Social Relevance project on

“Analysis of CSR activities adopted by ITC Ltd.”

ARCHANA HARIA
Masters in Management Studies Academic Year – 2018-20

Under The Guidance of

Prof. Javed

University of Mumbai’s
Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies

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 University of Mumbai’s
Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute For Financial
and Management Studies

Certificate

I, Professor Mr. Javed hereby certify that Mr/Ms. Archana Haria, SYMMS
Student of Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management
Studies, has completed a project titled Social Relevance project on
“Analysis of CSR activities adopted by ITC Ltd.” in the area of
specialization Marketing for the academic year 2018-2020. The work of the
student is original and the information included in the project is true to the
best of my Knowledge.

Internal Guide Director

External Examiner

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 DECLARATION

I, Ms. ARCHANA HARIA, SYMMS Student of Alkesh Dinesh Mody

Institute for Financial and Management Studies, hereby declare that I have
completed the project titled Social Relevance project on “Analysis of CSR activities
adopted by ITC Ltd.” during the academic year 2019-2020.

The report work is original and the information/data included in the report
is true to the best of my Knowledge. Due credit is extended on the work of
Literature/Secondary Survey by endorsing it in the Bibliography as per
prescribed format.

Name: ARCHANA HARIA

Date: (Signature of Student)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Final year projects need thorough research and this activity has given me the
opportunity to have a holistic perspective. Through my extensive study of subject,
I was able to explore its various aspects and I want to acknowledge the people
who have made this process simpler and enriching.

I would first like to thank Prof Javed for giving me this opportunity and providing
guidance whenever required. I would also like to extend my most sincere
gratitude to Prof Aruna Deshpande & Prof Smita Shukla, whose never-ending
support helped to complete this project with ease.

Finally, I am thankful to the admin staff of ADMI for extending their vital support
and co-ordination whenever required

This project has given me the opportunity to understand the importance of various
CSR activities and how they are beneficial to the growth of both the Country &
particular Company. The experience and the knowledge acquired during the
project have been invaluable to say the least and will help me a great deal in my
career.

Archana Haria

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 Table Of Contents

Sr No. Topic Page No.

1 Introduction 1

2 Objective of the study 3

3 Significance of CSR 4

4 About ITC Limited 6

5 CSR Philosophy of ITC Limited 16

6 CSR Initiative of ITC Limited 19

6.1 e-Choupal 23

6.2 Afforestation 31

6.3 Soil and Moisture Conservation 35

6.4 Livestock Development 38

6.5 Women Empowerment 40

6.6 Primary Education 44

6.7 Skilling and Vocational Training 47

6.8 Health and Sanitation 49

6.9 Well-being Out of Waste 52

6.10 Pioneering the Green Building Movement 54

7 COVID-19 CSR Activity by ITC Limited 56

8 Conclusion 60

9 Bibliography 61

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 Chapter - 1 Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a

business model. CSR functions as a self-regulatory mechanism where a business monitors &
then ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and national or
international norms.

Based on the realization, business cannot succeed in a society that fails, CSR is being considered
as an imperative for carrying on business in the society rather than as a charity. While CSR is
relevant in business for all societies, it is particularly significant for developing countries like
India, where limited resources for meeting the ever growing aspirations and diversity of a
pluralistic society, make the process of sustainable development more challenging.

CSR aims to embrace responsibility for corporate actions and to encourage a positive impact on
the environment and stakeholders including consumers, employees, investors, communities,
and others.

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Common CSR actions include:

• Environmental sustainability: recycling, waste management, water management,

renewable energy, reusable materials, 'greener' supply chains, reducing paper use and
adopting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building standards.

• Community involvement: This can include raising money for local charities, providing
volunteers, sponsoring local events, employing local workers, supporting local
economic growth, engaging in fair trade practices, etc.

• Ethical marketing: Companies that ethically market to consumers are placing a higher
value on their customers and respecting them as people who are ends in themselves.
They do not try to manipulate or falsely advertise to potential consumers. This is
important for companies that want to be viewed as ethical.

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Chapter - 2 Objectives of the study

Primary Objective:

• The aim of this project is to study about the CSR philosophy implemented by ITC.

Sub- Objectives:

• To analyse the various initiatives of ITC with regards to CSR.

• To study the impact of the work done by ITC in the real world.

• To analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the ITC CSR programmes.

Methodology:

• Descriptive and analytical methodology is used for the purpose of research.

• The data is collected through mainly secondary sources such as books, articles, books, e-
sources.

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Chapter - 3 Significance of CSR

It’s very crucial that your company operates in a way that shows social responsibility.
Consumers are aware about the importance of social responsibility & actively seeks products
from businesses that operate ethically. CSR shows that business takes an interest in wider social
issues, rather than just looking for the profit margins, which will attract customers who share
the same values. Therefore, it makes good business sense to operate sustainably.

