From scratch to the $3 billion Reliance empire, from attending a Shell petrol pump to setting up the world's largest complex grassroots refinery, from the barest beginnings at Dhobi Talao to the Gulmohar Room in Oberoi crammed to the carpeted brims with the powers-that-be, Dhirubhai Ambani's emergence transformed finally into a coronation on Monday. The Wharton School Dean recognised the "new model of business leadership" which Ambani had taught. "The son of a schoolteacher has a lot to teach us," said Dean Thomas P Gerrity.

Gerrity spelt out the bare details of Ambani's life, of relentless growth using, from 1977 onwards, wide-ranging participation of the Indian people through a four-million strong shareholder family. Ambani remembered some members of that family in hisacceptance speech. "At our Jamnagar site, at this very moment, over 80,000 members of this family are battling. They are repairing the devastation caused by the cyclone. They are confident of restoring normalcy within seven days. It will be a world record, indeed. I am proud of them," he said.

"Pedigree is no longer of any significance in democratic India. It is performance that is crucial," said Ambani in his acceptance speech, marking what sets him apart from almost every other Indian business group: a past, present, and future of having performed for a vast shareholder group.

Witness to The Wharton School's twenty-fourth Dean's medal award was a substantial section of India's powerful men. Politicians hogged the post-award limelight: Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi, former finance minister P Chidambaram, and Congress leader Murli Deora spoke from the rostrum. Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda graced the occasion as well. Almost every luminary, especially related to the capital market inIndia's financial capital, was present.

"Many of you have changed the way India thinks," Dhirubhai told the assembled glitterati, "You have the power and responsibility of shaping politics, public opinion, business and intellectual life of our society."

"The younger generation, the future of India, is watching all of us," he pointed out, "with hope and expectation. They cannot wait endlessly for India to join the ranks of the developing nations."

This can be done, he said, because three sweeping changes are taking place in Indian society simultaneously. "The economy is becoming global, politics are becoming decentralised, and empowerment of ordinary people is becoming a reality."

The coronation of Ambani as India's uncrowned industry king was almost complete when former finance minister P Chidambaram came up with a Thiruvallur couplet in Tamil. "To create. To earn. To save. To distribute. That is the mark of a king," he quoted, and added that "while Ambani was not a king, he had created wealth forfour million Indian shareholders, he had earned money, saved and distributed that wealth."

"He did not become an NRI, he does not want protection, and he has the courage to set for himself seemingly impossible goals," said Chidambaram, adding that public sector companies and other Indian business houses can learn important lessons in how Indian people can become stakeholders in their success.