Dataset Viewer
Text
stringlengths 1.35k
2.94k
|
|---|
``` **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** **SECTION: Management Discussion and Analysis** **SECTION: For the Financial Year Ended 31st March, 2024** **SECTION: SOCIO-ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT** The global economy witnessed another year of deceleration in growth to 3.2% in 2023 (Vs. 3.5% in 2022) with the slowdown being largely attributable to Advanced Economies, particularly the Euro Area and UK, and structural weakness in the Chinese economy. Advanced Economies grew by 1.6% with the US economy belying expectations of recession with a resilient performance in 2023, registering a growth of 2.5% (Vs. 1.9% in 2022). Emerging Markets & Developing Economies grew at a relatively faster pace of 4.3% (Vs. 4.1% in 2022), though remaining well below the long period average. The recent conflict in the Middle East, extreme weather events, and the overlapping shocks of the past four years – COVID pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict, unprecedented inflation, and subsequent sharp increase in interest rates – have rendered the global macroeconomic environment highly uncertain and volatile. Going forward, aggregate global economic growth as per IMF estimates is expected to remain subdued at 3.2% in 2024, well below the historical (2000-19) annual average of 3.8%. In 2024, Advanced Economies are projected to grow at 1.7% while Emerging Markets and Developing Economies are estimated to grow at 4.2%. With expectations of inflation easing towards target levels, the timing of central banks pivoting towards policy easing in major economies remains a key monitorable in the near term. India remained a relatively bright spot amidst the global slowdown, recording robust Real GDP growth of 7.6% in FY 2023-24. Growth was primarily driven by Fixed Investments led by Government’s thrust on infrastructure creation and household investments in real estate. Private Consumption, on the other hand, grew 3.0% - its slowest pace in two decades. The weakness in consumption was reflected, inter alia, in the muted volume growth of the FMCG sector (FY 2023-24 Volume growth approx. 3% Vs. 7% p.a. average in the pre-pandemic period). While Industry and Services sectors grew by 9.0% and 7.5% respectively, growth in the Agri sector slowed to 0.7%, with adverse weather events impacting harvests. |
Going forward, the Indian economy is expected to sustain its high growth trajectory in FY 2024-25 driven by strong momentum in Fixed Investments and a pick-up in Private Consumption on the back of moderation in inflation, improvement in agri terms of trade, a good Rabi harvest, and normal monsoons. Green shoots of recovery in rural markets, improving employment conditions, and sustained momentum in manufacturing and services sectors augur well for consumption demand in the near term. India continues to be acknowledged as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world with significant headroom for growth over the medium and long-term benefiting from a slew of purposeful interventions over several years. A favourable demographic profile, increasing affluence, rapid urbanisation, and accelerated digital adoption represent some of the key structural drivers of growth of the Indian Economy. Multi-dimensional interventions undertaken by the Government of India towards expansion of physical and digital public infrastructure, enhancing the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, indirect/direct taxation, and financial sector reforms along with measures to promote ease of doing business are expected to power the economy going forward. While stepped-up capital expenditure outlay and focus on infrastructure are expected to drive growth in domestic manufacturing, focus on agri-related schemes are expected to boost farmers’ welfare and rural consumption demand, spurring a virtuous investment-employment-consumption cycle. As the Indian economy contends with uncertainties in the external environment, policy interventions focused on supporting sustainable livelihoods and fostering inclusive growth augur well for the economy. Structural support would need to be provided to sectors with large economic multiplier impact. In this regard, the development of robust domestic agri and wood-based value chains hold special importance in the Indian context given their enormous potential to contribute to national objectives. The agricultural sector is pivotal to the Indian economy, employing about half of the country’s workforce. India is amongst the leading producers in the world of several agri-commodities, including milk, rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, pulses, spices, fruits & vegetables. |
While India’s agri exports have grown strongly in recent years to a peak of US$ 53 billion in FY 2022-23, it witnessed a decline to US$ 49 billion in FY 2023-24 due to restrictions imposed during the year on agri-commodity trading led by concerns over food security and inflation on the back of geopolitical tensions and climate emergencies. India’s share of global agri-trade remains low at only about 3%. Enhancing agricultural productivity and value addition to international standards, while simultaneously improving market linkages, remain critical to enhance competitiveness of the agri sector and drive significant increase in farmers’ income. The farm sector faces enormous threats arising out of climate change as evident from the growing number of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. Given the vulnerabilities, it is critical to strengthen climate resilience and adaptability of the agri-food sector. An exponential increase in crop production and productivity, backed by climate smart agriculture, will be critical in meeting the growing needs of an increasing population as also in mitigating potential risks. Evolving consumer preferences are also driving a shift towards nutritious and sustainably sourced food products. These developments accentuate the need to enhance the competitiveness of agri value chains to cater to the dynamic market requirements of the future. India, with its tremendous strengths in this sector, has a unique opportunity to play a leading role in this global transition and in forging an eco-system of sustainable, regenerative, and climate smart agriculture. In this regard, the Government’s focus on promoting Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) holds immense potential to catalyse agricultural transformation by leveraging economies of scale, enabling sustainable agriculture, supporting market-led production, and creating larger market access. Government interventions encouraging private and public investment in post-harvest activities including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chain, primary and secondary processing, marketing, and branding are steps in the right direction and will go a long way in unlocking the full potential of the agri sector. In this context, your Company has adopted targeted collaborative models to multiply the scale and impact of its agri and rural interventions. This collaborative approach, as opposed to a traditional transactional approach, can contribute meaningfully towards building next generation agriculture that is climate resilient and capable of supporting gainful livelihoods. |
Digitalisation of agriculture also offers the potential to increase productivity and foster structural changes across the value chain thereby enabling efficient use of resources. In line with its commitment to harness the power of cutting-edge digital technologies and NextGen agri practices towards unlocking the potential of India’s farmers, your Company had launched ITCMAARS (Metamarket for Advanced Agriculture and Rural Services). The initiative continues to be scaled up rapidly and currently covers over 1.5 million farmers and over 1,650 FPOs, across 10 states and over 18,000 villages. This ‘phygital’ ecosystem continues to empower the farming community and FPOs by delivering personalised and dynamic advisory services as well as hyperlocal offerings including market linkages, agri inputs, and credit enablement. Further details on this transformative initiative are provided in the Agri Business section of this report. The Government of India had inspired the United Nations to declare 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’. This drew global attention to this ‘super-grain’ that has the potential to redefine agriculture with its unique value proposition. Millets are climate resilient crops using substantially lesser water than other staples and grow in half the time as other crops, offering a comprehensive solution for sustained nutrition and food security. Your Company has spearheaded ‘ITC Mission Millets’, leveraging its enterprise strengths in agriculture, food, and hospitality to implement multi-dimensional interventions in this area. The holistic programme follows a strategic 3-fold approach – 1) developing a ‘good-for-you’ product portfolio, 2) implementing sustainable farming systems, and 3) enhancing consumer awareness through an Educate, Empower, and Encourage approach. Your Company has implemented a focused strategy in crafting a millet-based products portfolio under its world-class Indian brands for every occasion, age, and format. To cater to the diverse needs of consumers, your Company has launched products across traditional and modern formats viz. ‘Gluten Free Flour’, ‘Multi-Millet Batter Mix’, ‘Atta with Millets’, and ‘Ragi Flour’, Vermicelli, Biscuits, Snacks, and Noodles under the ‘Aashirvaad’, ‘Sunfeast’, ‘Bingo!’ and ‘YiPPee!’ brands. These are being progressively scaled up across target markets. Your Company has also designed products that suit every meal occasion like millet idlis for breakfast, biscuits & cookies for snacking, and noodles & pasta for other meals. |
The thrust on millets is further exemplified by the Hotels Business creating easy-to-try recipes with millets to help encourage individuals to experiment with the taste and texture of millets. The first-ever postal stamp to commemorate the year of millets and your Company’s unique Mission Millets initiative was also launched by the Department of Posts during the year. In line with your Company’s commitment to empower farmers, your Company has developed a millets agri-value chain with special thrust on enhancing value-addition and market linkages. Your Company is also promoting FPOs in millet farming anchored by ITCMAARS. The Agri Business has entered into a partnership with the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), Hyderabad to promote high yielding varieties and advanced package of practices among millet farmers. Your Company remains committed to supporting the Government’s efforts to promote millets given their immense benefits in terms of nutritional properties and attributes as a planet-friendly and climate-resilient crop. It is pertinent to note that a substantial quantum of food is wasted along the chain in India, depending on the season and the inherent perishability of the crop. Higher levels of food processing in the economy can create a much larger pull for quality agri-commodities, thereby reducing farm wastages and raising farm incomes. This would require focused investments in developing product-specific climate-controlled infrastructure as well as in branded products that benefit large agri-value chains. Corporate participation is essential not only to invest in requisite infrastructure but also to provide assured market linkages to farmers. A big thrust on India’s Food Processing sector can play a pivotal role in this regard and have a large multiplier effect which will lead to significant job creation, enhance rural incomes, and help manage food inflation in a sustainable manner. In this context, the PLI Scheme for the Food Processing sector is expected to play a critical role in boosting investments, agri exports, farmer incomes, employment generation, and building Indian brands for the global market. Your Company has been included under the scheme for several of its Branded Packaged Foods Businesses and in the Agri Business, details of which are provided in the subsequent sections. |
Similarly, the Agro-forestry sector, as a source of raw material for the wood-based industry, is woefully constrained by policies that not only impede job creation in India but also promote avoidable imports. Recent policy interventions to enable greening of wastelands and providing financial assistance to members of marginalised communities taking up Agro-forestry is a commendable starting point to reverse this situation. Supportive policies in this area would go a long way in enhancing sustainable livelihoods, augmenting alternative sources of energy (bio-fuel), and enabling import substitution for wood-based industries while simultaneously augmenting the Nation’s environmental capital. Your Company’s interventions across operating segments are aligned to the national priorities of enhancing competitiveness of Indian agriculture and industry, generating large-scale employment opportunities, and supporting sustainable livelihoods, driving import substitution, creating national brands to maximise value capture in India, accelerating growth in tourism, increasing Indian agri exports, and promoting sustainable business practices. Investments made by your Company continue to be guided by the national objectives of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Doubling Farmers’ Income’ and the overarching theme of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ that seeks to make the country stronger, resilient, and more competitive. A big thrust on India’s Food Processing sector can play a pivotal role and have a large multiplier effect. The PLI Scheme for the Food Processing sector is expected to play a critical role in boosting investments, agri exports, farmer incomes, employment generation, and building Indian brands for the global market. Your Company has been included under the scheme for several of its Branded Packaged Foods Businesses as well as Agri Business. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** The collaboration with NITI Aayog, aimed at boosting agricultural and allied activities in 27 Aspirational Districts of eight states under the Aspirational Districts programme, is in its second phase. This phase focuses on internalising capability enhancement methodology for training of farmers as well as communicating the model village template amongst Government teams and agencies such as Krishi Vikas Kendras. During the year, over 12 lakh farmers were trained on package of practices for principal crops of the region as well as on livestock management, resulting in over 44 lakh cumulative farmer interactions. |
