ITC articulated a super-ordinate vision nearly two decades ago to make societal value creation the bedrock of its business strategy. The focus was on spurring innovative strategies that would enable ITC to make a growing contribution to building economic, environmental and social capital for the nation. It was the Company's aspiration that this Triple Bottom Line approach would manifest not only in sustained wealth creation for all its stakeholders, but also in the simultaneous generation of sustainable livelihoods as well as augmentation of precious natural resources. A multi-pronged strategy was put into play to enable a new dimension of growth that would be sustainable and inclusive. ITC's Social Investments Programme has identified three important stakeholder groups: a. rural communities in the Company's operational areas which face enormous challenges in ensuring the sustainability of their farming systems; b. communities residing in close proximity to our production units which require sustainable solutions to help generate additional income streams; and c. Central and State governments, that encourage Public-Private-People Partnerships to demonstrate scalable and replicable models of development. Interventions have been appropriately designed to respond to the unique multi-dimensional development challenges of such communities in order to accomplish the overall goal of creating sustainable livelihoods.

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AN OVERVIEW ON THE CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES BY ITC COMPANY LIMITED
Varun Kesavan, Research Scholar, E – Mail Id –
varunkesavan@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
ITC Limited or ITC is an Indian company based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is
India's biggest cigarette manufacturer. Its diversified business includes five
segments: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards &
Packaging, Agri Business & Information Technology. Although, cigarette
business contributes more than 80% of the profits of the company.
Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the
company was renamed as the Indian Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and
later to I.T.C. Limited in 1974. The periods in the name were removed in
September 2001 for the company to be renamed as ITC Ltd.2005-09, by Boston
Consulting Group.

2. 2
The company completed 100 years in 2010 and as of 2012-13, had an annual
turnover of US$8.31 billion and a market capitalization of US$45 billion. It
employs over 25,000 people at more than 60 locations across India and is part
of Forbes 2000 list.
HISTORY
• ITC was formed on 24 August 1910 under the name of Imperial Tobacco
Company of India Limited,and the company went public on 27 October 1954. The
earlier decades of the company's activities centered mainly around tobacco
products. In the 1970s, it diversified into non-tobacco businesses.
• In 1975, the company acquired a hotel in Chennai, which was renamed the ITC-
Welcomgroup Hotel Chola' (now renamed to WelcomHotel Chennai).
• In 1985, ITC set up Surya Tobacco Co. in Nepal as an Indo-Nepali
and British joint venture, with the shares divided between ITC, British American
Tobacco and various independent domestic shareholders in Nepal. In 2002,
Surya Tobacco became a subsidiary of ITC and its name was changed to Surya
Nepal Private Limited.

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• In 2000, ITC launched the Expressions range of greeting cards, the Wills Sport
range of casual wear, and a wholly owned information technology subsidiary, ITC
Infotech India Limited.
• In 2001, ITC introduced the Kitchens of India brand of ready-to-eat Indian
recipes, which are produced and sold internationally, at first in cans and later in
retort packages, and more recently online and at festivals.
• In 2002, ITC entered the confectionery and staples segments and acquired
the Bhadrachalam Paperboards Division and the safety matches company
WIMCO Limited.
• ITC diversified into body care products in 2005.
• In 2010, ITC launched its handrolled cigar - Armenteros - in the Indian market.
• The company began online sales in 2014.