Some clear benefits of corporate social responsibility are:

• It Improves the public image of the company. This is important, as consumers assess
Company’s public image when deciding whether to buy from you. Something simple, like
staff members volunteering an hour a week at a charity, shows that Company is committed
to helping others. As a result, you’ll appear much more favourable to consumers.

• It helps in increased brand awareness and recognition. If company is committed to

ethical practices, then this news will spread and then more people will therefore hear about
the brand of company, which creates an increased brand awareness.

• It helps to reduce the Costs. Many simple changes which in favour of sustainability, like
using less packaging, will help to decrease company’s production costs.

• It gives you an age over competitors. By embracing CSR, company stand out from
competitors in your industry. You establish yourself as a company committed to going one
step further by considering social and environmental factors.

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• It helps in increased customer engagement. If company is using sustainable systems,
post it on your social media channels and create a story out of your efforts. Furthermore,
company should show efforts to local media outlets in the hope they’ll give it some
coverage. Customers will follow this and engage with your brand and operations.

• Greater employee engagement. It’s proven that employees enjoy working more for a
company that has a good public image than one that doesn’t. By showing that you’re
committed to things like human rights, you’re much more likely to attract and retain the
top candidates.

• More benefits for employees. There are various benefits for your employees when
company embrace CSR. Company’s workplace will be a more positive and by promoting
things like volunteering, you encourage personal and professional growth.

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Chapter - 4 About ITC Ltd.

• ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of US
$ 50 billion and Gross Sales Value of US $ 10 billion.

• ITC has a diversified presence in FMCG, Cigarettes, Hotels, Information Technology,

Packaging, Paperboards & Specialty Papers and Agri-Business.

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• As one of India's most valuable and respected corporations, ITC is widely perceived to be
dedicatedly nation-oriented.

• ITC believes that its aspiration to create enduring value for the nation provides the motive
force to sustain growing shareholder value.

• ITC practices this philosophy by driving each of its businesses towards international
competitiveness & by consciously contributing to enhancing the competitiveness of the
larger value chain of which it is a part.

• ITC's aspiration to be shining example in sustainability practices is clearly evident in its

status as the only company in the world, of its size & diversity, to be carbon, water and
solid waste recycling positive.

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Business Portfolio:

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ITC’s Values:

1. Vision:

Strengthen ITC’s position as India’s most valuable corporations through world class performance,
creating growing value for the Indian economy and the Company’s stakeholders.

2. Mission:

To increase & expand the wealth generating capability of ITC in a globalising environment, delivering
superior and sustainable stakeholder value.

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3. Core Values:

• Developing a customer-focused, high-performance organisation which creates value for

all its stakeholders.

• ITC believes that its core values of trusteeship, customer focus, respect for people,
excellence, innovation and nation orientation have been the guiding principles behind
the Company's phenomenal growth, helping it to become one of India's most admired
and valued enterprises.

Strengths:

• ITC has a strong and experienced management

• Strong brand presence, excellent products advertising

• Diversified product and services portfolio which includes FMCG, Hotel chains, paper &
packaging and agri-business

• Over 6500 e-Choupal CSR activities and sustainability initiatives enhance ITC’s brand image
reaching over 4 million farmers

• ITC limited employees over 25,000 people

• Excellent research and development facilities

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Weaknesses:

• ITC is still dependant on its tobacco revenues and people have cheaper substitutes and other
brands

• Hotel industry has not been able to create a huge market share

1. Tap rural markets and increase penetration in urban areas

2. Mergers and acquisitions to strengthen the brand

• Increasing purchasing power of people thereby increasing demand

• More publicity of hotel chains to increase market share Threats

1. Strict govt regulations and policies regarding cigarettes

2. Intense and increasing competition amongst other FMCG companies

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Awards and Recognitions:

1. The inaugural ‘World Business Award’ in 2004

• Recognises companies which have made significant efforts to create sustainable livelihood
opportunities and enduring wealth in developing countries. Sponsored by UNDP, ICC and
Business leader's forum jointly

2. The development Gateway award in 2005

• For trailblazing e-Choupal. ITC is first Indian company and second in the world to receive this
award for its contribution towards development initiatives.

3. The Stockholm Challenge Award

• For using information technology in economic development of rural areas: e-Choupal

4. The corporate social responsibility Crown award

• For water practices from UNESCO and water digest

5. TERI corporate award for social responsibility 2008

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 • For integrated watershed programme implemented in 7 states.

6. Golden Peacock Awards for 'Corporate Social Responsibility (Asia)' in 2007

7. Annual FICCI Outstanding Vision Corporate Triple Impact Award in 2007

• For its invaluable contribution to the triple bottom line benchmarks of building economic, social
and natural capital for the nation.