Similarly, the Government has also initiated work on 8,000 model villages based on the activities demonstrated by your Company across 1,350 villages during the initial period of the partnership. Estimates indicate yield improvement of up to 30% for cotton, maize, paddy, and soyabean in locations covered by the programme; similarly, the cost of cultivation is estimated to have reduced by nearly 15%, resulting in expansion of farmer incomes by up to 60%. Your Company is working towards developing village level institutions, promoting women agriculturists, facilitating a cadre of women service providers like Pashu Sakhis, Yojana Sakhis, Krishi Sakhis, and fostering micro entrepreneurship through Agri-Business Centres and Self-Help Groups. Custom hiring centres for farm mechanisation, post-harvest product management infrastructure, and community-managed seed banks for self-reliance in quality seed material are also being facilitated. Environmentally sustainable farm practices, including zero-till sowing of wheat, direct seeding of rice, micro-irrigation, and watershed development, continue to be promoted. Your Company’s collaboration with CGIAR’s ‘Climate Change and Food Security Programme’ to build climate smart villages was expanded to 6,755 villages across 19 states covering nearly 19 lakh acres, supporting farmers in the management of risks arising from erratic and extreme weather events. Further, according to CGIAR’s estimates, your Company’s Climate Smart Village intervention in Madhya Pradesh demonstrated an average increase in yield of 38% and 15% in soyabean and wheat respectively, over the baseline. Reduction in cost of cultivation along with yield improvement led to an increase in net income by 93% in soyabean and 46% in wheat over the baseline and average Green House Gas emissions reduced by 66% for soyabean and 13% for wheat as compared to the baseline. In villages where the intervention has been implemented for over three years, adoption rates for High-Yield and High-Resilience varieties have exceeded 70%, as against 20% in the baseline assessment. In Kapurthala District, Punjab, your Company under its flagship programme of ‘ITC Mission Sunehra Kal’ has, over the last six years, implemented solutions that have effectively substituted the burning of paddy stubble by farmers. During the year, the programme covered nearly 2.5 lakh acres with approximately 94% of the area (2.3 lakh acres) witnessing total stoppage of stubble burning, thereby avoiding approximately 1.8 lakh tonnes of carbon release into the atmosphere. |
Although India accounts for approximately 18% of the world population, its share of natural resources is disproportionately low with only 2% of global land mass, 4% of freshwater resources, and 2% of forest resources. It is more critical than ever before to redouble efforts, both at the national and corporate level, to fashion strategies that foster sustainable, equitable, and inclusive growth. It is your Company’s belief that businesses can bring about transformational change by pursuing innovative business models that synergise the creation of sustainable livelihoods and the preservation of natural capital while enhancing shareholder value. This ‘Triple Bottom Line’ approach to creating larger ‘stakeholder value’, as opposed to merely focusing on uni-dimensional ‘shareholder value’ creation, is the driving force that defines your Company’s sustainability vision and its growth path into the future. Your Company is a global exemplar in ‘Triple Bottom Line’ performance. The focus on creating unique business models that generate substantial livelihoods across the value chains has led to your Company’s Businesses supporting over six million sustainable livelihoods, many of whom belong to the weaker sections of society. Your Company sustained its ‘AA’ rating by MSCI-ESG for the sixth successive year - the highest amongst global tobacco companies. Your Company has also been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for the fourth year in a row – a reflection of being a sustainability leader in the industry and a recognition of its continued commitment to people and planet. Your Company entered the prestigious ‘A List’ for Water by CDP achieving the highest ‘A’ rating ‘Leadership Level’ (Asia and Global average of ‘C’). For CDP Climate, your Company retained its ‘A-’ rating ‘Leadership Level’ (Asia and Global average of ‘C’). ``` ``` **SECTION: Company’s Sustainability Initiatives** As a testament to your Company’s ‘Triple Bottom Line’ philosophy and Responsible Luxury ethos, all major hotel properties of your Company are LEED Platinum® certified, making your Company a trailblazer in green hoteliering globally. ITC Grand Chola, the 600-key super-premium luxury hotel complex in Chennai, is amongst the world’s largest LEED Platinum® certified green hotels. In 2020, ITC Windsor’s best practices on carbon management distinguished it as the first hotel in the world to be LEED® Zero Carbon certified. Since then, 11 more ITC Hotels have been certified as LEED® Zero Carbon. |
ITC Mughal became the first hotel globally to be awarded the LEED® Zero Water Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), followed by ITC Sonar, ITC Rajputana, and ITC Maurya which are the only other hotels globally to have been awarded the certification. Your Company’s ‘Sankhya’ data centre in Bengaluru had earlier become the first data centre in the world to be awarded the LEED® Zero Carbon certification. In addition, your Company is spearheading the implementation of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard, which is a credible, globally-applicable and recognised framework for ensuring sustainable water management within the wider water catchment context. The Kovai unit of your Company is the first site in India and the first paper mill in the world to achieve the highest Platinum rating under the ‘Alliance for Water Stewardship Standards’. During the year, five of your Company’s units received the AWS Platinum level certification. Till date, seven units of your Company have achieved Platinum level certification under the AWS Standard. Your Company is in the process of implementing the AWS Standard at other units in high water stress areas and will progressively obtain AWS certification for these sites. Your Company has been championing the urgent need to combat climate change for building a more secure future and the role it can play in enabling. Your Company sustained its ‘AA’ rating by MSCI-ESG for the 6th successive year. It has also been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for the 4th year in a row. Your Company entered the prestigious ‘A List’ for Water by CDP achieving the highest ‘A’ rating ‘Leadership Level’ (Asia and Global average of ‘C’). For CDP Climate, your Company retained its ‘A-’ rating ‘Leadership Level’ (Asia and Global average of ‘C’). **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** Your Company continues to pursue a low carbon growth strategy through extensive decarbonisation programmes across its value chains whilst also developing adaptation plans across its sites. Your Company is the only enterprise in the world of comparable dimensions to have achieved and sustained the three key global indices of environmental sustainability of being ‘water positive’ (for 22 years), ‘carbon positive’ (for 19 years), and ‘solid waste recycling positive’ (for 17 years). |
With its bold Sustainability 2.0 agenda, your Company is setting the bar even higher, and remains committed to making a meaningful contribution across all three sectors of the economy – Agri, Manufacturing, and Services, while retaining its status as a sustainability exemplar. Further details on this subject are available in the Sustainability section of this Report. **SECTION: Financial Performance** Your Company delivered a resilient performance during the year amidst a challenging macroeconomic and operating environment. - The FMCG-Others Segment turned in a strong performance in the backdrop of weak demand conditions and significant increase in competitive intensity from regional/local players. Sustained margin expansion on the back of premiumisation, delayering operations, agile cost management, and judicious pricing actions led to robust growth in operating profits. Segment Revenue for the year grew by 9.6% on a high base with Segment EBITDA growing at a significantly faster pace of 19.7% to ₹ 2338.50 crores. Segment EBITDA margins expanded by 94 bps to 11.2% during the year. - The FMCG-Cigarettes Segment witnessed consolidation on a high base after a period of sustained growth momentum. Market standing was reinforced through focused portfolio/market interventions and agile execution. Differentiated variants and premium segment performed well. - The Hotels Segment delivered stellar performance, clocking record highs in Revenue and Profits. Strong growth in RevPAR was driven by retail, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibition), and marquee events hosted in the country. Segment Revenue at ₹ 2989.50 crores and Segment EBITDA at ₹ 1049.88 crores grew by 15.6% and 26.2% respectively, on a high base. Segment EBITDA margin stood at 35.1% representing an expansion of 295 bps over the previous year. - The Agri Business had limited business opportunities during the year in the bulk commodities space due to the Government imposing stock limits and restrictions on agri-commodity exports to ensure food security and control inflation. However, the strategic portfolio of value-added agri products recorded strong growth while the overall leaf tobacco business continued to perform well. - The Paperboards, Paper & Packaging Segment had to contend with soft domestic and export demand conditions which significantly depressed net realisations, cheap Chinese supplies in international markets, unprecedented escalation in domestic wood costs, and high base effect. Overall for FY 2023-24, Gross Revenue and EBITDA stood at ₹ 69446.20 crores and ₹ 24478.61 crores respectively. |
Profit Before Tax and Exceptional items at ₹ 26323.34 crores, grew by 6.7% over the previous year. Your Company reassessed its provisions relating to uncertain tax positions for earlier years based on a favourable order of the Honourable Supreme Court received during the year which resulted in a credit of ₹ 468.44 crores in the Current Tax expense for the year. Profit After Tax grew by 8.9% to ₹ 20421.97 crores (previous year ₹ 18753.31 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 22703.03 crores (previous year ₹ 18782.57 crores). Earnings Per Share for the year stood at ₹ 16.39 (previous year ₹ 15.15). The Directors of your Company are pleased to recommend a Final Dividend of ₹ 7.50 per share for the financial year ended 31st March, 2024. Together with the Interim Dividend of ₹ 6.25 per share paid on 27th February, 2024, the total Dividend for the financial year ended 31st March, 2024 amounts to ₹ 13.75 per share (previous year Ordinary Dividend of ₹ 12.75 per share and Special Dividend of ₹ 2.75 per share). Total cash outflow on account of Dividend (including Interim Dividend of ₹ 7799.45 crores paid in February 2024) will be ₹ 17162.99 crores. **SECTION: Value-Added and Contribution to Exchequer** Over the last five years, the Value-Added by your Company, i.e. the value created by the economic activities of your Company and its employees, aggregated over ₹ 292000 crores, of which over ₹ 194000 crores accrued to the Exchequer. Including the share of dividends paid and retained earnings attributable to government-owned institutions, your Company’s contribution to the Central and State Governments represented approximately 74% of its Value-Added during the year. Your Company has, over the years, consistently ranked amongst the Top 3 Indian corporates in the private sector in terms of Contribution to Exchequer. **SECTION: Foreign Exchange Earnings** Your Company continues to view foreign exchange earnings as a priority. All Businesses in your Company’s portfolio are mandated to engage with overseas markets with a view to testing and demonstrating international competitiveness and seeking profitable opportunities for growth. Foreign exchange earnings of the ITC Group over the last ten years aggregated nearly US$ 9.3 billion, of which agri exports constituted approximately 60%. |
Earnings from agri exports, which effectively link small farmers with international markets, are an indicator of your Company’s contribution to the rural economy. During FY 2023-24, your Company and its subsidiaries earned ₹ 9512 crores in foreign exchange. The direct foreign exchange earned by your Company amounted to ₹ 7213 crores, mainly on account of exports of agri-commodities. Your Company’s expenditure in foreign currency amounted to ₹ 2790 crores. **SECTION: Profits, Dividends and Retained Earnings** | PROFIT TYPE | 2023-24 | 2022-23 | |-------------|---------|---------| | a) Profit Before Exceptional Items and Tax | 26323.34 | 24677.54 | | b) Exceptional Items (refer note 28 (i) of Notes to the Standalone Financial Statements) | (7.57) | 72.87 | | c) Profit Before Tax | 26315.77 | 24750.41 | | d) Tax Expense | | | | – Current Tax | 5661.21 | 6025.32 | | – Deferred Tax | 232.59 | (28.22) | | e) Profit for the year | 20421.97 | 18753.31 | | f) Other Comprehensive Income | 2281.06 | 29.26 | | g) Total Comprehensive Income | 22703.03 | 18782.57 | **SECTION: Statement of Retained Earnings** | | 2023-24 | 2022-23 | |---|---------|---------| | a) At the beginning of the year | 33687.70 | 30060.39 | | b) Add: Profit for the year | 20421.97 | 18753.31 | | c) Add: Other Comprehensive Income (net of tax) | (17.18) | (16.81) | | d) Add: Transfer from Share Options Outstanding Account on exercise and lapse | 1.67 | 20.82 | | e) Less: Dividends | | | | – Final Dividend of ₹ 6.75 (2023: ₹ 6.25) per share | 8388.91 | 7702.03 | | – Special Dividend of ₹ 2.75 (2023: Nil) per share | 3417.70 | | | – Interim Dividend of ₹ 6.25 (2023: ₹ 6.00) per share | 7799.45 | 7448.41 | | – Income Tax on Dividend paid (refund) | | (20.43) | | f) At the end of the year | 34488.10 | 33687.70 | Your Company continues to counter illicit trade and reinforce market standing by fortifying the product portfolio through innovation, democratising premiumisation across segments, and enhancing product availability backed by superior on-ground execution. |
