Iconic business leader Tarun Das on Tuesday stepped down as chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the chamber he helped found some 46 years ago.

Das, 70, had stepped down as director-general of CII in 2004 after leading the industry body for 30 years, but had remained involved with the association as chief mentor. His stint in the CII saw 14 prime ministers and 17 finance ministers come and go.

Das pioneered in the country the concept of a professional chamber - such outfits till then were run largely as extended fiefs of business families. He transformed the ''clubby'' system into a muscular establishment that can lobby hard and state its case with facts and figures.

Das later summed up the change between 1963 - when man had not landed on the moon, Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister, and Bengal was still a force to reckon with in industry - and now.

''There has been a change in the culture and mindset of Indian industry - that it can survive without protection, that it won't be wiped out by China and that it can globally compete,'' Das told newspersons in Kolkata.

"This is an emotional moment for me. I will always be available to CII. But I am 70. I was not chief mentor for life. This is not my family business. I believe this is an important part of corporate governance," Das further said.

Over the last 35 years, he transformed a small engineering association into a Rs 200-crore plus industry body that transcended the traditional lobbying role of chambers of commerce and forayed into the areas of TQM, environment , trade fairs, and clean technology with international presence in major international cities such as Washington, London, and Singapore.

The CII's rise to prominence can be traced back to the mid-1980s when Das along with key members such as Rahul Bajaj and Ratan Tata worked closely with the Rajiv Gandhi government as the first tentative steps towards opening the economy took place.

It was in these years that for the first time an industry delegation accompanied an Indian prime minister during a state visit to Moscow. But CII's glory days under Das began in the 1990s when he was quick to spot the opportunity afforded by liberalisation.

While the then dominant industry chamber, FICCI, dilly-dallied on the issue, CII became a cheerleader of the reforms process and worked closely with the government, increasing its profile and clout at the same time. Much of Das' success is also due to the formidable network of friends and contacts he built across political parties, government, industry, and indeed across the globe.

Ratan Tata made him chairman of ACC; the West Bengal government made him chairman of Haldia Chemicals; the government used him as a mediator in its fight with Suzuki in the 1990s and he was appointed on the board of Satyam Computer Services to help rescue the scam-tainted company. In addition, he discreetly advises the government and some of India's biggest business houses on several controversial issues.

Das started out as a management trainee in the then Indian Engineering Association (IEA) on a monthly salary of Rs750. ''We had to go to Udyog Bhavan (which houses the industry ministry) every day, as everything was centrally micro-managed. Not that we don't have to visit it any more, but the frequency has certainly come down,'' he said.

How did he manage to remain at the top for so long? ''Luck, luck, luck. Somebody up there must be looking after me. So many people try so hard.''

Das did take gambles and some paid off. Instead of joining industry, he opted for a chamber. After merging the IEA with the Engineering Association of India, he decided to move to Delhi as director-general of the new entity, the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI), in 1974.

''Everyone said 'don't go to Delhi. It's a jungle out there. And you don't have contacts'. But my father said, 'try. And if you fail, come back','' Das reminisced. He said former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi suggested to him to build an industry body that represents all manufacturing segments.

Till then, national association efforts were mostly confined to engineering. Thus began an initiative to transform the AIEI, out of which the CII was born in 1991, the year Rajiv Gandhi died.

What does Das think of Bengal today? ''Concerned. I think the state should for the time being look at service industry where one can build vertically and also provide white-collar jobs rather than manufacturing which needs large chunks of land,'' he said.

''I am planning to write a book. It will be about some 20 individuals who helped change the industry over the years. I want to write it soon,'' he added.

Das named P K Nanda, a former MD of Metal Box; Rahul Bajaj, Ratan Tata, Suresh Krishna of TVS and Brij Mohan Munjal of Hero Group the outstanding business leaders he had worked with.

As one of the promoters, Tata was among those who played a role in bringing Das as chairman of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd at a time the company was in the doldrums. Das said he would still be active in HPL, a venture he helped pull out of trouble.

His mother, aged 99, lives in Calcutta, where he comes often to see her.

Das felt that his greatest achievement lay in persuading Indian industry to believe that it could compete globally. Competing chamber FICCI's Amit Mitra, another association spearhead from Bengal, concurred.

''He left a significant contribution to the evolving business and economic matrix of India,'' Mitra said. ''I collaborated and also healthily competed'' with Das in the past 15 years as secretary-general of FICCI, Mitra added.

Said Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal,"It will be hard to separate Tarun Das from CII. He has been instrumental in making CII a world class institution. I had the privilege of working with him closely as a CII president and what struck me was his strong grasp of both international and domestic affairs. He has been a great sounding board to me on critical issues."

A common criticism of Das over the years has been that he failed to create a second rung of leadership in CII that could replace him. In the last five years, CII has had three director generals and it remains to be seen how CII copes without him or whether it can allow him to fade away completely.

Not that Das plans to retire completely. "There are many interesting things to be done. I will concentrate on doing international work as well as on domestic policy and skill development. But I will work on a voluntary basis," he says.