8. The Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practice Award 2008 jointly instituted by the Bombay
Stock Exchange, Times Foundation and the NASSCOM Foundation.

9. United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Award

10. Readers' Digest Pegasus Award

• For corporate social responsibility, recognising outstanding work done by socially conscious
companies.

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Chapter - 5 CSR Philosophy of ITC

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.

ITC is committed to a national agenda of raising agricultural productivity and making the rural
economy more socially inclusive. ITC believes that the urgency and scale of these tasks make
market linked solutions and innovations more effective and sustainable than capital intensive
approaches.

Philosophy:

ITC's intent is to make a positive difference to society. ITC recognises that it cannot do it all &
hence bias will be towards doing fewer projects which will have greater impact and focusing
initiatives on communities in which the Company lives and operates.

Policy:

• To pursue a corporate strategy that will help to achieve goals of shareholder value enhancement
and societal value creation in a mutually synergistic manner.

• To align your Company's operations with the national objective of inclusive growth and
employment generation.

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• To implement CSR programmes in the economic vicinity of Company's operations with a view
to ensuring the long term sustainability of such interventions.

• To collaborate with communities and institutions to contribute to the national mission of

eradicating poverty and hunger, especially in rural areas, through various initiatives.

• To continuously improve standards of Health ,Safety & Environment through the collective
endeavour of Company and its employees at all levels.

• To encourage the development of human capital of the country by expanding human capabilities
through skills development, vocational training etc. programmes.

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Implementation:

• This policy of ITC Ltd. is communicated to all employees of company in an appropriate

and meaningful manner.

• ITC Ltd. Units have appropriate systems & processes in place to ensure the compliance
with the Policy and with statutory provisions, including processing of grievances for
redressal.

• Divisional Chief Executives, through members of the respective Management

Committees, will ensure the implementation of this Policy.

• Compliance with the Policy will be regularly monitored and evaluated by the
Sustainability Compliance Review Committee of the Corporate Management
Committee.

• The report of the Sustainability Compliance Review Committee will be reviewed by the
Corporate Management Committee every quarter. The CSR & Sustainability Committee
of the Board will supervise the implementation of this Policy.

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Chapter - 6 CSR Initiatives of ITC

ITC's philosophy is compatible with the national goals of sustainable development and inclusive
growth. Various environmental & Social initiatives are taken by ITC to ensure sustainable
growth. Some of the key initiatives taken by ITC as follows:

1. Environment Initiatives:

• Carbon Positive- 8years in a row (storing twice the amount of CO2 that the company emits)

• Water positive- 11years in a row (creating/ storing water 2 times through rainwater harvesting
than ITC’s net consumption)

• Solid waste recycling positive- from last 6 years.

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2. Social Initiatives:

• Generate livelihood for 5 million people.

• ITC’s e-Choupal benefits over 4 million farmers.

• Over 1,25,000 hectares of barren land have been greened through ITC’s Farm &

Forestry initiatives.

• ITC’s Watershed development programme brings water to dry & water stresses area which
cover over 90,000 hectares of land.

• Imparting education to farmers, women, children and to other un-educated backward classes.

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Various Initiatives of ITC :

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Some of the key initiatives taken by ITC for improvement of livelihood of disadvantaged sections of
society and the reach of initiatives is mentioned in table below :

Sr. No. Initiatives Milestones

1 e – Choupal 4 million farmers empowered,

6,500 e-Choupals installed

2 Social & Farm Forestry 114,428 hectares greened,

generating 51.48 million person - days of

employment
3 Watershed Development 56,951 hectares brought under soil and
moisture conservation

4 Women's Empowerment 15,378 women members

1183 self - help groups

5 Livestock Development 176 Cattle Development Centres

3,520 villages covered annually

6 Primary Education 252,329 children covered through 2,334
Supplementary Learning Centres

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6.1 The e-Choupal Initiative:

e-Choupal is a Hindi word which means “village meeting place”. Market is meeting place where
sellers/ customers come together to do the transactions. The v is a virtual market place where
farmers can do the transaction, facilitated by an internet linked computer, directly with a
purchaser and can realize better price for their produce.

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The e-Choupal is a internet-based initiative of ITC Ltd. offering farmers required information
about products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve price realizations
and cut transaction costs. Due to this initiative farmers can access latest local and global
information on weather, market price & scientific farming practices at the village itself.

The serviced are provided through this web portal in different languages. Basically, an eChoupal
is a desktop computer with internet access, housed in a small room, costing under three lakhs
to set up and about Rs 10,000 annually to maintain. The e-Choupal also provides daily need
items manufactured by ITC.