**SECTION: Cigarettes Market Overview** While India is the world’s second largest consumer of tobacco, legal cigarettes constitute only 9% of overall tobacco consumption in India, as against a global average of 90%. It is pertinent to note that India accounts for less than 2% of global cigarette consumption despite having 18% of the world’s population - making India’s per capita cigarette consumption amongst the lowest in the world. Over the years, discriminatory and punitive taxation on cigarettes has led to progressive migration of consumption from duty-paid cigarettes to other lightly taxed/tax-evaded forms of tobacco products, comprising illicit cigarettes, bidi, chewing tobacco, gutkha, zarda, snuff, etc. It is pertinent to note that while the share of legal cigarettes in total tobacco consumption has declined from 21% in 1981-82 to a mere 9%, aggregate tobacco consumption in the country has increased over the same period. As a result, despite accounting for less than 1/10th of the tobacco consumed in the country, duty-paid cigarettes contribute more than 4/5th of the revenue generated from the tobacco sector. **SECTION: Per Capita Consumption of Cigarettes** | Year | No. of Cigarettes per annum | |------|------------------------------| | 1971 | 1133 | | 1981-82 | 898 | | 1991-92 | 897 | | 2001-02 | 468 | | 2011-12 | 394 | | 2021-22 | 90 | **SECTION: Tax per 2000 Cigarettes as a percentage of Per Capita GDP** | Country | Tax Percentage | |---------|----------------| | USA | 0.40% | | Japan | 0.80% | | China | 1.00% | | Germany | 1.03% | | Russia | 1.13% | | Canada | 1.19% | | Pakistan | 1.50% | | Malaysia | 1.68% | | Thailand | 2.11% | | UK | 2.30% | | Australia | 2.75% | | India | 5.71% | **SECTION: Impact of Taxation on Cigarette Industry** Punitive taxes on the legal cigarette industry in earlier years have resulted in rapid growth of illicit cigarette trade – making India the 4th largest illicit cigarette market globally according to Euromonitor estimates. Over the years this has created attractive tax arbitrage opportunities for unscrupulous players indulging in illicit cigarette trade. |
While legitimate cigarette industry volumes have declined consistently over the last decade, illicit cigarette volumes, in contrast, have grown rapidly during the same period, accounting for about 1/3rd of the legal industry. It is pertinent to note that the legal industry has been able to partially claw back volumes from illicit trade during periods of tax stability, backed by deterrent actions by enforcement agencies. During the year, there were extensive media reports on the multitude of cases of evasion of taxes/duties by dealers in illicit cigarettes which were unearthed by raids conducted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and other enforcement agencies. ‘Illicit markets: A Threat to Our National Interests’, a study published by FICCI-TARI in September 2022, noted that “The consumption of illegal cigarettes in India has increased, signalling a shift from legal products to cheaper substitutes or illicit products, which have no or little tax element in them. When taxes are raised beyond a certain optimum level, consumers gravitate towards cheaper alternatives or illicit supplies, which are normally smuggled or tax evaded goods”. It is estimated that illicit trade causes an annual revenue loss of approximately ₹ 21000 crores to the Exchequer. With respect to other tobacco products as well, the revenue losses are significant since about 68% of the total tobacco consumed in the country remains outside the tax net. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), in its report “Smuggling in India 2021-22” acknowledges the high incidence of taxes in India providing opportunities for illicit trade of cigarettes. The report states: “High Incidence of tax on cigarettes in India results in a tax arbitrage in favour of smuggled cigarettes on which no taxes are paid and there is no statutory requirement of pictorial warning covering at least 85 percent of the packaging space. More importantly, the smuggled cigarettes are, on average, 50 percent cheaper in the Indian Market, compared to the price of any similar cigarette brand. From a public health perspective, the smuggling of cigarettes also poses a very serious challenge since a part of the smuggled cigarettes are counterfeits and the quality of tobacco and other ingredients used in the said cigarettes is inferior. |
Tobacco control measures in India have ranked amongst the most stringent in the world from the time of enactment of the Cigarettes (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1975, to the present. India is also one of the few countries where tobacco products are regulated across the value chain – from their manufacture to sale to consumers. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA) requires cigarette packages to display the statutorily mandated pictorial and textual warnings covering 85% of the surface area of the packet - one of the largest in the world. It may be observed that smuggled international brands of cigarettes do not bear any of the pictorial or textual warnings mandated by Indian laws or bear much smaller pictorial/textual warnings as per the tobacco laws of the countries from where these cigarettes originate. The illicit cigarette trade also has a deleterious impact on farmers and farm workers engaged in the tobacco value chain. Findings from research conducted by IMRB International, an independent market research organisation, show that the lack of pictorial warnings on packets of smuggled international brands of cigarettes or their diminutive size creates a perception in the consumers’ mind that these illicit cigarettes are ‘safer’ than domestic duty-paid cigarettes that carry the 85% pictorial warnings. The combination of low prices to consumers due to tax evasion and the misleading perception created by the absence of statutory pictorial warnings provides significant buoyancy to illicit cigarette volumes. ``` ``` **SECTION: Tobacco Industry Overview** India is among the top three tobacco growing countries in the world. Tobacco plays a significant role in the Indian economy due to its considerable contribution to the agricultural, industrial, and export sectors. The illicit cigarette trade has a deleterious impact on farmers and farm workers engaged in the tobacco value chain. In India, cigarettes are primarily manufactured using Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco grown in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. The growth of illicit cigarette trade has resulted in a sharp drop in demand for Indian FCV tobaccos in the domestic market, with production dropping by approximately 40% between 2013-14 and 2021-22, leading to a loss of an estimated 35 million man-days of employment in tobacco growing areas. |
Several major tobacco producing countries, including the USA, have established regulatory frameworks that consider the economic interests of their tobacco farmers. The punitive and discriminatory taxation and regulatory regime on cigarettes in India has adversely affected the livelihood of Indian tobacco farmers, benefiting countries with moderate and equitable tobacco regulations. These developments, along with lower availability of Indian crops, lower export incentives, and currency weaknesses in competing geographies, have negatively impacted millions of livelihoods dependent on the tobacco value chain in India. This situation has been exacerbated by global crop shortages due to extreme weather events and supply chain disruptions. However, recent stability in taxes on cigarettes, supported by enforcement actions, has enabled the legal cigarette industry to combat illicit trade and recover volumes, generating domestic and export demand for Indian tobaccos. **SECTION: Legal Challenges and Regulatory Environment** Your Company and several stakeholders challenged the validity of the pictorial and textual warning covering 85% of the surface area of cigarette packets prescribed under COTPA. The Honourable Karnataka High Court ruled the 85% pictorial warnings to be factually incorrect and unconstitutional. However, upon Special Leave Petitions filed by the Government and others, the Honourable Supreme Court has stayed the judgment of the High Court, and the cases are pending. **SECTION: Economic Impact of Illicit Trade** The stringent regulations and steep taxation on cigarettes have led to several negative repercussions, including: - Rapid growth in illicit cigarette volumes, resulting in significant revenue loss to the Exchequer, estimated at approximately ₹21,000 crores per annum. - Widespread availability of illicit cigarettes and other tobacco products of dubious quality at affordable prices. - A large component of tobacco consumption, around 68%, remaining outside the tax net. - Persistent negative impacts on the livelihood of tobacco farmers and others dependent on tobacco. Studies by the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) indicate that there is no equally remunerative alternate crop that can be grown in the FCV tobacco growing regions of the country. Your Company continues to engage with policymakers for a framework of pragmatic, equitable, non-discriminatory, evidence-based regulations and taxation policies that balance economic imperatives and tobacco control objectives. **SECTION: Manufacturing and Technological Advancements** Manufacturing facilities continue to be modernized with contemporary technologies to drive innovation and enhance productivity. |
New benchmarks are being set in quality, sustainability, supply chain responsiveness, and productivity. Cutting-edge technologies such as Industry 4.0 and Data Sciences are being leveraged to build a smart manufacturing environment. Your Company has been recognized for its commitment to operational excellence, with the Kidderpore unit winning the ‘Apex Prize for Operational Excellence’ at the IMexI Awards. The Business continues to focus on resource conservation and the adoption of best-in-class technologies and processes. Two offsite solar power plants in Karnataka (14.5 MW) and Uttar Pradesh (13.5 MW) have been commissioned, with nearly 55% of the total energy used generated from renewable sources. **SECTION: Sustainability Initiatives** Sustainability initiatives have been recognized, with Bengaluru, Saharanpur, and Pune units awarded the prestigious Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Platinum Certification. The Kidderpore unit received the ‘National Energy Leader Award’ at the CII National Award for Excellence in Energy Management. The wind farms in Karnataka and Maharashtra received the ‘Best Performing Wind Farm Award’ from the Indian Wind Power Association. **SECTION: FMCG – Others** Amidst a challenging macro-economic environment, consumption demand remained subdued, especially in rural markets. Your Company’s FMCG Businesses grew ahead of the industry in both urban and rural markets, recording Segment Revenue of ₹20,966.83 crores, representing a 9.6% increase over the previous year. Segment EBITDA grew by 19.7% to ₹2,338.50 crores, with margins improving by 94 bps to 11.2%. Your Company’s FMCG strategy focuses on deep consumer insights, purposeful innovation, and strategic portfolio augmentation. Over 100 new products were launched during the year, anchored on health, nutrition, hygiene, and convenience. **SECTION: Branded Packaged Foods** Your Company sustained its position as one of the largest and fastest-growing branded packaged foods businesses in the country. The Branded Packaged Foods Businesses remain focused on addressing emerging consumer needs with innovations in health, nutrition, wellness, and convenience. Several innovative products were launched, including millet-based offerings under the ‘Aashirvaad’ brand and snacks under ‘Bingo!’. Your Company’s vibrant portfolio of over 25 world-class Indian brands represents an annual consumer spend of nearly ₹32,500 crores and reaches over 250 million households in India. The FMCG Businesses continue to expand their export footprint, leveraging the equity of their world-class brands across over 70 countries. |