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PRODUCTS & BRANDS
Cigarettes
ITC Ltd sells 81% of the cigarettes in India, where 275 million people use
tobacco products and the total cigarette market is worth close to $11 billion
(around Rs. 757399.4[6] million)
ITC's major cigarette brands include Wills Navy Cut, Gold Flake Kings, Gold
Flake Premium lights, Gold Flake Super Star, Insignia, India Kings, Classic
(Verve, Menthol, Menthol Rush, Regular, Citric Twist, Ice Burst, Mild & Ultra
Mild), 555, Silk Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Lucky Strike, Players,
Flake and Duke & Royal.
Other businesses
 Foods: ITC's major food brands include Kitchens of India; Aashirvaad, B
natural, Sunfeast, Candyman, Bingo! and Yippee!. ITC is India's largest seller
of branded foods with of over Rs. 4,600 crore in 2012-13. It is present across
6 categories in the food business including, snack foods, ready-to-eat meals,
fruit juices, dairy products and confectionary.
 Personal care products include perfumes, haircare and skincare categories.
Major brands are Fiama Di Wills, Vivel, Essenza Di Wills, Superia and
Engage.

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 Stationery: Brands include Classmate, PaperKraft and Colour Crew.
Launched in 2003, Classmate went on to become India's largest notebook
brand in 2007.
 Safety Matches and Agarbattis: Ship, iKno and Aim brands of safety matches
and the Mangaldeep brand of agarbattis (Incense Sticks).
 Hotels: ITC's Hotels division (under brands including WelcomHotel) is India's
second largest hotel chain with over 90 hotels throughout India. ITC is also
the exclusive franchisee in India of two brands owned
by Sheraton International Inc. Brands in the hospitality sector owned and
operated by its subsidiaries include Fortune Park Hotels and WelcomHeritage
Hotels.
 Paperboard: Products such as specialty paper, graphic and other paper are
sold under the ITC brand by the ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers
Division like Classmate product of ITC well known for their quality .
 Packaging and Printing: ITC's Packaging and Printing division operates
manufacturing facilities at Haridwar and Chennai and services domestic and
export markets.
 Information Technology: ITC operates through its fully owned subsidiary ITC
Infotech India Limited,.

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SOCIAL INITIATIVES BY ITC LIMITED
ITC articulated a super-ordinate vision nearly two decades ago to make societal
value creation the bedrock of its business strategy.
The focus was on spurring innovative strategies that would enable ITC to make a
growing contribution to building economic, environmental and social capital for
the nation. It was the Company's aspiration that this Triple Bottom Line approach
would manifest not only in sustained wealth creation for all its stakeholders, but
also in the simultaneous generation of sustainable livelihoods as well as
augmentation of precious natural resources.
A multi-pronged strategy was put into play to enable a new dimension of growth
that would be sustainable and inclusive. ITC's Social Investments Programme
has identified three important stakeholder groups:
a. rural communities in the Company's operational areas which face enormous
challenges in ensuring the sustainability of their farming systems;
b. communities residing in close proximity to our production units which require
sustainable solutions to help generate additional income streams; and

7. 7
c. Central and State governments, that encourage Public-Private-People
Partnerships to demonstrate scalable and replicable models of development.
Interventions have been appropriately designed to respond to the unique multi-
dimensional development challenges of such communities in order to accomplish
the overall goal of creating sustainable livelihoods.
ITC Social Investments Programme
ITC E-CHOUPAL ECO-SYSTEM
The ITC e-Choupal initiative is a powerful illustration of a unique and innovative
model that delivers significant societal value by co-creating rural markets with
local communities. A network of village internet kiosks - e-Choupals - enable
even small and marginal farmers in rural India, who are de-linked from the formal
market, to access real-time weather and price information, and relevant
knowledge and services to enhance farm productivity, quality and command
better prices - improving their competitiveness and capacity to manage risk.
Complementing this digital infrastructure is ChoupalPradarshanKhet -
customisedagri-extension services, demonstration plots and training programmes
that promote best practices and assist farmers to diversify crop portfolios.