“e-Choupal” has become the largest private sector initiative among all Internet-based interventions in
rural India.

e-Choupal services today reach out to more than 40 lakh farmers growing a range of
cropssoybean, Coffee, wheat, rice pulses, shrimp- in over 40,000 villages through 6450 kiosks
across 8 states [M.P., Karnataka, A.P., Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu].
It has future plans to cover 100,000 villages or one sixth of rural India, within a decade.

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Principle of the e-Choupal:

The principle of the e-Choupal is to inform, empower and complete. At the same time ITC has also
extracted value in four steps to make the model sustainable and scaleable:

1] Elimination of non-value added activities.

2] Differentiated product through identity preserved supply chains.

3] Value added products traceable to farm, practices.

4] e-market place for spot transactions and support services to future exchange.

One ITC’s managerial competence to execute a complex project and manage the costs. ITC
Limited adopted a flexible project and manage the costs. ITC Limited adopted a flexible project
management approach called “roll out, fix it and scale up” to deal with uncertainties in a
pioneering model.

Problems before e- Choupal was introduced:

Traditionally, these commodities were procured in mandis where the middleman used to make
most of the profit. These middlemen used unfair means to judge the quality of the product to

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set the price. Difference in price for good quality and inferior quality was very less, and because
of that there was no incentive for the farmers to invest and produce good quality output. With
e-Choupal, the farmers have a choice and the exploitative power of the middleman is
neutralised.

ITC platform that facilitates flow of information and knowledge, and supports market transactions on
line.

1. It transmits Information (weather, prices, news),

2. It transfers Knowledge (farm management, risk management)

3. It facilitates sales of Farm Inputs (screened for quality) and

4. It offers the choice of an alternative Output-marketing channel (convenience, lower transaction

costs) to the farmer right at his doorstep

5. It is an interlocking network of partnerships (ITC + Met Dept + Universities + Input COs +

Sanyojaks, the erstwhile Commission Agents) bringing the best-inclass in information,
knowledge and inputs.

e-Choupal is, thus, distributed transaction platform that brings together sellers, buyers along
with information and service providers. e-choupal is a model with a number of nonconventional
characteristics namely:

1. customer centric

2. easily scalable once it is verified

3. uses local talent and local people and develops local leaders

4. can be extended to local as well as global procurers

5. stimulates local entrepreneurs to extend their innovativeness

6. uses all the existing institutions and legal frameworks and

7. many others can join the market as transaction time is low.

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Critical success factors:

The e-Choupal experience highlights that ICT platforms can provide rural connectivity and
ecommerce support. These platforms have enormous potential provided they are conceptualized
for the specific needs of the community and business. Some of the elements that helped the
eChoupal to work successfully are discussed below:

Comprehensive knowledge of rural markets: Rural markets are both economic and social
networks and there is a strong connection between the operation of social and economic
transactions. Understanding the operations is vital before the systems are conceptualized. Use
of local population, as much as possible helped the network to get the acceptance closely.

Designing a Win-Win transaction model: The success of e-Choupal comes from the condition
in which both the farmer and the processor share the benefits coming out of the elimination of
middle men and hence due to timely information availability.

Leveraging the logistics channels: The existing logistics of the rural markets are leveraged but
they are not able to exploit the information asymmetry (unlike that in a conventional market).
In that sense e-choupal uses the local institutions but eliminates the information asymmetry that
they used previously.

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Selection of Sanchalak: Both the selection of Sanchalak and the acceptance of Sanchalak by
the community are very critical for the success of e-Choupal. ITC used a trial and error method
for developing the procedure for selecting Sanchalaks. In the platform terminology Sanchalak
is the interface for maintaining the platform. For the farmer the Sanchalak is the e-Choupal.
Training and sensitizing him for the crucial role has been the main reason for the acceptance of
the Sanchalak by the farmers. Sanchalak, thus, acts as the coordinator of the knowledge
community, and a representative of farming community.

Evolving an appropriate user interface: The Technology interface used in rural areas has to
be very simple. Interface has to be tried for rural settings and only after its validation it has to
be used. Firstly, one has to understand the user pattern and secondly, it has to be tried, tested
and validated. For example, farmers do not understand the concept of insurance. e-Choupal
evolved a simple interfacing arrangement that a farmer can understand.

Bottom-up model for entrepreneurship: e-Choupal encourages enormous amount of

creativity at the local level along with local entrepreneurship stimulation. The farmer and
Sanchalak are free to use the e-choupal and develop new uses. e-Choupal unleashes the creative
spirit in the rural India.

Effects of e-Choupal:

• ITC Ltd. has now successfully established computers and Internet access in rural regions
of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale of their produce with
ITC Ltd. It also enable the farmers to obtain information on mandi prices & place orders
for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers in improving the
quality of produce, and also helps in realizing a better price.

