the Dominion Prime Ministers the British government sent Admiral Jellicoe on a tour of Australia and New Zealand to advise on the creation of domestic navies. On his way there he also stopped in India to review the situation and make recommendations, and by most accounts he wasn't all that impressed by what he saw. The Royal Indian Marine, the forerunner of the Royal Indian Navy, wasn't a combatant force and generally only signed locals up for a year or so of service leading to high turnover and loss of efficiency, he described it as '...there can be no shadow of a doubt that [the RIM] is a Service which has no place in a naval organisation.' He recommended that it be brought up to full combatant status, be led by senior Royal Navy officers on loan, recruit locals for longer terms of service and higher promotion, that it should include
One aircraft carrier
Five to seven light cruisers
3 sloops
6 submarines
20 escort vessels
as well as being supported by local defence flotillas, a minesweeping service, and appropriate dockyards, intelligence and communications organisations. For various reasons this didn't go ahead, but what might be some of the knock-on effects of an earlier Royal Indian Navy? Points of departure include their taking up Jellicoe's suggestions, the government of India borrowed Read Admiral Mawbry to look into things in 1920 and suggest improvements but they were all rejected and he resigned or in 1928 they tried to pass the Indian Naval Discipline Act but failed by one vote in the legislature and had to have some minor changes made before it finally passed in 1934.
Personally I think that Jellicoe was being way too optimistic with the idea of a carrier, so many cruisers and submarines. But how about if they dropped say the carrier and submarines plus one light cruiser and instead replaced them with a couple of heavy cruisers? The really big changes though would be the supporting infrastructure and services that come along with a proper navy and expansion.