H

is scriptwriters made sure that the content of the speech matched the title - 'Towards a quantum leap'.

In October 2007, in what is his most expansive shareholder statement so far, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani announced a slew of new projects and targets.

The deafening applause at the annual general meeting proved that the script had been played out to perfection.

Three-and-a-half-years later, the theme of Ambani's speech at the company's 37th AGM sounded familiar - 'Contours of a new wave of growth'.

But the response from the market and shareholders was muted this time, probably because while RIL had grown since then and delivered a few masterstrokes such as signing up with BP for a natural gas exploration and marketing deal that would bring at least $7.2 billion, and may be as much as $20 billion, the company has suffered on many fronts.

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