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The ITC e-Choupal initiative has emerged as an efficient two-way channel for a
variety of goods and services, raising farm incomes and making farming more
profitable. The Company leverages the e-Choupal platform to support holistic
development of rural communities in and around e-Choupal catchments through
a number of initiatives - dairy management, agarbatti manufacturing and skills
development - aimed at stimulating non-farm incomes and creating sustainable
livelihood opportunities.
This endeavour also includes the SwasthyaChoupal initiative that focuses on
enhancing awareness on maternal and child care through a network of Village
Health Champions.
Launched in 2000, ITC e-Choupal is today the largest initiative among Internet-
based interventions in rural India. Its services reach out to more than 4 million
farmers in over 35000 villages through 6100 kiosks spread across 10 states. ITC
e-Choupal's achievements have been well documented as case studies in
premier institutions like the Harvard Business School, references in World Bank
reports and in eminent publications like The Economist.

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AFFORESTATION PROGRAMME
A key plank in ITC’s natural resource management strategy and a pioneering
venture in wasteland development, ITC’s Afforestation Programme brings
multiple social and environmental benefits. It enables farmers who own
wastelands and lands with low levels of productivity to grow commercially viable
pulpwood plantations, thereby turning an unproductive asset into a profitable
one. To ensure the commercial viability of these plantations, ITC invested in
extensive R&D to develop fast-growing clonal saplings that are disease-resistant
and have a higher rate of survival in harsh conditions. Under the Social Forestry
component of the Programme, tribals and marginal farmers are assisted with
loans, subsidised clonal stock and extension services.
Farm Forestry targets farmers with investible incomes. On harvest, farmers are
free to transact at will and sell to whoever they choose.
Adopting this rather difficult option of mobilising tribal and marginal farmers which
required long gestation and substantial investment exposure has not only created
a source of sustainable livelihoods for a large number of poor families, but has
generated large-scale green cover that contributes significantly to soil
conservation and carbon sequestration.

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The recently introduced agro-forestry model, which combines tree growing with
field crop production, ensures both food and wood security as well as helps in the
conservation of precious natural resources. ITC has been conferred the Forest
Management certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, which confirms
compliance with the highest international benchmarks of plantation management
in terms of being environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and
economically viable.
Today, ITC’s Afforestation Programme coupled with the Agro Forestry
Programme covers over 6,82,000 acres and has provided over 120 million
person-days of employment. In addition, the plantations have also helped
sequester 5,121 KT of CO2 in 2015-16 and played a major role in maintaining
ITC’s carbon positive status over the past 11 years.
WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT FOR SOIL & MOISTURE
CONSERVATION
Recognising the vital role played by water and irrigation in the rural economy,
ITC’s Soil & Moisture Conservation Programme supports watershed
development projects in water-stressed areas, developing precious water
resources for agriculture, rural communities and livestock. The focus is on
building, reviving and maintaining water harvesting structures as well as

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implementing other measures which help to reverse land degradation, provide
critical irrigation and increase agricultural productivity. Adopting a participatory
approach, ITC works with NGOs to mobilise local communities to form water user
groups. These groups are trained to carry out the entire spectrum of activities
from planning to execution, including monitoring of work and future maintenance
of structures. The groups are also trained to formulate regulations and fix water
user charges which go towards creating a fund used to maintain existing
structures and build new ones.
Initiated in 2001, the programme today covers 13 states across the country. The
total watershed area covered under soil & moisture conservation is over 8,48,000
acres, benefiting over 269,000 households. There are over 11,000 water
harvesting structures and over 2,300 functioning Water User Groups.
Civil work on structures generated over 5 million person-days of employment,
particularly benefiting the landless. Projects under the programme have made a
significant contribution in ITC maintaining its water positive footprint for 14 years
in a row.

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ITC has also entered into public-private-people partnerships with several state
governments and NABARD, bringing together government and corporate
resources to undertake watershed development projects with considerably
greater scale and impact. Currently, these PPP projects are targeting to cover
over 1,58,000 hectares in some of India’s most drought-prone regions.
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Animal husbandry plays an important role in the economy of rural India with
majority of households owning milch animals. Adopting an integrated animal
husbandry services approach, ITC’s programme aims to assist cattle-owners to
increase the productivity of their animals and improve milk quality. Targeting
marginal households, comprehensive services, including artificial insemination,
animal feed and healthcare management, are provided right at the doorstep
through village Cattle Development Centres managed by trained technicians
from the local community.
Milk yields from cross-bred progeny are significantly higher than indigenous
stock, generating substantial supplementary incomes from surplus milk sales,
paving the way for dairying to emerge as a viable livelihood option. This income
also acts as a cushion in times of crop failure.

