Celebrated rich lists had already pronounced him the world’s wealthiest pharma entrepreneur, Asia’s only non-realty tycoon in the top ten wealthiest men, richest self-made Indian, but none of it had the earth-shattering effects to them, as the pronouncement made by Forbes and Bloomberg in March 2015.

Shanghvi with his net worth pegged at $21 billion had dethroned Mukesh Ambani to become the richest Indian. Albeit short-lived, not to last beyond months it was a moment of axial tilt for India in many ways — and not the least because the Ambanis, who had been a synonym of wealth and power in the collective memory of this country, had never been toppled from that much-envied seat since the wealth indices started applying to this part of the world.

It was in a sense the symbolic culmination of a process that began in 1991, when Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, while announcing ‘liberalization measures’ had predicted that . . .