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• Due to the e-Choupal services, farmers have seen a rise in their income levels because
of rise in yields, improvement in quality of output and a fall in transaction costs. Even
small farmers have gained from the initiative.

Customized and relevant knowledge is offered to the farmers despite heterogeneous

cultures, climates and scales of production. Farmers can get real-time information
despite their physical distance from the “mandis”.

• The system saves procurement costs for ITC Limited. The model is quite different from
the other models, as the farmers do not pay for the information and knowledge they get
from e-Choupals.

The principle of the e-Choupals is to inform, empower and compete. At the same time
ITC Limited also has extracted value in four steps to make the model sustainable and
scaleable:

1. elimination of non-value added activities

2. differentiated product through identity preserved supply chains

3. value added products traceable to farm practices

4. e-market place for spot transactions and support services to futures exchange

• One of the factors leading to e-Choupal’s success is ITC’s managerial expertise in

executing complex projects and managing costs. ITC Limited adopted a flexible project

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 management approach called “roll out, fix it, and scale up” to deal with uncertainties in
a pioneering model.

Advantages of e-Choupal:

• The main attractiveness of e-Choupal is that it eliminates the middleman and can be
used for connecting large producers/ small producers and small users/large users.

• Internet is used as a low transaction cost backbone for communication. Indian market
has inadequate physical, social and institutional infrastructure that is substituted by
intermediaries and they also value to the chain ion every step.

• The e-Choupal model demonstrates that a large business corporation can play a major
role in recognizing rural markets and increasing the efficiency of an agricultural system,
while doing so in ways that benefit farmers and rural communities as well as
shareholders.

• The e-Choupal model also shows the key role of information technology provided and
maintained by a corporation, but used by local farmers-in helping bring about
transparency, increased access to information and rural transformation, critical factors
in the apparent success of the venture are:

1] ITC’s extensive knowledge of agriculture.

2] The efforts ITC has made to retain many aspects of the existing production system.

3] Including maintenance of local partners are treated.

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6.2 ITC’s Afforestation Programme:

Creating the livelihood, Nourishing the environment:

A key plank in ITC’s natural resource management strategy and a pioneering venture in
wasteland development, ITC’s Afforestation Programme brings multiple social and
environmental benefits. It enables farmers who own wastelands and lands with low levels of
productivity to grow commercially viable pulpwood plantations, thereby turning an
unproductive asset into a profitable one.

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R&D to improve productivity:

To ensure the commercial viability of these plantations, ITC invested in extensive R&D to
develop fast-growing clonal saplings that are disease-resistant and have a higher rate of survival
in harsh conditions.

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Under the Social Forestry component of the Programme, tribal and marginal farmers are assisted with
loans, subsidised clonal stock and extension services.

Farm Forestry targets farmers with investible incomes. On harvest, farmers are free to transact at
will and sell to whoever they choose.

Adopting this rather difficult option of mobilising tribal and marginal farmers which required
long gestation and substantial investment exposure has not only created a source of sustainable
livelihoods for a large number of poor families, but has generated large-scale green cover that
contributes significantly to soil conservation and carbon sequestration.

Securing the future with Agro-forestry:

The recently introduced Agro-forestry model, which combines tree growing with field crop
production, ensures both food and wood security as well as helps in the conservation of precious
natural resources.

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ITC Ltd. has been awarded with the Forest Management certification from the Forest
Stewardship Council, which confirms compliance with the highest international benchmarks of
plantation management.

Today, ITC's Afforestation Programme coupled with the Agro-Forestry Programme covers over
720,300 acres and has provided over 131 million person-days of employment.

Carbon positive:

In addition, the plantations have also helped sequester over 5,400 KT of CO2 in 2017-18 and play
a major role in maintaining ITC's carbon positive status over the past 13 years.

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6.3 Soil & Moisture Conservation:

Recognising the vital role played by water and irrigation in the rural economy, ITC’s Soil &
Moisture Conservation Programme supports watershed development projects in water-stressed
areas, developing precious water resources for agriculture, rural communities and livestock.

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The focus is on building, reviving and maintaining water harvesting structures as well as
implementing other measures which help to reverse land degradation, provide critical irrigation
and increase agricultural productivity.

Adopting a participatory approach, ITC works with NGOs to mobilise local communities to
form water user groups. These groups are trained to carry out the entire spectrum of activities
from planning to execution, including monitoring of work and future maintenance of structures.
The groups are also trained to formulate regulations and fix water user charges which go
towards creating a fund used to maintain existing structures and build new ones.

Initiated in 2001, the programme today covers 14 states across the country. The total watershed
area covered under soil & moisture conservation is over 968,400 acres, benefiting over 301,200
households.

