The reason for the conflict between Anil and Mukesh Ambani is simply that they both love the business

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: K Vaman Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, is the man widely credited with transforming the face of Indian banking. It was Kamath who changed ICICI bank from a fusty government industrial project financier to a powerhouse of financial services, a technology and retail banking leader which was described as the best managed bank in Asia by Euromoney in 2002. Kamath is also known for his closeness to the Ambani brothers and his attempts to resolve the greatest corporate dispute at the moment. He tells SHEKHAR GUPTA, Editor-in Chief of The Indian Express on NDTV 24X7s Walk The Talk, that ultimately the Dhirubhai legacy will settle the troubles at Reliance

My guest today is not just one of the captains of the world of Indian business but really one of the poster boys of post-reform India, Mr K V Kamath, chairman of ICICI bank. The change has been tremendous.

Absolutely. I think the Indian economy has come a long way and we have just grown with the growth in the economy. We rode the economic curve.

Something always mystifies me. How did ICICI become a private bank? It was a government financial institution. There was no hula balloo, no noise, no controversies.

Maybe it was part of an early reform process. It happened in stages. Going back to the early 90s, when we raised capital and the stake fell, not below 50, but somewhere in the mid-50s. Thereafter, we had another issue in 1996, wherein the stake fell to mid-30s. And slowly as you needed capital, government allowed us to access capital and their stake fell. But there was one difference. In case of ICICI Ltd., the stake was never held directly by the government.It was held by the companies, which were owned by the government. ICICI Ltd started life as a private company in the mid-50s.

So did all the other banks, other than the State Bank of India. It was a gradual process, nothing sudden about it. I guess the migration was smooth.

But there’s a whole case study on how it happened. Indeed. This itself is a case study and our transformation is also a case study.

Your transformation has been written about. But your own story is part of the transformation. Isn’t it?

I guess, that’s the story of India.

So, how did life change for you, post-reform?