We continued to actualise our ‘beyond compliance’ commitment to Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and performed significantly better in these areas during the year. Our Corporate EHS guidelines are designed to ensure significantly better performance than required by Indian statutes, which encompass all the requirements of a safe and healthy work environment and are aligned with requirements of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Towards Zero Accident
Safety standards in each of our units are audited by Corporate EHS experts, at least once a year to ensure compliance to corporate guidelines and standards.

All our factories, hotels and large offices have established EHS committees, consisting of an equal number of representatives from workers and management. Proactive involvement of all employees has helped develop a safety culture throughout the organisation.

Our units are required to proactively identify potential hazards and eliminate/reduce risks. New Projects/Expansion plans are reviewed by Corporate/ Divisional EHS experts. The engineering control measures are designed at this stage and installed during the implementation of the project. Corporate EHS experts conduct comprehensive audit before commissioning of any projects to ensure compliance to Statutory as well as our EHS standards and guidelines.

We encourage recording and investigation of all incidents (accidents without injury, property or environmental damage) to prevent accidents. All accidents, including first aid injuries, serious accidents, dangerous occurrences and fires are recorded, investigated by trained managers (including the Unit EHS Manager) to identify the root cause and recommend measures to prevent recurrence. The findings and recommendations are discussed at Safety Committee meetings and circulated to all Departmental Heads/Chiefs for implementation. All statutory reporting requirements are strictly complied with.

In order to disseminate learnings on safety issues, we communicate all serious accident details throughout the Company.

We achieved 12.5% reduction in Lost Time Accidents in 2006-07 by a proactive risk management approach, adoption of benchmarked practices, state-of-the art engineering control measures, comprehensive fire safety protection systems and best-in-class electricals, regular training of employees and service providers and employee involvement through suggestion schemes, celebration of safety events and other motivational programmes. Accident Free Units Our Cigarette factories at Saharanpur, Bengaluru & Kidderpore; the Research centers at Bengaluru & Rajahmundry; Packaging & Printing unit at Munger, Paperboards unit at Kovai; Pilot Plant of the Lifestyle Retailing business at Gurgaon; and among Hotels - Maurya, Mughal, Chola, Sonar, Maratha, Grand Central, Rajputana, Sheraton, New Delhi and Windsor remained free of Lost Time Accidents in 2006-07. Injury Rate and Lost Day Rate Injury Rate and Lost Day Rate (LDR) are key measures used internationally to assess the safety performance of a company. Our LDR - the total number of days lost due to accidents for every 200,000 person-hours worked - has also reduced by 66.6% to 2.16 (2005-06 LDR 6.47). Effective safety measures helped us in achievingzero fatal accidents during 2006-07. Occupational Health A healthy workforce is an important constituent of our sustainability strategy. Our units are required to maintain high standards of hygiene, excellent lighting, ventilation and effective control on noise and dust in accordance with national/international standards. Over 8000 employees were medically examined in 2006-07 to identify any symptoms/trends of occupational illness and need for appropriate action to eliminate/restrict any adverse health risks.

ITC has been able to reduce Injury Rate in 2006-07 by 16.4%.