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There are over 14,800 water harvesting structures and over 2,600 functioning Water User
Groups. Civil work on structures generated over 5 million person-days of employment,
particularly benefiting the landless.

Projects under the programme have made a significant contribution in ITC maintaining its water
positive footprint for 16 years in a row.

ITC has also entered into public-private-people partnerships with several state governments and
NABARD, bringing together government and corporate resources to undertake watershed
development projects with considerably greater scale and impact. Currently, these PPP projects
are targeting to cover over 509,000 acres in some of India’s most drought-prone regions

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6.4 Livestock Development Programme:

Animal husbandry plays an important role in the economy of rural India with over 70% of
households owning milch animals. Adopting an integrated animal husbandry services approach,
ITC’s Programme aims to assist cattle-owners to increase the productivity of their animals and
improve milk quality.

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Targeting marginal households, comprehensive services, including artificial insemination,
animal feed and healthcare management, are provided right at the doorstep through village
Cattle Development Centres managed by trained local community members.

Milk yields from cross-bred progeny are significantly higher, generating substantial
supplementary incomes from surplus milk sales, paving the way for dairying to emerge as a
viable livelihood option. This income also acts as a cushion in times of crop failure.

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6.5 Women Empowerment Programme:

Specifically designed for women from economically weaker sections of rural communities,

ITC’s Women Empowerment Programme aims to provide them with sustainable economic livelihood
opportunities through financial assistance as well as skills training.

Women are motivated to form micro-credit self-help groups so that they can build up small savings,
finance self-employment and micro-enterprises.

ITC's initiative provide sustainable economic opportunities to poor women in rural areas by
assisting them to form self help groups that enable them to build small savings and finance self
employment and micro-enterprise.

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The programme has demonstrated that extra incomes in the hands of women lead to positive changes
in human development since it is largely invested in children's education, health and nutrition.

ITC is also working towards making agriculture more inclusive by enabling marginal women farmers
to enhance their knowledge and skills in modern agricultural practices. Farmer field schools exclusively
for women agriculturalists cover a wide range of best practices, such as improved seeds and balanced
fertilisers, as well as techniques for scientific land use and water conservation.

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Assisted by ITC, women’s self-help groups have recently started farm mechanisation equipment hire
centres and tree sapling nurseries.

Acting collectively, women have also formed solid waste management groups that undertake
door-to-door garbage collection, segregation of waste as well as making and selling organic
manure.

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These small ventures have the potential to grow into successful and profitable independent enterprises
in the future.

One of ITC’s interventions targets Ultra Poor women with the objective of mainstreaming them
socio-economically over a period of time. ITC assists these women with productive income
generating assets, supported with intensive handholding, counseling, on-job assistance, training
and local level facilitation with the aim of bringing them into the financial mainstream.

Enabling women to earn independent incomes has a positive impact on their families and
communities as it is spent largely on their children’s education, health and nutrition and is a
powerful.

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6.6 Primary Education Programme:

ITC’s Primary Education Programme addresses the lack of quality primary education in rural
communities. Aiming to strengthen the government primary schools’ vast network by stemming
drop-outs, increasing enrolments and improving learning outcomes.

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The Programme puts in place mutually reinforcing interventions that are coordinated to support
a move towards child friendly schools.

Infrastructural assistance is provided to government schools, ranging from books, teaching aids
and furniture to classrooms, separate toilets for boys and girls, libraries, cooking/kitchen
facilities and playground /sports equipment.

Focusing particularly on sanitation and health, students and teachers are trained on WASH
(Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) principles, and students are motivated to form WATSAN (Water
and Sanitation) Committees and Child Cabinets to take ownership of WASH areas in schools,
helping to promote behavioural change among children in their formative years.

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The Read India Plus initiative, in partnership with the NGO, Pratham, was introduced in 2013.

Utilising an innovative pedagogy, it is geared towards helping children between the ages of 614 to
achieve all five competencies – Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Doing.

The Programme also works to strengthen school management committees and build capacity among
teachers to ensure that infrastructure can be sustainably maintained in the long run.

Active engagement with parents is encouraged, towards developing collaborative partnerships

in building the community’s stake in ensuring that more and more children are able to complete
their schooling.

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6.7 Skilling & Vocational Training:

ITC’s skilling initiative for boys and girls focuses on employability and employment linkages with
the larger purpose of empowering rural communities and creating sustainable livelihood
opportunities.

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This initiative of ITC aims to build relevant market skills so as to make young boys & girls
which are potential job seekers industry-ready and employable in the manufacturing and service
sectors. It focuses on the most marginalised sections of communities, including women.

As part of ITC’s affirmative action plan, it also targets Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
– among the most socially and economically disadvantaged.