**SECTION: Conclusion** Your Company remains well-positioned to fortify its market standing in the legal cigarette industry and FMCG sector, leveraging superior strategies, integrated value chains, robust innovation pipelines, and best-in-class execution capabilities. A stable taxation and regulatory regime is critical for the legal cigarette industry to recover volumes from illicit trade. ``` ``` **SECTION: Prestigious Awards** Your Company received prestigious awards across leading platforms, including a Gold from ‘IAMAI - India Digital Awards’ in ‘Tech Enabled Campaign’ and a Bronze EMVIES from The Advertising Club in ‘Best Media Innovation: Digital – Social Media’ for the ‘Dark Fantasy - Fulfilling over a million fantasies’ campaign. Additionally, a Gold in the Health and Wellness Marketing Award for ‘New product launch’ for the ‘Launch of Easy Digest Milk - Aashirvaad Svasti Milk’ and a Silver IDMA Maddies Award in Promotion for the ‘Score Goals with Bingo! Tedhe Medhe’ campaign were awarded. A Silver from Exchange4Media for ‘Best Use of Influencer Marketing’ for the ‘Aashirvaad Superior MP Atta - Try my recipe’ campaign and a Bronze from ET Brand Equity in ‘Use of Data Analytics/Consumer Insights’ for the ‘ITC B Natural - Amazon Super Value Days Campaign’ were also received. **SECTION: Brand Marketing Interventions** During the year, the Businesses rolled out several unique interventions in brand marketing across the portfolio. Sufficiency-based media planning, full funnel marketing, first-party data usage, curated content for individual platforms, and a holistic social media strategy enabled the strengthening of brand equity. AI and Gen AI were adopted at scale to bring efficiency in core areas of content creation and media deployment. The Sunfeast Dark Fantasy #hardilkifantasy, an immersive personalized creative content campaign, and Bingo! Tedhe Medhe Snack Attack, which used Gen AI extensively, were well received across forums. The Businesses also revamped brand websites into personalized destinations, which are modular with quick go-to-market timelines and tailor-made to create immersive consumer experiences. **SECTION: Culture Centric Marketing** Culture Centric Marketing has been successfully deployed by brands like Sunrise in Bihar, Sunfeast Supermilk in Tamil Nadu, and Marie Light in Odisha. A relentless focus on delivering superior quality products to consumers continues to be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage for the Branded Packaged Foods Businesses. |
The Businesses leverage the agri-commodity sourcing expertise resident in your Company’s Agri Business to procure high-quality raw materials, ensuring the highest level of quality, consistency, and safety in its products. Each branded packaged food product is manufactured in HACCP/ISO-certified manufacturing locations, ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and adherence to the highest quality norms. **SECTION: Staples Business Performance** In the Staples Business, ‘Aashirvaad’ delivered robust growth on a high base. The value-added Atta portfolio, consisting of Multigrain, Select, and Sugar Release Control Atta, posted healthy growth driven by a superior value proposition; the range was further augmented with the launch of ‘Atta with Millets’. Millet products such as ‘Gluten Free Flour’, ‘Ragi Flour’, and ‘Multi-Millet Batter Mix’, along with the Organic portfolio (‘Organic Atta’ and ‘Organic Dals’), ‘Aashirvaad Vermicelli’, and ‘Aashirvaad Rava’ (Suji Rava, Bansi Rava, Samba Rava) continued to witness strong growth. ‘Aashirvaad Besan’, made from the finest 100% Bikaneri chana dal, was extended across markets during the year and received excellent consumer feedback. The Organic portfolio was also augmented with the launch of ‘Organic Rajma’ and ‘Organic Kabuli Chana’. **SECTION: Nutrition Strategy** With a focused approach towards product development, purposeful marketing inputs, consumer activations, and region-specific interventions, your Company’s Nutrition strategy seeks to create a sustainable ecosystem anchored on a portfolio of healthier, affordable, and accessible ‘Good For You/Free From’ value-added products, supported by responsible policies in line with national priorities on nutrition. **SECTION: Aashirvaad Salt** ‘Aashirvaad Salt’ posted robust growth in focus markets during the year, supported by its distinctive positioning – ‘Created by Sun and Sea - pure just like nature intended it to be’. The portfolio was further enriched with the launch of Aashirvaad Himalayan Pink Salt, serving the needs of health-conscious consumers with the proposition of ‘Purity which you can see and taste’. **SECTION: Spices Category Performance** In the Spices category, your Company continued to deliver strong growth with its endeavor to provide consumers unique and personalized experiences that meet their taste preferences and reflect the regional flavors of the state. The Business grew on the back of distribution expansion in focus states, sharp region-specific communication, and an enhanced portfolio with innovative new products. |
The ‘Sunrise’ brand strengthened its market leadership position in the core market of West Bengal and made significant gains in newer launch markets of the Northeast region and Bihar. Unique products catering to regional tastes, such as Sunrise ‘Haah Salkumura’ for duck curry and the ‘Swaad Bihar ka’ range of spices, were introduced. **SECTION: Biscuits Category Performance** The Biscuits category witnessed resilient performance during the year on an elevated base. The Business continues to strengthen its core portfolio with investments behind powerful brand ideas, superior products, cultural marketing with local insights, and unique innovations to drive higher growth. The ‘Sunfeast Dark Fantasy’ range of differentiated cookies sustained its leadership position in the premium segment. The recently re-launched ‘Sunfeast Supermilk’ biscuit harnessing the goodness of ‘Naatu Maatu Paal’ received excellent consumer response. The portfolio mix was further enriched with the launch of ‘Bounce Day & Night’, a delicious dark choco biscuit with soft vanilla cream, and ‘Sunfeast All Rounder Sweet and Salty’ in the Differentiated Crackers category. **SECTION: Consumer Engagement Initiatives** Towards further deepening consumer engagement, the brand launched several innovative campaigns during the year. The highly innovative ‘MyFantasyAdWithSRK’ campaign, leveraging Gen AI technology, enabled consumers to live their #fantasy of starring in a personalized advertisement opposite the iconic Shah Rukh Khan, receiving overwhelming consumer response with more than 9 lakh engagements within a short span of time. The Snacks portfolio was augmented with an innovative first-of-its-kind millet-based offering, ‘Bingo! Tedhe Medhe Chatpata Twist’, along with new launches including ‘Bingo! Nachos Chilli Limon’ and ‘Bingo! Tedhe Medhe Cream & Onion Style’. **SECTION: Ready-to-Eat and Frozen Foods** The Ready-to-Eat (RTE) category operates across domestic, export, and institutional channels through a range of products in varied segments including gravies, instant meals & mixes, sauces & condiments, etc. The exports business continued to focus on key markets of the USA, Canada, and other select countries under the brand ‘Kitchens of India’. The Frozen Foods Business, operating under the ‘ITC Master Chef’ and ‘Farmland’ brands, continued to grow at an accelerated pace, powered by innovative offerings in both veg and non-veg segments. |
**SECTION: Dairy Portfolio Growth** The ‘Aashirvaad Svasti’ fresh dairy portfolio continued its strong growth trajectory during the year, led by the strengthening of its premium milk variant ‘Select’ and driving exponential growth in value-added products (curd, lassi, and paneer) through superior offerings and scaling up distribution. The fresh dairy portfolio was extended to larger markets of Jharkhand during the year and gained strong consumer traction. **SECTION: Beverages Performance** The Beverages industry remained impacted by a muted demand environment and irregular weather conditions. Against this challenging backdrop, your Company’s Beverages portfolio demonstrated resilient performance, investing in the ‘Fruit and Fibre’ proposition of ‘B Natural’ to deepen consumer connect. Recent launches such as ‘B Natural Tender Coconut Water’ and ‘B Natural Masala Range’ have performed well. **SECTION: Confectionery Business** The Confectionery Business continued to nurture its premium portfolio by leveraging ‘Fantastik Chocostick’, ‘Jelimals’, and ‘Candyman Fruitee Fun 3 in 1 chews’. The Business augmented its portfolio with the launch of ‘Candyman Paan’ candy, receiving encouraging consumer feedback. The range of ‘Fantastik Chocostick’ was fortified with the goodness of millets. **SECTION: Exports and Distribution Network** Exports remain a key focus area for the Branded Packaged Foods Businesses, witnessing rapid growth across several categories. The Business is confident of scaling up exports at an accelerated pace in focus markets by leveraging the equity of its core brands such as Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, ITC Master Chef, and Kitchens of India. Your Company has made significant investments in setting up state-of-the-art Integrated Consumer Goods Manufacturing and Logistics facilities (ICMLs) proximal to large demand centers, enhancing product freshness and market agility. **SECTION: Awards and Accolades** During the year, your Company received over 100 prestigious external awards & accolades in areas such as Safety, Sustainability, Quality & Food Safety, Manufacturing Excellence, and HR from institutions like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Ranjangaon ICML became the second food processing facility to receive a Platinum level Certification under the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standards (AWS). **SECTION: Strategic Cost Management Initiatives** The Business has implemented several strategic cost management initiatives in areas such as supply chain optimization, smart procurement, and productivity improvement through automation leveraging new-age technologies. These measures are instrumental in countering significant input cost volatility and offsetting the gestation costs of new initiatives. |
**SECTION: Future of Food Processing Sector** The development of the food processing sector will aid in addressing issues of food security, improved nutrition availability, and prevention of wastage. Recognizing this potential, your Company has made significant investments in food processing and remains focused on establishing itself as a leading player in the branded packaged foods industry. The Government’s Production Linked Incentives (PLI) Scheme for the food processing industry will incentivize fresh investments and promote exports. **SECTION: Conclusion** Your Company is committed to creating a sustainable ecosystem in the food processing sector, enhancing market linkages, improving resource use efficiency, and generating employment opportunities. ``` ``` **SECTION: Company Overview** Your Company’s strong farm linkages, procurement efficiencies, world-class brands, and deep & wide multi-channel distribution network, with a growing presence in emerging channels such as e-Commerce, Modern Trade, On-the-go, and Institutional sales, continue to deliver competitive advantage through superior product availability, visibility, and freshness. Recent investments in establishing a world-class distributed manufacturing footprint have created a solid foundation to secure structural advantage over time. Cutting-edge R&D platforms of your Company’s LSTC are driving agile innovation and faster turnaround times for the introduction of differentiated & first-to-market products catering to constantly evolving consumer needs. Investments in leading-edge digital technologies and platforms continue to be stepped up across the value chain to drive competitive advantage. **SECTION: Personal Care Products** The Personal Care industry remained under pressure during the year with consumer demand remaining muted across both urban and rural centres of consumption. Input prices, which had witnessed significant surge in the previous year, moderated in course of the year. Industry players stepped up marketing investments and also passed on the benefit of input cost moderation in a bid to spur demand. Your Company’s Personal Care Products Business continued to strengthen its core strategic levers of building brands with purpose, introducing first-in-category innovations, focusing on categories of the future, and rapidly scaling up presence in emerging channels. The Business continues to focus on identifying emerging trends and reinforcing its strategic pillars of distinctive brand positioning, innovative offerings, expansion into emerging channels, and amplification of the premium portfolio. During the year, the Business witnessed acceleration in its premium portfolio, which grew significantly ahead of the overall portfolio. |
The Business continued to leverage your Company’s state-of-the-art LSTC facility to develop innovative and differentiated products backed by robust science-based claims, to meet emerging consumer needs. In the Personal Wash segment, premiumisation continues to remain a key vector of growth. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** During the year, ‘Fiama’ registered strong growth and remained ahead of Industry largely fuelled by investments in brand building, wider distribution, and channel-tailored assortments. Fiama gel bars range registered significant gains during the year, driven by innovative and differentiated offerings appealing to evolving consumer preferences; the range was further augmented with the launch of ‘Fiama Golden Sandalwood Oil & Patchouli’ and ‘Fiama Men’s Charcoal’. The brand partnered with Filmfare for a first-in-industry ‘Best Portrayal of Mental Health in Cinema’ at the Filmfare OTT Awards 2023 and also released a Mental Wellbeing Survey in association with MINDS Foundation, reinforcing its commitment to the brand purpose of promoting mental wellness while improving access to mental health experts. The ‘Vivel’ range of soaps and bodywash continued to build momentum and posted healthy growth during the year with strategic focus on alternate channels, superior formulation, and competitive pricing. The core of Vivel’s product portfolio remains rooted in its strong association with Aloe Vera and other natural ingredients, aligning with increasing consumer preference for naturals. The brand continued to strengthen its association with Women Empowerment with its collaboration with Azad Foundation, through ‘Parvaz’, a year-long leadership training programme that fosters women’s empowerment and enables young women leaders to be catalysts of change in their communities. The Fragrance category under the ‘Engage’ brand exhibited resilient performance in the face of heightened competitive intensity, especially at the value end. The premium perfume segment witnessed strong growth fuelled by the launch of disruptive gifting options and small pack variants reinforcing the brand vision of meeting a variety of consumer needs. The Business launched a premium EDP range with best-in-class fragrances for occasion-based use including a differentiated ‘gender neutral’ variant ‘One Soul’. In the popular segment, Deo sprays were also launched in the mini-can format. Strong performance in Modern Trade and e-Commerce channels, along with new initiatives in the gifting space, reflects the Business’ innovative approach to market expansion and consumer engagement. |
