ITC LTD. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) ACTIVITIES.

Introduction:
ITC Limited was incorporated on August 24,1910 under the name of Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited at Radha Bazar Lane, Kolkata. Later it was renamed as Indian Tobacco Company. in 1974.It is one of the Indias foremost private sector companies with a market of approx $14 billion. Its range of products includes: Cigarettes & Tobacco, Hotels, Information Technology, Paperboards & Specialty Papers , Agri -Exports, Foods, Lifestyle Retailing and Greeting Gifting & Stationary.

Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large"

CSR OF ITC LTD.

CSR-Corporate social responsibilities undertaken by ITC are e-choupal, Social & Farm Forestry, Watershed Development, Agricultural Productivity, Womens Empowerment, Livestock Development and Primary Education.

1. E-choupal :
The ITC e-Choupal initiative is a powerful illustration of a unique business model that delivers large societal value by co-creating markets with rural communities. A network of village internet kiosks e-Choupals enable even small and marginal farmers in rural India, who are de-linked from the formal market, to access real-time weather and price information, and relevant knowledge and services to enhance farm productivity,

quality and command better prices improving their competitiveness and capacity to manage risk. Complementing this digital infrastructure is Choupal Pradarshan Khet customised agri-extension services, demonstration plots and training programmes that enable farmers to access best practices and diversify crop portfolios. The ITC e-Choupal initiative has emerged as an efficient twoway channel for a variety of goods and services, and raised farmer incomes, creating sustainable livelihoods. ITC e-Choupal the worlds largest rural digital infrastructure. Empowering over 4 million farmers.

2. ITC Choupal Social & Farm Forestry:

The ITC Choupal Social & Farm Forestry Program innovatively converges business needs and social purpose growing renewable plantations that simultaneously provide a viable livelihood option for wasteland owners, create a sustainable raw material source for ITCs Paper & Paperboards Business and bring multiple environmental benefits. To ensure 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. Tribals and marginal farmers are assisted with loans, subsidized clone stock and extension services through Social Forestry, while Farm Forestry targets farmers with investible incomes. ITC offers a buy-back guarantee for their produce, though growers are free to sell to the highest bidder in the open market.

ITC could have chosen the easier route of importing pulp, rather than the more difficult option of mobilizing tribals and marginal farmers which involved long gestation and substantial investment exposure. However, adopting this more challenging route 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 groundwater recharge, soil conservation and carbon sequestration.

ITC has introduced an agro-forestry model that combines tree growing with crop production. This model ensures both food and wood security and helps in the conservation of precious natural resources. ITCs a forestation program has been conferred the Forest Management certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, in line with ITCs commitment to achieving internationally benchmarked standards for responsible wood sourcing. Greening over 1,60,000 hectares & providing over 70 million person - days of employment

3. Watershed Development:

Recognizing the vital role of water and irrigation in the rural economy, ITC supports watershed development projects in water-stressed areas, providing precious water resources for agriculture, rural communities and livestock. 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 mobilize local communities to form water user groups. These groups are trained to carry out the entire spectrum of activities from planning to execution and maintenance of water harvesting 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.

ITC has also entered into public-private 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 projects are targeting to cover nearly 1,45,000 hectares in some of Indias most drought prone regions.

4. Womens Empowerment Program:

ITC believes that economic empowerment of women strengthens families and societies. It has therefore launched the ITC Choupal Womens Empowerment Program to provide

sustainable economic opportunities to poor women in rural areas. ITC assists them to form micro-credit self-help groups so that they can build up small savings and finance self-employment and micro-enterprises. A large number of women earn incomes as self-employed workers or as partners in micro-enterprises. In particular, incense stick rolling projects have emerged as profitable microenterprises as a result of the linkage with ITCs incense sticks brand, Mangaldeep. The project in Munger is showing the way with focused business development services from ITC, women rollers have set up a co-operative to manage production of raw incense sticks and a producers company to run a scenting-cum-packaging unit.

Enabling women to earn independent incomes has a positive impact on their families and communities as it is spent largely on childrens education, health and nutrition, and is a catalyst for gendering development.

5. Supplementary Education Program:

The ITC Choupal Supplementary Education Program 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 enabling more children to complete school, ITC has set up Supplementary Learning Centres that offer additional coaching to back up learning and help children to keep up in class. The Program also provides infrastructural assistance to Government schools such as furniture, books, teaching aids, classrooms and toilets.

ITC also supports outreach projects, including mobile libraries that foster the reading habit and a roaming laptop program that promotes computer skills and interactive learning.

ITC Tops CSR

ITC Limited was ranked number 1 for the second consecutive year in the CSR category in the recently published Nielsen Corporate Image Monitor 2012-13. ITCs top position in the ratings in the category - "Most active in CSR" is an acknowledgement of the scale and impact of its sustainability initiatives which have created large scale livelihoods and augmented natural resources. ITC's businesses and value chains have created sustainable livelihoods for 5 million people, many of whom belong to the poorest sections of society. The company's performance on augmenting scarce natural resources as well as combating climate change has been globally recognized. ITC is the only company in the world to be Carbon Positive - for 7 years in a row, Water Positive for 10 years consecutively and Solid Waste Recycling Positive for 5 years now. All its luxury hotels are LEED Platinum Certified. Renewable energy constitutes nearly 40% of its total energy consumption.

As part of its 360 degree interventions in rural agricultural communities, ITC has constantly endeavored to strengthen and broad-base livelihood options through both farm and off farm activities. ITCs e-Choupal, the worlds largest rural digital infrastructure, has today empowered over 4 million farmers. ITCs integrated Watershed Development Programmed provides soil and moisture conservation to farmers in water stressed areas and helps promote sustainable agriculture, apart from contributing to ITCs water positive status. This programmed covers over 1,00,000 hectares of water stressed areas in rural India. ITCs Social and Farm Forestry Programmed, which helps rural wasteland owners to convert their land into pulpwood plantations, has greened over 1,40,000 hectares while creating livelihood opportunities for poor tribals and marginal farmers. The plantations have also sequestered over 4,380 KT of CO2 and played a major role in maintaining ITCs carbon positive status over the past 7 years.

ITCs business linked sustainability initiatives together with its social investment programmers have had a transformational impact on rural India. ITCs Livestock Development Programmed has provided animal husbandry services to over 8,00,000 milch animals, thereby providing additional income avenues for farmers. ITCs Womens Empowerment Programmed has created sustainable livelihoods for over 40,000 rural women, while ITCs Primary Education Programmed has benefitted over 3,00,000 children.