The initiative offers training in market-linked skills for the hospitality, automotive, electrical, retail,
computer and construction sectors as well as in a range of trades and services – tailoring, beautician,
bedside nursing and security. Courses run for 4 to 12 weeks, depending on the skill.

On completion, placement camps are organised to facilitate employment opportunities.

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6.8 Health & Sanitation Initiative:

Open defecation remains a persistent and pervasive problem across the country. It is particularly
acute in rural areas where there is a lack of awareness regarding the causality between open
defecation and health related issues, especially of diarrhoeal diseases which are a major cause
of child mortality in India.

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ITC’s Health & Sanitation initiative seeks to address this serious issue by supporting the
building and usage of low-cost family-owned toilets in the catchments of its manufacturing
units, the majority of which are located in rural areas.

ITC’s strategy is centred on galvanising a people’s movement and mobilising empowered

grassroots institutions that take the lead in building family-owned toilets. Intensive awareness
generation programmes customised to target men, women and children combined with a

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mandatory financial contribution from participating families help to ensure high and sustained
usage levels of the constructed toilets. Wherever possible, the initiative works in active
collaboration with government sanitation schemes.

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6.9 Well-being Out of Waste ( WOW ) Initiative:

In line with its commitment to creating larger environmental and societal value through
collaborative action, ITC launched its Well-being Out of Waste (WOW) initiative a few years
ago to promote resource conservation and recycling. WOW creates awareness about the
importance of “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” in protecting and restoring the environment among the
general public, school children, corporates and people from every walk of life.

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It also inculcates the habit of source segregation and provides recyclables for a number of industries,
eg. paper, glass, plastic, etc.
Implemented in collaboration with municipal corporations, today WOW is operational in 562
municipal wards of Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Delhi, Muzaffarpur and
major districts in Andhra Pradesh. Over 77 lakh citizens, 33 lakh school children and 2,000
corporates are supporting WOW, which helps augment green cover, conserves scarce natural
resources, makes surroundings clean and healthy.

The initiative has also created livelihood opportunities for 14,500 rag pickers and waste
collectors. Similar community-managed projects are also operational in several villages and
towns in 13 districts across 8 states.

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6.10 Pioneering the Green Building Movement in India:

Reflecting its commitment to a green growth strategy, ITC has been in the forefront of the green
building movement in India. Green buildings are a vital plank in ITC’s agenda for positive
environmental action.

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ITC’s luxury hotels are LEED Platinum certified. Currently ITC has 23 Platinum rated green
buildings — including factories and employee residences. Some of these properties have also
received 5 star ratings from GRIHA, the highest Indian rating for green buildings, and the
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
Headquarters of ITC’s Hotels Division, The ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon, is the highest rated
green building in the world. In 2004, the centre was one of the first and largest commercial
buildings in the world to receive Platinum LEED certification from the US Green Building
Council (USGBC).

ITC Grand Chola in Chennai is the world’s largest LEED Platinum hotel. Recently, ITC
Sankhya, the ITC Group’s data centre in Bengaluru, received the LEED Platinum certification,
becoming the world’s first data centre to receive the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s)
highest certification.

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 Chapter - 7 COVID-19
CSR Activity by ITC Limited

As part of the multiple initiatives undertaken by ITC in India's fight against the Coronavirus, the
company is working closely with district administrations across 17 states in the country to provide
essential food items like atta, noodles, biscuits & juices and hygiene products like soaps for people in
distress.

This initiative is currently going on in full swing with more than 1 million pieces of Savlon soaps, 3
lakh packets of YiPPee! noodles, nearly 6 lakh packets of Sunfeast biscuits and 1.5 lakh packs of B
Natural fruit juices being delivered to district authorities till date. In some parts, the police
administration has requested for soaps for their personnel which has also been provided. Savlon soaps
have also been provided for district health centres in some states including West Bengal.

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ITC Foods Distributing food items to children and the elderly:

To provide support to the children and senior citizens across Indian households, ITC Foods is sending
food supplies across the country through its ‘Aashirvaad Box of Hope’ and ‘Sunfeast Box
of Happiness’ initiative. ITC has joined hands with 3 leading NGOs building a seamless network to
deliver essential food supplies to those severely impacted by the current lockdown. With support from
the State Government, ITC’s Foods Division has also provided help to the residents of Bhilwara district
in Rajasthan, one of the worst affected districts by distributing 10 kilograms of Aashirvaad Atta to
cover approximately a month-long staple requirement and some snacks like Bingo! for the members of
some of the families from the region.