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ITC’s initiative covers over 10,500 villages in 7 states and has so far provided
animal husbandry services to over 13,00,000 milch animals.
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
Specifically designed for women from economically weaker sections of rural
communities, ITC’s Women’s Empowerment Programme aims to provide them
with sustainable economic livelihood opportunities through financial assistance
as well as skills training. Women are motivated to form micro-credit self-help
groups so that they can build up small savings, finance self-employment and
micro-enterprises.
ITC is also working towards making agriculture more inclusive by enabling
marginal women farmers to enhance their knowledge and skills in modern
agricultural practices. Farmer field schools exclusively for women agriculturalists
cover a wide range of best practices, such as improved seeds and balanced
application of fertilisers, as well as techniques for scientific land use and water
conservation.
Assisted by ITC, women’s self-help groups have recently started farm
mechanisation equipment hire centres and tree sapling nurseries. Acting
collectively, women have also formed solid waste management groups that
undertake door-to-door garbage collection, segregation of waste as well as

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making and selling organic manure. These small ventures have the potential to
grow into successful and profitable independent enterprises in the future.
One of ITC’s interventions targets ultra-poor women with the objective of
mainstreaming them socio-economically over a period of time. ITC assists these
women with productive income generating assets, supported with intensive
handholding, counseling, on-job assistance, training and local level facilitation
with the objective of bringing them into the financial mainstream. Over 18,800
ultra poor women have benefitted till date.
Enabling women to earn independent incomes has a positive impact on their
families and communities as it is spent largely on their children’s education,
health and nutrition and is a powerful catalyst for gender development and
supporting social inclusion.
ITC has helped create sustainable livelihoods for over 59,000 rural women either
through micro-enterprises or assistance with loans to pursue income generating
activities.

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PRIMARY EDUCATION
ITC's Primary Education Programme addresses the lack of quality primary
education in rural communities. Aiming to strengthen the government primary
schools' vast network by stemming drop-outs, increasing enrolments and
improving learning outcomes, the Programme puts in place mutually reinforcing
interventions that are coordinated to support a move towards child friendly
schools.
Age-appropriate infrastructural facilities are provided to government schools,
ranging from separate toilets for boys and girls, boundary walls, drinking water
stations and furniture. Focusing particularly on sanitation and health, students
and teachers are trained on WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) principles, and
students are motivated to form WATSAN (Water and Sanitation) Committees and
Child Cabinets to take ownership of WASH areas in schools, helping to promote
behaviourial change among children in their formative years.
The Programme also works to strengthen school management committees and
build capacity among teachers to ensure that infrastructure can be sustainably
maintained in the long run. Parents’ participation is actively encouraged to
develop collaborative partnerships that ensure that more and more children are
able to complete their schooling.

16. 16
The 'Read India Plus' initiative, in partnership with the NGO, Pratham, was
introduced in 2013. Utilising an innovative pedagogy, it is geared towards helping
children between the ages of 6-14 to achieve all five competencies - Listening,
Speaking, Reading, Writing and Doing.
ITC’s Primary Education programme has covered over 5,54,000 students to date.
In addition, more than 1,500 government primary schools have been provided
infrastructural support.
SKILLING & VOCATIONAL TRAINING
ITC’s skilling initiative for boys and girls focuses on employability and
employment linkages with the larger purpose of empowering rural communities
and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities. The initiative aims to build
market relevant skills so as to make potential job seekers industry-ready and
employable in the manufacturing and services sectors. It focuses on the most
marginalised sections of communities. As part of ITC’s affirmative action plan, it
also targets Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – among the most socially
and economically marginalised.