Leveraging robust R&D capabilities and in-house manufacturing capabilities, the Business will continue to deliver high-quality fragrances that resonate with discerning consumers. The value proposition of ‘Savlon’ brand on the ‘Skin Friendly germ protection’ proposition in line with evolving needs of consumers, helped the brand’s core categories of soaps and handwash scale-up during the year. Savlon powder handwash, in a convenient low unit pack format, witnessed strong traction amongst target consumers. The Business continued to expand its presence in the Home Care segment by leveraging the ‘Nimyle’ brand’s proposition of “Naturally safe floors and happy homes”. Strong growth in Modern Trade and e-Commerce channels, refreshed & premium packaging along with improved penetration led to double-digit revenue growth. The brand collaborated with ‘Pet Fed’, a convention for pets and pet lovers, to engage with pet parents to educate and raise awareness on eco-friendly floor cleaners which are safe for pets. Further, Nimyle maintained its leadership position in its core markets despite the resurgence of regional brands and private labels. **SECTION: Skincare Portfolio** In the Skincare portfolio, ‘Dermafique’ continues to leverage AI powered smart skin advisor introduced last year to provide personalised skin health analysis, empowering individuals to know their skin better and adopt solutions suited to unique skin needs of Indian consumers. The brand also strengthened its equity through relevant product benefit communications, leveraging influencers to drive buzz and engagement, running digital campaigns etc., leading to strong conversions and repeat rates on digital platforms. During the year, D2C platforms for Dermafique, Fiama, and Engage continued to gain traction while deepening consumer engagement based on sharp consumer insights. A combination of Creatives, Performance Marketing, and Data Analytics is being leveraged to scale-up these platforms with a wide range of innovative products. Modern Trade and e-Commerce channels demonstrated robust performance led by strategic partnerships and right assortments tailored to consumer needs. Quick-Commerce emerged as a fast-growing platform demonstrating significant traction across categories and now accounts for a significant share of e-Commerce sales. In order to meet the growing requirements in East markets and create capacities for the future, a state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Uluberia, West Bengal is set to be operational shortly. |
The establishment of the facility is also in line with the strategic objective of reducing distance to market, enhancing supply chain agility and responsiveness, as well as optimising costs. Fiama, Vivel, and Savlon have been frontrunners in adopting sustainable packaging for the soap portfolio. PET bottles of Fiama Showergel and Handwash contain 50% recycled plastic; Vivel and Fiama Soaps packaging is 100% recyclable; Engage perfume sprays are now made with 50% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) material. Further, plastic-free cartons are being used for Engage Cologne and sustainable materials are being used for point-of-sale promotions across several brands. In recognition of its clutter-breaking marketing and communication initiatives, the Business received several accolades in the field of Digital and Marketing excellence. Leveraging the power of PR and digital storytelling, Fiama’s ‘Talking Memes’ campaign achieved significant traction and was awarded a Gold at the London International Advertising Awards, a Silver at Fulcrum Awards for ‘Best use of Digital’, eight trophies at the Kyoorius Creative Awards 2023, and was also shortlisted in Cannes Lions 2023. Savlon was recognised as the ‘Top Resurgent Brand of the Year’ by Exchange4Media’s Pitch Top 50 Brands 2023 and Savlon’s Swasth India Mission - Hand Ambassador campaign won seven trophies at the Kyoorius Creative Awards 2023. Your Company’s strategic focus continues to be on expanding the core categories of Personal Wash, Fragrance, and Homecare through innovative, differentiated, and consumer-centric products, highest levels of product quality, and impactful communication. Your Company’s Personal Care Products Business, with its future-ready portfolio and purpose-led brands, is well positioned to seize growth opportunities and emerge as a significant player in this space. **SECTION: Education and Stationery Products** The Education and Stationery Products industry witnessed strong growth during the year driven by increased household penetration. Higher enrolment ratios and growing literacy contributed to this growth. The year also witnessed heightened competitive intensity with a resurgence of regional players on the back of moderation in input prices. During the year, the Business further strengthened its market leadership position in the industry, delivering a robust performance by fortifying its core categories and scaling up adjacencies through portfolio premiumisation, innovative product launches, and judicious pricing actions. The Business continued to leverage your Company’s institutional strengths comprising paper manufacturing expertise, brand building capabilities, and multi-channel distribution infrastructure. |
The Business also continued to leverage the capabilities of your Company’s Life Sciences and Technology Centre to craft differentiated products of superior quality. Premiumisation and product innovation continue to be key growth drivers for the Business. The ‘Classmate Interaktiv’ Notebook portfolio continued to witness strong consumer traction driven by a wide range of differentiated offerings. These included products that enable ‘Do It Yourself’ activities with a view to ‘Enjoy Learning’, immersive technologies such as augmented reality, and interchangeable covers. The Business also accelerated the adoption of ‘Classmate Pulse’ spiral format through targeted activations and driving franchise of new customer segments such as high school students, in addition to college goers and the youth segment. The ‘Paperkraft’ portfolio was also strengthened with the launch of a new range of notebooks with differentiated design themes catering to both personal and professional usage. The Writing Instruments portfolio delivered a strong performance on the back of recent launches with differentiated forms and features which received encouraging consumer response. ‘Classmate All Rounder’, an inter-school initiative which was launched last year to promote holistic learning in line with the National Education Policy 2020, provides students with a platform to nurture and showcase their varied skills. The initiative continued to gain strong momentum in its second edition, with participation of over 4.5 lakh students from 2700+ schools. The multi-channel capability of your Company’s strong distribution network was leveraged to enhance availability and drive sales. The Business sustained its leadership position on e-Commerce platforms through consistent availability of a wide assortment of products, backed by focused interventions to enhance consumer traction. Consumer engagement was augmented through Classmateshop.com, a D2C platform, which provides consumers the opportunity to ‘Personalise & Capture’ memories on Classmate notebooks. Digital adoption through industry–first propositions such as personalised videos and AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated cover designs further enhanced consumer engagement. During the year, the Business re-launched myClassmate app, a gamified app focused on developing co–curricular skills, to make learning engaging and enjoyable; the app has garnered over two million downloads. During the year, the Business enhanced its manufacturing capacity of spiral notebooks at its dedicated manufacturing facility at Vijayawada. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the facility enables the Business to develop differentiated notebook formats, drive cost reduction, and address opportunities in overseas markets. |
Your Company’s Education and Stationery Products Business, with its strong brands – Classmate & Paperkraft, robust product portfolio, collaborative linkages with small & medium enterprises, and superior distribution network, is well poised to sustain its leadership position in the industry. **SECTION: Incense Sticks (Agarbattis) and Safety Matches** The Incense Sticks (Agarbattis) category continued to witness robust growth during the year. Your Company’s flagship brand ‘Mangaldeep’ effectively leveraged market opportunities and continued to enhance its standing in the category. With its presence across multiple formats viz. Agarbattis, Dhoop, and Sambrani, Mangaldeep provides discerning consumers a differentiated and superior product experience with a strong devotional connect. The Business continued to drive brand salience through sharply focused marketing interventions. Product mix enrichment, cost optimisation initiatives, and stability in prices of key ingredients enabled the Business to further improve operating margins during the year. Based on superior consumer insighting, a number of new product offerings were launched by the Business during the year including, inter alia, a new sub-brand ‘Scent’ in the Popular segment. Built on the unique proposition ‘Inspired by Fine Fragrances’, Mangaldeep Scent offers three unique, modern, and long-lasting fragrances with superior sensorials. The brand also refreshed its core portfolio of Floral and Sandal fragrances with improved product experience and pack semiotics. In the Dhoop segment, staying in tune with today’s consumer’s need for convenience and variety, the Business introduced multiple fragrances in the same pack through ‘Dhoop 3in1’ in North and East markets. A ‘bamboo less’ incense format was also launched for e-Commerce and Modern Trade channels in line with emergent consumer needs in these channels. Mangaldeep aims to be an enabler of devotion and wellbeing through its fragrances. Over the last two years, the brand has built a range of products on a differentiated consumer proposition of long-lasting fragrances. The Incense Sticks Business has co-created these superior fragrances with the help of 150 visually impaired fragrance evaluators as part of its ‘Mangaldeep Sixth Sense’ panel. It supports them with livelihood opportunities and empowers them with dignity and pride. Over the years, the Business has implemented several measures to enhance the competitiveness of the agarbatti value chain in India. These include import substitution and backward integration of sourcing raw materials and manufacturing raw battis using indigenous inputs. |
The Business has been a pioneer in developing domestic manufacturing capabilities for raw battis and is also working closely with manufacturers and nodal agencies of respective State Governments for sourcing Indian Bamboo sticks and for cultivating Bamboo plantations in the country. The proactive measures implemented by your Company, as highlighted above, sub-serve the national priorities of employment generation and provide a source of competitive advantage to the Business while contributing towards enhancing income in the agarbatti stick and raw batti manufacturing value chain. In the Safety Matches industry, the Business strengthened its market leadership position by leveraging the brand ‘Homelites’ – built on differentiated positioning of stronger, longer, and karborised sticks. The Business continues to focus on scaling up the share of value-added products in its portfolio and enhancing supply chain efficiency by sourcing products manufactured closer to markets. **SECTION: Trade Marketing & Distribution** Your Company’s Trade Marketing & Distribution (TM&D) vertical continued to leverage emerging market trends such as premiumisation, growth of Modern Trade & e-Commerce channels, and rapid urbanisation ensuring effective market servicing and product availability addressing a wide range of consumer and trade needs. TM&D adopted a comprehensive approach encompassing the realignment of distribution infrastructure, deployment of innovative delivery models, forging strategic partnerships, and leveraging digital technologies to accelerate growth across channels. The dynamic interplay of varied and evolving consumer preferences, multiplicity of channels including rapid acceleration in new channels, diverse demographic profiles & socio-economic factors, and a vast geographical landscape pose a high degree of complexity for distribution of FMCG products in India. Recognising the multifaceted nature of these challenges, TM&D continues to sharpen channel-specific strategies to efficiently service consumer demand across the country. Valuable insights into consumer behaviour and channel/region specific trends gained over the years continue to be leveraged to deliver superior performance in terms of product availability, visibility, and freshness. The rapid growth of Modern Trade and e-Commerce channels, coupled with the emergence of several new players, has necessitated the deployment of tailored market/outlet specific strategies to seize the emerging opportunities. The Modern Trade channel continued to witness strong growth, driven by store expansions primarily in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. |
Omni-channel presence in urban markets enabled accelerated growth while shopper marketing insights and agile supply chain capabilities were leveraged to enhance operational and execution efficiencies. ``` ``` **SECTION: E-Commerce Growth** The surge in internet usage, particularly through smartphones, widespread adoption of digital payments, a wide assortment of products, and faster deliveries continue to drive the rising salience of the e-Commerce channel. Your Company’s collaborations with leading e-Commerce platforms on all aspects of operations, such as category development, supply chain, consumer offerings, and customer acquisition, have enabled it to significantly scale up sales in this channel. This was augmented by the development of exclusive pack assortments, channel-specific business plans, and ‘Digital First’ brands. Joint Business Plans executed in coordination with e-Commerce platforms, coupled with agile supply chain initiatives, have further fortified your Company’s market standing in this channel. Growth in the premium portfolio was accelerated through increased visibility, focus on target cohorts, and jointly curated campaigning, including collaborations on topical events across accounts. Digitally enabled sales have grown rapidly in recent years and, together with Modern Trade, now account for 31% of your Company’s FMCG portfolio (compared to 17% in FY 2019-20). Your Company’s multi-channel distribution network facilitates the availability of its products in nearly seven million retail outlets, of which more than one-third are serviced directly. The network was further strengthened during the year with the addition of new markets and outlets to its direct servicing base. Market coverage was stepped up to approximately 2x of pre-pandemic levels. During the year, urban markets witnessed heightened competitive intensity from regional/local players and an accelerated channel shift with the increasing salience of Modern Trade and e-Commerce. Automation, data-led insights, and machine-learning enabled solutions continue to be increasingly leveraged to drive field-force productivity and performance across urban markets. **SECTION: Rural Market Initiatives** In rural markets, your Company continued to deploy market-specific interventions to enhance direct coverage based on socio-economic indicators and market potential. This has been supported through a hub and spoke distribution model with the continued expansion of the rural stockists network to 1.3x over the last two years. |
