The Annual FICCI Outstanding Vision Corporate Triple Impact Award 2007 was conferred on ITC Limited for its invaluable contribution to the triple bottom line benchmarks of building economic, social and natural capital for the nation. The Award was presented by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh to Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC at the Annual General Meeting of FICCI held in the capital today.  

ITC is the only enterprise in the world, of its size and diversity, to have achieved the milestones of being carbon positive, water positive and close to zero solid waste discharge. In line with its corporate vision to promote sustainable and inclusive growth, ITC has driven innovation to forge unique business models that synergise long-term shareholder value enhancement with the superordinate purpose of creating greater societal capital. These unique initiatives have contributed towards creating meaningful livelihood opportunities for over 5 million people, many of whom constitute India’s rural poor.
 

ITC’s e-choupal initiative, the world’s largest rural digital infrastructure covers 40,000 villages and has empowered over 4 million farmers. The company’s social and farm forestry initiative, backed by intensive research and development to create disease resistant high yielding clonal saplings, have greened over 77,000 hectares. In the process, it has enabled the creation of over 35 million man days of employment for marginal farmers and tribals, besides converting private wastelands into productive assets and addressing critical issues relating to biomass depletion, soil erosion, water security, biodiversity and ecological balance. This has also enabled ITC to sequester twice the amount of carbon emitted from its operations, contributing effectively to the national goals of climate change mitigation.

Working with the active participation of rural communities, ITC has also created large scale water harvesting projects that cover 30,000 hectares, providing critical irrigation to moisture starved areas. This has also helped in recharging the water table, contributing effectively towards enhanced agricultural productivity and a better quality of life for the rural sector.

Recognising the invaluable role of rural women in shaping a meaningful future for their communities and the coming generations, ITC has supported 1000 women self help groups and helped create 7000 rural women entrepreneurs as part of its sustainable livelihood and social empowerment programmes. In addition, ITC also provides supplementary primary education to 1,00,000 children. Currently, the Company’s social development initiatives cover 44 districts spread over 12 states across India.

On the economic front, ITC continues to create multiple drivers of growth encompassing diverse interests in FMCG, Paperboards and Packaging, Hotels, Agri-Business and Information Technology. ITC also collaborates extensively with small and micro enterprises upgrading their technology and know how and providing critical marketing support through its well established trade marketing and distribution network.