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The initiative offers training in market-linked skills for the hospitality, automotive,
electrical, computer and construction sectors as well as in a range of trades –
tailoring, beautician and bedside nursing. Courses run for 4 to 12 weeks,
depending on the skill. On completion, placement camps are organised to
facilitate employment opportunities.
Nearly 43,000 youth have been trained, of whom 34% are girls and 42% belong
to the SC/ST community.
HEALTH & SANITATION
Open defecation remains a persistent and pervasive problem across the country.
It is particularly acute in rural areas where there is a lack of awareness regarding
the causality between open defecation and health related issues, especially of
diarrhoeal diseases which are a major cause of child mortality in India. ITC’s
Health & Sanitation Programme seeks to address this serious issue by
supporting the building and usage of low-cost family-owned toilets in the
catchments of its manufacturing units, the majority of which are located in rural
areas.
ITC’s strategy is centred on galvanising a people’s movement and mobilising
empowered grassroots institutions that take the lead in building family-owned
toilets.

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Intensive awareness generation programmescustomised to target men, women
and children combined with a mandatory financial contribution from participating
families help to ensure high and sustained usage levels of the constructed toilets.
Wherever possible, the initiative works in active collaboration with government
sanitation schemes. More than 29,000 toilets have been built of which 58% were
constructed during the last two years.
SOLID WASTE RECYCLING – WELL-BEING OUT OF WASTE (WOW)
ITC’s Well-being Out of Waste (WOW) programme is a flagship initiative that
seeks to address the crucial issue of post-consumer waste management in line
with the Government’s `Swachh Bharat’ programme, ensuring the proper
segregation and recycling of waste in a manner that protects and restores the
environment, ensures the cleanliness and hygiene of neighbourhoods and in the
process creates sustainable livelihoods for a whole host of participants in the
waste management process.
ITC’s WOW programme aims to create awareness among general public about
the “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” approach. The programme seeks to inculcate the
habit of source segregation prior to collection of post-consumer waste.

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The ecosystem of participants involved in the collection and recycling of
segregated waste include waste handlers who derive sustainable livelihood from
this activity, recycling units who benefit from a steady source of identified and
relevant waste, NGOs who train waste handlers and increase awareness about
segregating waste among communities, and social entrepreneurs who avail of
the opportunity to develop a sustainable business model out of waste collection
and supply to recyclers.
This programme is today being actively propagated and is receiving widespread
support across 8 cities in South India, including Bengaluru, Chennai and
Coimbatore and 5 cities in Telengana with plans to extend it to other towns and
cities as well. The WOW programme started with a collection of just 10 MT of
recyclables in 2007 has now swelled to collections of over 20000 MT. Over 2100
waste handlers have gained sustainable livelihoods through this activity.
Additionally, similar waste collection and recycling programmes along with
composting of organic waste in Munger in Bihar, Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh
and Tribeni in West Bengal provide gainful livelihood to 300 people.
These initiatives has played a major role in sustaining ITC’s ‘Solid Waste
Recycling Positive’ status for 9 consecutive years.

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Environment, Health & Safety
ENERGY CONSERVATION AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
As a responsible corporate citizen, ITC has made a commitment to reduce
dependence on energy from fossil fuels. Substantial progress has been made in
enhancing the renewable energy portfolio and during 2016-17 over 48% of ITC's
total energy requirements was met from carbon neutral fuels such as biomass,
and wind and solar. ITC has developed a strategic approach and drawn up action
plans based on a feasible balance of energy conservation and renewable energy
investments to progressively move towards meeting at least 50% of its total
energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020.
WATER CONSERVATION
With water scarcity increasingly becoming an area of serious concern, ITC
continues to focus on integrated water management including water conservation
and harvesting initiatives at its units - while also working towards meeting the
water security needs of all stakeholders at the local watershed level. These
include adopting latest technologies to reduce fresh water intake and increase
reuse and recycling practices, best practices to achieve zero effluent discharges,
rainwater harvesting, etc.