Leveraging the synergies arising from the deep rural connect of your Company’s Agri Business, extensive consumer activations continued to be undertaken in high-potential rural areas during the year through concerted market development activities and further enhancements to the digital ecosystem for the stockist channel. These initiatives have substantially enhanced the distribution reach of your Company’s range of products in rural markets, leading to sales growth significantly ahead of the industry. The Food Service and Institutional channels continued to witness robust growth during the year, leveraging existing partnerships and your Company’s wide product range. **SECTION: Trade Marketing & Distribution** Your Company’s Trade Marketing & Distribution (TM&D) highway has transformed into a smart omni-channel network. TM&D continues to remain at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies and building a digital ecosystem to drive productivity, improve market servicing, draw actionable insights for sharp-focused interventions, augment sales force capability, and deepen connections with retailers. Technology enablement in the form of customised mobility and routing solutions, machine learning algorithms, data science models, and data analytics comprising insightful visualisation tools and predictive analysis are being increasingly leveraged to enable speedy and accurate data capture, enable real-time informed decisions, and aid in the optimisation of trade and marketing inputs to enhance sales. During the year, the machine learning models were augmented with several inputs, including demographics and socio-economic indicators, to sharpen outlet-level SKU recommendations. Use cases for self-service analytics tools have increased to analyse data and present insights which are digitally integrated into business decisions, resulting in intelligent digitalisation of business processes. The digitally powered eB2B platform of your Company, UNNATI, has been rapidly scaled up during the year, covering nearly seven lakh outlets with a large number of retailers placing orders directly on the platform. UNNATI facilitates sharp and direct engagement with retailers, superior analytics, personalised recommendations of hyperlocal baskets based on consumer purchase insights, and deeper brand engagement. Your Company’s strategic collaboration with banks and Fintech partners caters to the digital payments and financing needs of customers and retailers. These solutions have been seamlessly integrated with the UNNATI platform to digitally empower and unlock business growth for your Company’s trade partners. |
**SECTION: Digital Transformation Initiatives** In line with your Company’s credo of ‘Nation First: Sab Saath Badhein’, TM&D has partnered with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to facilitate the digital transformation of small retailers. As part of this industry-first initiative, your Company continues to assist traditional retailers to onboard the ONDC network, enabling them to have an omni-channel presence. This intervention is expected to enhance ecosystem competitiveness in the growing digital marketplace and enable such retailers to effectively cater to evolving consumer buying behaviour. **SECTION: Hotels Business Overview** The global Travel & Tourism industry, which had been severely impacted during the pandemic, has witnessed a strong rebound in the last two years. According to estimates from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the Travel & Tourism sector is expected to contribute US$ 9.9 trillion to the global economy in 2023 (about 96% of pre-pandemic levels). The Indian Travel & Tourism sector also witnessed robust growth during the year, with domestic air travel exceeding 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels by 5%. The Hotels Business delivered stellar performance driven by strong growth in RevPAR across customer segments (Retail, Contracted, MICE, etc.) as well as leveraging marquee events hosted in the country. The Business continued to focus on its strategy of offering a host of curated propositions across accommodation, dining, and banqueting services to augment revenues across properties. The financial performance of the Business touched record highs - Segment Revenue for the year stood at ₹2989.50 crores while Segment EBITDA at ₹1049.88 crores exceeded the ₹1000 crore mark for the first time. Segment PBIT for the year stood at ₹753.77 crores, witnessing growth of approximately 39% over the previous year. Your Company’s Hotels Business continues to leverage its ‘asset-right’ strategy to be amongst the fastest-growing hospitality chains in the country with over 130 properties and 12,000 rooms under distinctive brands. **SECTION: Sustainability Initiatives** In line with your Company’s commitment to the ‘Triple Bottom Line’, TM&D continued to focus its efforts on the adoption of renewable sources in its operations. As part of your Company’s Sustainability 2.0 agenda, TM&D is rapidly expanding its Green Logistics efforts for mid-mile and last-mile deliveries in key cities across the country. Collaborations with multiple Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and fleet aggregators facilitated the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV) in TM&D operations. |
The Business continues to evaluate avenues to further enhance the share of renewable energy in its portfolio, increase the number of LEED® Zero Carbon Certifications, and reduce carbon emission levels. ITC Hotels was recognised as the best Luxury Hotel Chain for the 5th consecutive year at ‘Travel + Leisure India’s Best Awards 2023’. Digital investments continue to be leveraged towards enhancing guest experience, facilitating guest acquisition, augmenting revenue generation, and driving operational efficiency. During the year, the Business continued to promote its full stack ITC Hotels App for Food Delivery, Room & Table Reservations, Room automation, and entertainment control module, achieving a milestone of 5 lakh downloads. ``` ``` **SECTION: ITC Hotels Culinary Excellence** ITC Hotels is recognised for its award-winning culinary excellence, with illustrious brands, dishes, and concepts revolving around indigenous ingredients and signature dining experiences. The Business has been at the forefront of presenting gastronomical delights to food connoisseurs for decades, sourcing local ingredients and using time-honoured techniques to create delectable dishes from humble ingredients. ITC Hotels was honoured to have exclusively curated and served from the best of India’s culinary heritage at the prestigious G20 summit held in New Delhi, where ITC Maurya hosted the President of the United States of America and the entire US delegation. In alignment with the Government’s initiative of promoting millets and its ethos of producing sustainable cuisine, the Business has created a range of millet-based gourmet cuisine across its signature restaurants and is promoting easy-to-try recipes with millets through short videos. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** The Board of Directors of your Company, at the meeting held on 14th August, 2023, approved a Scheme of Arrangement amongst your Company and ITC Hotels Limited for the demerger of the Hotels Business into ITC Hotels Limited, subject to necessary regulatory approvals. The Scheme has been approved by the Stock Exchanges, and the National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench, has convened a Meeting of the Ordinary Shareholders on 6th June, 2024, for the purpose of seeking approval to the Scheme. **SECTION: Paperboards, Paper and Packaging** **SECTION: Paperboards & Specialty Papers** Global pulp prices witnessed a steep decline in the first half of the year due to subdued Chinese demand and recessionary conditions in Europe. |
Domestic demand for paperboard remained subdued, leading to lower customer offtakes and excess supply in the domestic market. The year also saw an unprecedented surge in domestic wood costs due to increased demand from competing wood-based industries, exerting pressure on margins. Despite these challenges, the Business strengthened its leadership position in the Value-Added Paperboard (VAP) segment through focused innovations and superior end-user engagements. The Business also delivered robust performance in the Specialty Papers segment, successfully completing a capacity augmentation project that increased Décor paper production capacity by 20,000 tonnes per annum. The introduction of Anti-dumping duty on Décor paper has partially provided a level playing field for the domestic industry. The Business is poised for transformative change, with customers increasingly seeking biodegradable solutions to replace single-use plastics. The Business has adopted a multi-tiered strategy to build solutions that meet emergent consumer needs, including a range of recyclable, compostable, and barrier-coated boards. **SECTION: Sustainable Practices and Innovations** The Business has made significant investments in sustainable practices, including setting up a state-of-the-art coater and foraying into the Moulded Fibre Products (MFP) space. The Business continues to focus on structural interventions to enhance its margin profile and has ramped up production of Bleached Chemical Thermo Mechanical Pulp (BCTMP) and in-house chemical pulp. Your Company has obtained the Forest Stewardship Council-Forest Management (FSC®-FM) certification for over 1.49 lakh acres of plantations, ensuring compliance with international benchmarks of plantation management. The Business has also embarked on a comprehensive Digital Transformation Programme to achieve operational excellence and improve safety across the value chain. **SECTION: Packaging and Printing** Your Company’s Packaging and Printing Business is a leading provider of innovative packaging solutions. The Business caters to various industry segments, including Food & Beverage, Personal Care, and Pharma. Despite headwinds in the packaging and printing industry, the Business aggressively pursued new business development opportunities and crafted innovative packaging solutions. The flagship ‘InnovPack’ campaign was scaled up, introducing proprietary solutions such as ‘Bioseal’ and ‘Oxyblock’. The Business continues to focus on developing solutions towards reducing, reusing, and recycling plastics. The Business has also won several prestigious awards for excellence in packaging and continues to be acknowledged as a ‘first choice packaging partner’ by reputed FMCG companies. |
All four units of the Business are certified under the Integrated Management System, and the Business continues to deploy operational excellence tools to improve efficiency and reduce waste. The Business is committed to sustainability and has received recognition for its green credentials and safety standards. ``` ``` Notwithstanding the recent headwinds in the sector, the Indian packaging industry is poised for significant growth considering the low per capita packaging consumption of approximately 10 kgs per annum, compared to 60 to 100 kgs per annum in advanced economies. Demand for consumer-linked packaging in India is expected to benefit further from rising affluence, favorable demographics, and the growing share of modern trade and e-commerce. Additionally, increasing consumer awareness, coupled with higher regulatory focus on plastic packaging, is set to catalyze growth in sustainable packaging encompassing recyclable and circular solutions. With world-class technology across a diverse range of platforms, leadership in sustainable packaging solutions, and best-in-class quality management systems, the Packaging and Printing Business has established itself as a one-stop packaging solutions provider to several industry segments, including Food & Beverage, Personal Care, Home Care, QSR, Footwear, Consumer Electronics, Pharma, and Tobacco. Focused investments in skill development and a distributed manufacturing footprint position the Business well to grow its marquee customer base while continuing to service the requirements of your Company’s FMCG Businesses. **SECTION: AGRI BUSINESS** **SECTION: Leaf Tobacco** Global demand for leaf tobacco surpassed supply during the year, as international manufacturers rebuilt inventory levels that had reduced due to crop shortages in previous years. Despite growth in Indian Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco crop production during the year, the surge in global demand caused heightened competitive intensity among leaf exporters, resulting in a sharp rise in FCV procurement prices for the second consecutive year. The Business continued to leverage its crop development expertise, superior product quality, world-class processing facilities, and strong sustainability credentials to strengthen its position as a reliable supply chain partner for global customers. During the year, the Business also increased its share of business with international buyers of Indian Burley tobacco by growing the crop size through geographic expansion, leveraging its sustainable tobacco program. |