Distribution of cooked meals:

Given the urgent requirement to provide cooked meals to migrant workers and needy people across the
country, ITC Hotels, as well as ITC factories, are providing extensive support to Governments across
different states, based on the requirements of the local administration as well as hospitals. ITC Maurya
and Sheraton in New Delhi have been providing over 1500 meals daily for distribution to migrant
workers. ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru is lending its support with 1000 food packets daily for 15 days
(15000 meals) to the Municipal Corporation. ITC Grand Central in Mumbai has made arrangements to
deliver meals to doctors in MG Hospital. Food has also been catered to doctors at the Kasturba Hospital
in Mumbai by ITC Grand Central. Fortune Hotel in Lucknow is also lending assistance through the
provision of more than 1000 meals per day. This initiative will be progressively rolled out in other
metros based on the need. ITC’s Paperboards Business has been distributing over 1400 meals to migrant

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labourers around the factory in Bhadrachalam. In addition, ITC factories in Saharanpur, UP well as ITC
teams in Patna have been providing more than 3500 cooked meals per day in proximate areas.

Distribution of Hygiene Products:

In addition to providing meals, ITC Hotel properties in Jaipur and Goa have made meaningful
contributions by providing shower caps for doctors and healthcare workers as well as ensuring the
availability of sanitisers.

In Bhadrachalam, ITC’s Paper and Paperboards Division distributed masks and hand gloves to truck
drivers as well as sanitisers to public health workers in Secunderabad. The Business also disinfected
around 18 villages around the Bhadrachalam factory. Awareness programmes were also conducted by
the Well Being out of Waste Teams in 16 districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

ITC’s Corona Contingency Fund of Rs 150 crore:

As an organisation committed to serving national priorities, ITC has taken several other initiatives over
the last few weeks to support lives and livelihoods during the unprecedented crisis posed by the
Coronavirus pandemic. ITC has set up a Contingency Fund of Rs 150 crore to provide relief to the
vulnerable and most needy sections of society who have been harshly impacted by the pandemic. In
support of the Government’s efforts in mitigating the crisis, ITC pledged its contribution of Rs 100
crore to the #PMCaresFunds.

Ensuring Distribution of Essential Commodities to Consumers:

To ensure the availability of essential items such as ITC’s different Food products and Savlon hygiene
products across the country, ITC's entire supply chain right from Agri sourcing to production to
distribution is working tirelessly battling all odds to ensure that consumers are not inconvenienced on
account of shortages or unavailability. ITC has also been working closely with Government authorities

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and local administration to ensure that manufacturing and distribution of ITC’s essential commodities
continue uninterrupted with minimum people. ITC has redoubled its efforts to ensure a heightened level
of precaution and has implemented strict protocols for personal hygiene, sanitation and social
distancing in its factories that are producing essential commodities. For those who have to work in
factories or maintain supplies in markets, every safety precaution including the supply of sanitizers,
protective gear, masks, regular temperature checks, staggered work timings and availability of 24x7
medical support have been implemented.

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Chapter – 8 Conclusion

The study concludes that CSR is inevitable and is part of inclusive and wider sustainable
development goal of the company. CSR today is the pillar under which every company stands
on. Hence, it is beneficial to act responsibly.

Companies globally are making efforts of giving back to the society through donations and
charities. Companies do make impact through their business initiatives like infrastructure
development, human rights address and labour laws, environment protection and other vital
social amenities in the name of CSR

ITC being a very large company and working across different sectors of business is actively
engaged in CSR activities having a vision to serve a larger National Purpose of Nation Building
through core values so that every part of the society have the chance and the accessibility to the
basic needs which the rural India doesn’t have through imparting assistance and education to
uplift them from poverty and misery these people have been facing from a very long time.

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Chapter - 9 Bibliography

The project report has been prepared with the help of information collected from the following sources
:-

• https://www.itcportal.com/

• https://www.itcportal.mobi/sustainability/corporate-social responsibility.aspx

• http://www.csrworld.net/itc-limited-corporate-citizenship.asp

• https://acadpubl.eu/hub/2018-119-17/2/149.pdf

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/insead/2013/08/14/when-it-comesto-csr size-matters

• http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Government-and Public-Sector-

Corporate-Social-Responsibility-in-India / $File /EY Corporate-SocialResponsibility-in-

India.pdf

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• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276898741_Managing_Levels_of_CSR
_Implementation_in_an_MNC_The_Role_of_Receptivity_to_Institutional_Pressu res

• https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/makingthe-most-ofcorporate-
social-responsibility

• http://www.e-ir.info/2012/06/08/the-role-of-corporate social-responsibilityhuman-rights-
considerations-among-multinational-corporations/

• https://www.futurescape.in/

• http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/214/the-flipside-ofcorporate-socialresponsibility-
csr

• http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/214/the-flipside-ofcorporate-socialresponsibility-
csr

• https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2011/08/itc-e-choupal-empowering-rural-indiaresearch/

• http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=corporate-social-responsibility-- (CSR)

• https://www.

• highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/importance-of-corporate-socialresponsibility/

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