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These initiatives, along with ITC's CSR interventions in the area of integrated
watershed management, have resulted in the creation of rainwater harvesting
potential that is over twice the net water consumption of the Company's
operations.
GREENHOUSE GASES AND CARBON SEQUESTRATION
During the year, ITC improved its 'disclosure score' in the Climate Disclosure
Leadership Index 2014 published under the aegis of the Carbon Disclosure
Project from 85% in 2013-14 to 94% in 2014-15, placing it amongst the top 10
Indian organisations who have been so evaluated. The greenhouse gas (GHG)
inventory of ITC for the year 2014-15 compiled as per the ISO 14064 standard,
has been assured at the highest 'Reasonable Level' by an independent 3rd party
assurance provider, a significant achievement considering the scale and spread
of the Company's operations. This is also evidence of the importance accorded
to GHG management by the Company. Reaffirming ITC's commitment to the
ethos of 'Responsible Luxury', all luxury hotels of ITC are LEED® Platinum
certified (certification in progress for ITC Grand Bharat which was opened
recently) making it the 'greenest luxury hotel chain' in the world. In order to
continually reduce ITC's energy footprint, green features are integrated in all new
constructions and are also being incorporated in existing hotels, manufacturing
units, warehouses and office complexes during retrofits.

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The Company's Social & Farm Forestry initiatives enable sequestration of over
twice the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted by its operations. Besides mitigating
the impact of increasing levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere, these
initiatives help greening degraded wasteland, prevent soil erosion, enhance
organic matter content in soil and enable ground water recharge.
WASTE RECYCLING
ITC has made significant progress in reducing specific waste generation through
constant monitoring and improvement of efficiencies in material utilisation and
also in achieving almost total recycling of waste generated in operations. In this
way, ITC has prevented waste reaching landfills and associated problems such
as soil and groundwater contamination and GHG emissions, all of which can
impact public health. In 2014-15, ITC achieved over 99% waste recycling, with
the Paperboards and Specialty Papers Business, which accounts for 91.2% of
the total waste generated in the Company, recycling 99.8% of the total waste
generated by its operations. During 2014-15, this Business also recycled around
114,563 tonnes of externally sourced post-consumer waste paper, thereby
creating yet another positive environmental footprint.

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SAFETY
ITC's commitment to provide a safe and healthy workplace to all has been
reaffirmed by the significant reduction in the number of accidents and several
national and international awards and certifications received by various units.
The Company's approach is to institutionalise safety as a value-led concept with
focus on inculcating a sense of ownership at all levels and driving behavioural
change leading to the creation of a safety culture.
In line with this approach, several behavioural based safety initiatives and
custom-made risk based training programmes were rolled out at ITC's operating
units, resulting in a noticeable improvement in safety performance. ITC
incorporates established engineering standards in the design and project
execution phase itself for all investments in the built environment, with a view to
ensuring the highest levels of safety besides optimising costs. Environment,
Health & Safety audits before commissioning and during the operation of units
are carried out to verify compliance with standards.

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Environment, Health & Safety
Promoting Thought Leadership in Sustainability
In consonance with ITC's belief and the need to promote greater awareness and
acceptance of sustainability amongst corporates, ITC together with the
Confederation of Indian Industry, launched the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for
Sustainable Development in 2006. The Centre seeks to address the institutional
void in developing the requisite capability among Indian industry to pursue
sustainability goals. The Centre is steered by its Advisory Council, led by Shri Y
C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Limited, and comprises members from industry,
government, civil society and institutions, which provides strategic direction to the
organisation. The Centre has already taken various initiatives to help transform
Indian businesses by providing thought leadership, promoting awareness and
building capacity.