Deeper farmer and customer engagement, operational agility, and supply chain efficiency enabled the Business to deliver enhanced value to its customers and consolidate its pre-eminent position as the largest Indian exporter of unmanufactured tobacco. The Business continues to make focused investments across the tobacco value chain anchored on the key vectors of quality, consistency, compliance, climate risk mitigation, and sustainability. Crop and region-specific agronomic practices continue to be deployed to cater to emerging customer requirements. The Business continues to set benchmarks in leaf threshing operations through focused initiatives and innovative technological and digital solutions. Investments continue to be made in your Company’s Green Leaf Threshing plants (GLT) at Anaparti, Chirala, and Mysuru towards delivering world-class quality and upgrading processing technology. Strategic cost management across the value chain continues to be a key focus area for the Business. Utilization of the AI/ML powered real-time price discovery system continues to be scaled up, facilitating efficient leaf tobacco buying across auction platforms. Several initiatives implemented across the value chain in recent years have led to improved operating efficiencies in areas of leaf procurement, capacity utilization, and supply chain. Synergistic R&D initiatives focusing on varietal development, climate-smart farming techniques, farm-level digital interventions, and the use of water-efficient technologies are being scaled up to enhance productivity and product quality, reduce cultivation costs, and strengthen the resilience of the value chain to increase crop security and enhance farmer incomes. The Business enabled farmers to successfully implement integrated energy management initiatives spanning energy conservation, increasing alternative fuel usage, and energy plantations, towards achieving fuel self-sufficiency in the curing process of FCV tobacco. During the year, the Business also developed a comprehensive decarbonization strategy covering farms, GLTs, and supply chain operations. The electrical energy needs of all three GLTs are substantially met from renewable sources in line with your Company’s philosophy of adopting a low-carbon growth path. In addition to these initiatives, your Company is taking up integrated watershed management programs to ensure availability of water for irrigation during critical phases of the crop cycle. |
**SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** In recognition of its relentless commitment to the highest standards of sustainability, EHS (Environment, Health, Safety) & Quality, the Business received several awards during the year, including the award for ‘Most Innovative Best Practices’ from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), ‘AWS’ Certification of its Mysuru GLT with Platinum rating from the Alliance for Water Stewardship, and various awards at events organized by the Quality Circle Forum of India and CII for operational excellence. During the year, Indian leaf tobacco crop witnessed growth in export demand, driven by post-pandemic consumption recovery, supply chain disruptions, and pipeline build-up by international manufacturers, along with lower global inventories due to extreme weather events in prior years. Domestic demand also increased during the year, with the recent stability in taxes on cigarettes, enabling the legal cigarette industry in India to combat illicit trade, leading to higher domestic demand for the Indian tobacco crop. It is imperative to address certain structural factors to facilitate sustained growth and competitiveness of leaf tobacco exports from India. Punitive taxes on the legal cigarette industry in earlier years have resulted in elevated levels of illicit cigarette trade, impacting demand for Indian leaf tobacco as illicit products do not use significant levels of leaf tobacco grown in India. Lower export incentives in India and high import duties levied in several markets, including the USA and Europe, also continue to weigh on the competitiveness of Indian leaf tobacco exports. A more balanced regulatory and taxation regime that recognizes the unique tobacco consumption pattern prevalent in India and the economic realities of the country is needed to support the Indian tobacco farmer and the 46 million livelihoods dependent on tobacco. Your Company continues to engage with policymakers on these matters. The Business will continue to provide strategic sourcing support to your Company’s Cigarettes Business and consolidate its leadership position as a major exporter of quality Indian tobacco, thereby catalyzing the multiplier impact of increased farmer incomes on the rural economy. |
With its strong R&D capability, sustainability leadership, digital expertise, unique crop development and extension expertise, state-of-the-art processing facilities, and deep understanding of customer and farmer needs, your Company is well positioned to meet the current and emerging requirements of global customers and sustain its position as a world-class leaf tobacco organization. **SECTION: Other Agri Commodities** Geopolitical tensions and climate emergencies have led to significant concerns over food security and food inflation globally, as well as in India. To ensure India remains food secure, the Government has had to impose trade restrictions on agri commodities, consequently limiting business opportunities for your Company’s Agri Business during the year. As reported in earlier years, the scope and scale of operations of your Company’s Agri Business have grown manifold over the years and currently encompass nearly 3 million tonnes of annual volume throughput in 22 states and over 20 agri-value chains. The strategic focus of the Business in recent years has been to accelerate growth by rapidly developing and scaling up Value-Added Agri Products (VAAP), straddling multiple value chains comprising spices, coffee, frozen marine products, and processed fruits, among others. Amidst the extremely challenging operating environment, your Company leveraged its strong farm linkages, extensive sourcing expertise enabling traceable, attribute-based, and identity-preserved sourcing of agri-commodities, multi-modal logistics capability, agile supply chain operations, deep customer relationships, and focus on scaling up the VAAP portfolio to sustain business operations during the year. **SECTION: Spices** Your Company is a leading player in spices such as chili, turmeric, coriander, and cumin. In line with its strategy of enhancing value addition and ‘producing the buy’, the Business has, in recent years, scaled up its presence in ‘food safe’ markets such as the USA, EU, and Japan, leveraging its key strengths such as identity-preserved sourcing expertise, strong backward integration, custody of supply chain, and customer-focused strategies. During the year, the Business consolidated its position as a preferred supplier in ‘food safe’ markets (private labels, steam sterilized, organic products, etc.) leveraging deep customer relationships, portfolio augmentation, and agile execution. The Business scaled up its Organic and Integrated Crop Management (ICM) programs, thereby enhancing its ability to produce ‘food safe’ spices in a sustainable manner. |
The Business continues to partner with various State Governments for the production of ‘food safe’ spices and has maintained an unblemished track record over the years in terms of compliance with stringent food safety parameters. The Business continues to pursue sustainable farm management practices anchored on Rainforest Alliance and Global GAP accreditation. Capacity utilization of the state-of-the-art spices processing facility in Andhra Pradesh has been ramped up to enable your Company to expand its customer base in food safe export markets, besides promoting inclusive spices value chains benefiting thousands of Indian farmers. **SECTION: Coffee** During the year, coffee prices witnessed a sharp increase in the international markets primarily due to lower crop output in Vietnam. The tightness in supply, in anticipation of further price increases, resulted in lower export volumes of Indian coffee. Notwithstanding these challenges, the Business registered strong growth in exports leveraging its strategic presence in key coffee producing regions of India, deep understanding of estate and region-specific varieties, and focus on premium grades of Arabica, certified coffees, specialty, and monsooned coffee. **SECTION: Frozen Marine Products** Your Company is one of the leading exporters of value-added frozen marine products from India, with expertise in processing individually quick-frozen (IQF), raw, and cooked products, adhering to the highest standards of safety and hygiene prevalent in developed markets such as the US, EU, and Japan. During the year, your Company has emerged as one of the top three exporters of frozen shrimps from India to the EU market by expanding its footprint in sustainably sourced shrimps leveraging the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) program. The Business also provides sourcing support to the ‘ITC Master Chef’ range of ‘Super Safe’ frozen prawns in the domestic market and supplies high-quality shrimps to your Company’s Hotels Business. In the processed fruits and vegetables segment, the Business continues to expand its footprint in the fruit pulp and tomato paste categories through a robust network comprising a large number of small and marginal farmers in four states. The Business continues to focus on its strategy of moving up the value chain by scaling up its customized crop development and cultivation program in Madhya Pradesh to further enhance its expertise in Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Extracts (MAPE). |
Collaborations with farmers are being strengthened, with the Business providing necessary inputs, advisory, on-field support, and enabling farmers to ‘produce the buy’. The Business remains focused on expanding its scope of operations across identified agri-commodities, including both fresh and processed products. The Business is also scaling up end-to-end presence across the value chain, supported by the R&D capabilities of your Company’s Life Sciences and Technology Centre, ITCMAARS network, and external collaborations. Towards enhancing the competitiveness of domestic agri-value chains, strengthening market linkages, and building traceable and climate-smart value chains, your Company has successfully scaled up ITCMAARS – a crop-agnostic full-stack AgriTech digital platform, together with a physical ecosystem, across ten states. The ITCMAARS ‘Phygital’ platform now spans more than 1,650 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) encompassing more than 1.5 million connected farmers and several industry partners, including agri input manufacturers, banks, financial institutions, and agri-tech startups. By synergistically integrating NextGen agri technologies, ITCMAARS is developing a robust ecosystem to seamlessly deliver hyperlocal and personalized solutions to the Indian farming community, leveraging world-class digital tools (including IoT) to develop new and scalable revenue streams, strengthen sourcing efficiencies, and power your Company’s world-class Indian brands. The ITCMAARS platform provides hyperlocal e-market services for agri inputs and farm outputs, enables access to credit, and provides a wide range of predictive and prescriptive advisory services covering weather forecasts, agronomy, best practices for improved productivity, quality assurance, etc. The integration of these packages of practices enables the agri ecosystem to make a transformational shift towards superior value creation for all stakeholders. The ecosystem also provides access to sustainable agri inputs such as biologicals and nano-nutrients to farmers. New age functionalities such as ‘KrishiMitra’ – the world’s first Gen AI-based voice chatbot for farmers, enable innovative user-interface in vernacular languages deploying voice-to-text technology, thereby easing the adoption of digital technology by farming communities. Your Company leveraged its strong farm linkages, extensive sourcing expertise enabling traceable, attribute-based, and identity-preserved sourcing of agri commodities, multi-modal logistics capability, agile supply chain operations, deep customer relationships, and focus on scaling up the Value-Added Agri Products (VAAP) portfolio to sustain business operations during the year. Over the years, your Company has invested significantly in building competitively superior agri-commodity sourcing expertise comprising multiple business models, wide geographical spread, and customized infrastructure. |
Your Company is rapidly building expertise in data-science led decision support systems to deepen its sourcing capability. These include the development of AI/ML models that dynamically respond to evolving conditions across multiple sourcing dimensions and aid in optimal sourcing decisions. These capabilities and infrastructure have created structural advantages by facilitating competitive sourcing of agri commodities for your Company’s Branded Packaged Foods Businesses. - The Business continues to leverage its strong farm linkages and wide sourcing network across geographies to secure supplies of critical grades of wheat of benchmark quality towards meeting the growing requirements of ‘Aashirvaad’ atta. During the year, the Business further scaled up its strategic sourcing and supply chain interventions. These include focused crop development towards securing the right varieties for ‘Aashirvaad’ atta to provide consumers with best-in-class product quality and experience, use of multi-modal transportation, cost optimization through geographical and varietal arbitrage, as well as enabling supply of attribute-based/identity preserved grades. - Similarly, such capabilities are also being leveraged to source high-quality fruit pulp and frozen vegetables for your Company’s ‘B Natural’ and ‘Farmland’ brands. - The milk procurement network in Bihar and West Bengal was strengthened towards meeting the growing requirements of your Company’s Fresh Dairy portfolio under the ‘Aashirvaad Svasti’ brand, and in Punjab for ‘Sunfeast’ Dairy Beverages. The network was expanded during the year to support the launch of the fresh dairy portfolio in Jharkhand. The Business continues to empower farmers by providing infrastructure such as automated milk collection units, milk chillers, and imparting best animal husbandry practices to improve operational efficiency, maintain high quality of milk, while ensuring traceability. - The Business continues to scale up sourcing of spices to meet the growing requirements of Sunrise and Aashirvaad brands. In recognition of the various initiatives undertaken by the Business to enable an agile, resilient, and responsive sourcing and supply chain, your Company was recognized for its excellence under the Food, Perishables, Beverages & FMCG category at the CII SCALE Awards, 2023. Your Company also secured first position in FICCI Sustainable Agriculture Awards 2023 for its programs in Natural Resource Management and Climate Resilient Agriculture. |
