Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Limited, was conferred the SAM/SPG Sustainability Leadership Award 2007 at a ceremony held at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue in Zurich, Switzerland. An international jury headed by Mr Claude Martin, Chairman of the International Sustainability Innovation Council of Switzerland, and former head of WWF International, selected Mr Deveshwar for his extraordinary leadership and pioneering work in developing, implementing and promoting sustainability in ITC, through innovative corporate strategies that led to significant societal development. Mr Deveshwar is the first Indian to have won this award since it was instituted. Previous winners include Dr. Michael Otto, Chairman of Otto, the global trading and service enterprise, Mr Antony Burgmans, Chairman of Unilever, Mr Lars Rebien Sorensen, Chairman of Novo Nordisk and Mr Travis Engen, former President of Alcan.

The Award, was presented at the International Sustainability Leadership Symposium in Zurich today, attended by some of the largest players in the financial sector in Europe. The Award has been instituted by the Sustainability Asset Management Group and Sustainable Performance Group of Switzerland.

Under Mr Deveshwar's leadership, ITC has pioneered and established the world's largest rural digital infrastructure, e-Choupal, empowering over 4 million rural families. ITC has also spearheaded one of the largest industry-facilitated afforestation programme globally, greening 75,000 hectares of land. The Company's integrated watershed development project has irrigated over 28,000 hectares of land, making it the most significant corporate intervention in watershed development in rural India. ITC's forestry and watershed initiatives make it the only company in the country to be both 'carbon' and 'water' positive - a testimony to its benchmark sustainability practices.