ITC CSR INITIATIVES

Envisioning a larger societal purpose has always been a hallmark of ITC.

The company sees no conflict between the twin goals of shareholder value
enhancement and societal value creation. The challenge lies in fashioning
a corporate strategy that enables realisation of these goals in a mutually
reinforcing and synergistic manner.
As a corporate citizen with enduring relationships in rural India, ITC has a
history of collaboration with communities and government institutions to
enhance farm productivity and the rural resource base. ITC’s commitments
in agricultural R&D and knowledge sharing have spanned vital aspects of
competitiveness – efficient farm practices, soil and water management.

In 2000, harnessing the empowering force of information technology and its

scalabilty, ITC launched e-Choupal – a knowledge portal providing farmers
with a range of information and services. Designed to enable them to
bargain collectively and enhance their transactive power, e-Choupal
became the much needed and easily adoptable tool farmers had been
waiting for. Today e-Choupal is a vibrant and rapidly growing zone of
business and interaction for over 4 million farmers.

ITC moved rapidly to apply the economic momentum of e-Choupal to

solving urgent social and environmental tasks. ITC launched Mission
Sunehra Kal, a rural capacity building programme fostering local initiatives
to develop water and forest resources, open up new non-farm livelihoods,
empower women economically and expand primary education.

The Mission now embraces a community of thousands of villages that are

influential nuclei of change in rural localities spread over 11 States. A
clearly focused self-help movement has gained ground in village after
village in these areas, with farmers co-operating to create much needed
economic, environmental and social assets out of their own resources.

By linking knowledge and technology transfer to the creation of economic

and social capacity, ITC has brought a new dynamic to rural development.

ITC has consciously chosen the path less travelled. A path that has led it to
create sustainable livelihoods for 5 million people. For ITC this is an
expression of a commitment beyond the market. Of a conviction that
country must come before corporation. Of a true pride in being Citizen First.

ITC has continued to build new infrastructure by supplementing the

farmgate presence of e-Choupal with new physical infrastructure – rural
marketing hubs called Choupal Saagars, positioned within tractorable
distance of 30 e-Choupal centres and their user communities.

ITC’s mission is to build community based capacity to remove these

adverse conditions
and create the basis for renewed agrarian prosperity:

 help farmers to achieve higher farm productivity,

 enable communities to develop and manage water, soil and forest
resources for long term ecological security,
 empower rural men and women by creating new non-farm lively hood
facilitate development of infrastructure for primary education, health
and sanitation.

ITC enables farmers to implement solutions that are sustainable because

they are

1. mutually reinforcing,
2. based on knowledge transfer and co-operative application of
technology,
3. dependent on mobilisation and optimisation of local resources.

The delivery model mobilises a four-way partnership between village

communities, specialist NGOs, the Government and ITC, bringing to every
initiative the best relevant management and technical expertise.
ITC has also worked with State Governments in pioneering public-private
partnerships. In Andhra Pradesh, 3,596 hectares of wasteland have been
developed so far through a collaboration with the State Government’s rural
poverty reduction project, Indira Kranthi Padham, and its Comprehensive
Land Development programme. ITC has also signed a landmark
agreement with the Government of Rajasthan to bring 5,000 hectares
under soil and moisture conservation in the drought-prone Bhilwara district.
Advance Professional Practices

Sakshi Mehra

Knitwear Design Department

7th semester