Your Company has increasingly pursued business objectives with
a larger sense of societal purpose. This spirit of ‘a commitment beyond the
market’ propels your Company to contribute across the three dimensions of the
‘triple bottom line’ – economic, social and environmental. In this context,
it is with immense pride that I report that your Company, already a ‘water
positive’ corporation, became ‘carbon positive’ during the year. Rapid
progress is also being made towards achieving ‘zero solid waste’ status. Once
achieved, this would make your Company perhaps the only one of its kind in the world to
have achieved these milestones encompassing all the three critical facets of environmental
sustainability. The strides made in your Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) projects have been equally significant. The thrust of your Company’s social
sector investments, christened ‘Mission Sunehra Kal’, is in three areas: (a)
natural resource management, which includes wasteland, watershed and agriculture
development; (b) sustainable livelihoods, comprising genetic improvement in livestock and
women’s economic empowerment; and (c) community development, with focus on primary
education and health & sanitation. Starting with projects in Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh in 2000-01, your Company’s social development projects today are spread over
the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. As in the past, this year’s Report of the Directors
outlines your Company’s progress in the pursuit of the ‘triple bottom
line’.
Over the last decade, your Company
has received many an accolade in recognition of its pathbreaking initiatives. While a
comprehensive list of awards received by the Company is available elsewhere in this Report
and Accounts, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the most
prestigious ones. Your Company’s pioneering e-Choupal initiative won the prestigious
‘Stockholm Challenge Award 2006’ in the Economic Development category which
recognises initiatives that leverage information technology to improve living conditions
and foster economic growth in all parts of the world. This award crowns a series of global
honours for your Company’s e-Choupal initiative making it the most lauded information
technology-based rural transformation model. The project has been awarded the
ICC-UNDP-IBLF ‘World Business Award’ in 2004 for furthering the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals and the ‘Development Gateway Award’ in 2005 for
contributing to the economic development of rural communities. Your Company also won the
‘Golden Peacock Award’ for Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies
for two of its unique initiatives that are impactfully transforming lives and landscapes
in rural India – the e-Choupal and social & farm forestry initiatives.
It has been a rare privilege for me
to have led your Company over these eventful ten years, a period that has witnessed
transformational change across the wide spectrum of its various businesses. The quality of
your Company’s human resources and their unflinching commitment to world-class
strategy execution bolsters my confidence in the ability of Team ITC to sustain your
Company’s position as one of India’s most valuable corporations.
I seek your continued support in our
efforts to take your Company to new heights in the future.
Yours sincerely,
(Y C DEVESHWAR)
Chairman |
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