The Business continues to collaborate with reputed research organizations such as the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Institute of Wheat & Barley Research, Indian Institute of Rice Research, Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Punjab Agricultural University, and Agharkar Research Institute towards building an efficient and cost-competitive agri-value chain. During the year, the Business further scaled up its crop development programs and introduced location-specific, new, and superior seed varieties along with appropriate packages of practices in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Sharp focus on deepening capabilities in proprietary crop intelligence, scaling up the sourcing and delivery network, and developing customized blends will support your Company’s Branded Packaged Foods Businesses in the years to come. Your Company remains committed to supporting the Government’s efforts to promote millets given their immense benefits in terms of nutritional properties and attributes as a planet-friendly and climate-resilient crop. Your Company has extended the ITCMAARS ecosystem to promote FPOs engaged in millets farming and has also partnered with the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), Hyderabad to promote high-yielding varieties and advanced packages of practices among millet farmers. Recognizing that the agriculture sector faces colossal challenges of ensuring food security, addressing climate change, and enhancing productivity and farm incomes, your Company has pioneered several interventions to strengthen the competitiveness and build resilience of agri value chains. A comprehensive Climate Smart Agriculture program has been launched across 19 states to enable a transformation journey from low yield low resilient areas to high yield and high resilient villages through a package of agronomy practices, climate-resilient varieties, precision farming, water management, and appropriate mechanization. Powering NextGen Agriculture, your Company has accelerated digital adoption in agriculture, enabling farmers to benefit from its advanced solutions. Regenerative agri-practices, farm mechanization, and adoption of climate-smart agriculture are bolstered by the efficient aggregation of farmers to future-ready FPOs. ``` ``` Your Company’s focus on exports has led to strategic investments in world-class facilities that help link farmers to global markets. |
The wide range of interventions of your Company in empowering farmers through climate-resilient agriculture, natural resource augmentation, development of competitive agri-value chains, focus on VAAP, leveraging advanced digital technology, and strong market linkages reflect your Company’s commitment to catalyse a transformational shift of the agri ecosystem from the conventional production-centric to demand-responsive value chains, while also serving national priorities. **SECTION: NOTES ON SUBSIDIARIES** The following may be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements of your Company prepared in accordance with Indian Accounting Standard 110. Shareholders desirous of obtaining the Report and Accounts of your Company’s subsidiaries may obtain the same upon request. Further, the Report and Accounts of the subsidiary companies is also available under the ‘Investor Relations’ section of your Company’s website, www.itcportal.com, in a downloadable format. Your Company’s Policy for determination of a material subsidiary, as adopted by your Board, in conformity with Regulation 16 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015, can be accessed on your Company’s corporate website at https://www.itcportal.com/material-subsidiary-policy. Presently, your Company does not have any material subsidiary. **SECTION: Surya Nepal Private Limited** The Nepalese economy witnessed a slowdown in GDP growth to 1.9% during the fiscal year ended July 2023 as against the 5.6% growth in the previous year. The operating environment remained challenging with high inflation, low credit growth, and high interest rates leading to subdued economic activity reflecting in muted performance across sectors. The Central Bank’s intervention through the new Monetary Policy, aimed at fostering economic growth, aided in progressive moderation of interest rates during the current fiscal year. Consumer price inflation eased to 4.8% in mid-March 2024 vs. 7.4% in mid-July 2023, largely on account of moderation in commodity prices. Remittance inflows continue to be robust, growing at 18.8% during the period from July 2023 to March 2024 over the previous year. The tourism sector also continues to strengthen with tourist arrivals recovering to pre-COVID levels. While the economy is on the path of gradual recovery from the macroeconomic stress witnessed since 2022, overall economic activity remains subdued and domestic demand, especially in the FMCG sector, remains weak. Private investment remained muted as evidenced by lower imports of capital and intermediate goods. |
Public consumption and investments also contracted, on the back of lower revenue collections. Measures towards encouraging domestic and foreign investments, incentivising the manufacturing sector to enable import substitution and job creation, supporting the hospitality sector with its large economic multiplier effect, on-ground implementation of reforms and promulgation of industry-friendly policies remain the key imperatives for sustained revival of the economy. The legal cigarette industry provides livelihoods to over five lakh individuals involved in tobacco cultivation, manufacturing & trade and makes a significant contribution to the revenue collection of the Government of Nepal. Despite its far-reaching economic impact, the legal cigarette industry continues to face significant challenges from an increasingly punitive and discriminatory taxation and regulatory regime. The company continues to engage with policymakers for equitable, non-discriminatory, pragmatic, evidence-based regulations and taxation policies that balance the economic imperatives of the country and tobacco control objectives. Amidst a challenging economic environment as aforestated, the company reinforced its market standing in the Cigarettes business by leveraging its robust portfolio, superior product quality, and wide distribution network. Differentiated and innovative offerings under ‘Striker’ and ‘Surya’ brands were launched during the year, further fortifying the portfolio. The company’s manufacturing systems continue to set new benchmarks in responsiveness, quality, and productivity. Various initiatives such as installation of state-of-the-art technologies and process automation were implemented during the year, which further strengthened the manufacturing capability of the company. Relentless focus on developing world-class products anchored on innovation and benchmarked against international quality standards remains a key source of sustainable competitive advantage for the company. During the year, the company continued to strengthen its market standing in the Agarbatti business, leveraging its differentiated product portfolio, sharply focused marketing investments, and best-in-class product availability across target markets. New ‘Marigold’ offering introduced during the year, strengthened its presence in the premium segment. During the year, the company forayed into the Biscuits category with the launch of premium biscuits under the trademark ‘Sunfeast Dark Fantasy Choco Fills’ licensed from your Company. A state-of-the-art biscuits manufacturing line has been commissioned at the company’s facility near Biratnagar in eastern Nepal with commercial production commencing in August 2023. The brand has received encouraging consumer response. |
In the Confectionery business, the company further augmented its portfolio through new launches such as ‘Toffichoo Eclairs’ and ‘Toffichoo Cola Fun’ and continues to make focused investments towards strengthening its market standing. During the year, Surya Nepal Ventures Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, was incorporated to carry out manufacturing and distribution of FMCG products, commencing with Agarbattis. The company commenced operations in March 2024. The company continues to make multi-dimensional contributions towards building the societal and economic capital of Nepal. In line with the applicable regulations and CSR policy, the company carried out initiatives under four distinct CSR Platforms, namely, Surya Nepal Asha, Surya Nepal Prakriti, Surya Nepal Adharshila, and Surya Nepal Gatha during the year. Key interventions include: - Providing assistance to farmers in areas proximal to the company’s operations, - Creation of agri-infrastructure such as vermicompost pits, harvesting sheds, etc., - Providing training to improve productivity and enhance income generation for farmers through animal husbandry, - Improvement in the quality of education in public schools in the vicinity of the company’s operating locations, - Development of public infrastructure in the catchment areas of operating locations, - Assistance in various environment preservation measures like urban plantation and preservation of biodiversity. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** - Support in organising the largest Nepali literature festival and assistance in promotion and revival of the local Nepali folk musical instrument – ‘Sarangi’ through various training programs and workshops. - Supported the Nepal Army in its ‘Safa Himal Abhiyan’ initiative aimed at minimising the impact of environmental pollution by collecting degradable and non-degradable wastes strewn in the Himalayas. During the year, the company recorded Revenue from Operations of NRs. 4979 crores (previous year NRs. 4953 crores) and Net Profit of NRs. 1118 crores (previous year NRs. 1088 crores). The company declared a dividend of NRs. 563 per equity share of NRs. 100 each for the year ended 16th July 2023 (31st Asadh, 2080), amounting to NRs. 1135 crores (previous year NRs. 516 per equity share amounting to NRs. 1040 crores). The company continues to be the largest contributor to the exchequer in Nepal and is well-positioned to consolidate its leadership position by leveraging its robust portfolio of products, deep & wide distribution network, best-in-class manufacturing facilities, and execution excellence. |
The company continues to explore opportunities to rapidly scale up the newer FMCG businesses and evaluate emerging opportunities in this space. **SECTION: ITC Infotech India Limited and its subsidiaries** The global technology industry witnessed a slowdown in growth in FY 2023-24 on the back of macro-economic and geo-political uncertainties. According to NASSCOM, the Indian IT Services Industry grew at only 2% in FY 2023-24, compared to 8.3% in the previous year. With companies rationalising their discretionary IT spend, cost-optimisation strategies continue to drive global technology spending. In the backdrop of muted growth in the IT Services Industry, the company recorded robust revenue growth during the year driven by an expanded global footprint and capability-led partnerships across key clients. The business strategy remains centred around sustaining the organisational growth momentum leveraging the core pillars of ‘Customer Centricity’, ‘Employee Centricity’, and ‘Operational Excellence’, augmented by inorganic growth levers aligning to strategic priorities of the Business. The company stayed relevant to the evolving business needs of its clients and co-invested in the growth and transformation agendas of key customers. With technology clients increasingly looking for strategic partners to streamline distributed portfolio of services and drive efficiencies, the company leveraged an integrated global service delivery structure and strengthened operational efficiencies through a structured delivery excellence framework. The company continued to invest in institutionalising best-in-class delivery excellence and building focused capabilities to drive client relevance, scale, and differentiation. The company’s portfolio of client and industry-focused capabilities include Data & Analytics, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Open Hospitality (Hotels-in-a-Box), PLM-led Digital Thread Solutions, Digital Manufacturing, SAP S/4 HANA, and Cloud amongst others. The company’s focus on large deals enabled it to strengthen its portfolio of capabilities, bolster its mid-term revenue growth prospects, and expand globally. The company started a new Service Line – ‘DxP Services’ – pursuant to the Strategic Partner Agreement with PTC Inc. in FY 2022-23. The company has also won two multi-year, large strategic deals in FY 2023-24 from existing marquee clients. Attracting, training, and retaining high-quality talent, particularly in niche and future-focused technologies remains a top priority to succeed in the global technology landscape and support Business’ growth imperative. The company continues to foster an employee-centric, high-performance work culture, driving holistic well-being and growth as part of its comprehensive employee value proposition. |
The company continues to strengthen leadership through curated leadership development programs and employee competencies through domain & technology-led training and career development programs. During the year, the company’s consolidated Total Income stood at ₹ 3784.17 crores (previous year ₹ 3363.06 crores), clocking a resilient growth of 12.5% driven by its expanded global presence and the increasing traction in the company’s strategic accounts. Profit Before Tax stood at ₹ 628.61 crores (previous year ₹ 529.66 crores) and Net Profit stood at ₹ 463.13 crores (previous year ₹ 405.25 crores). The aforestated financial metrics are after considering certain costs associated with the Strategic Partner Agreement with PTC Inc., resource augmentation, and accelerated investments in capability building in strategic focus areas and infrastructure. **SECTION: For the year under review:** 1. ITC Infotech India Limited recorded Revenue from Operations of ₹ 2869.29 crores (previous year ₹ 2632.30 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 382.21 crores (previous year ₹ 353.38 crores). The company paid a total dividend of ₹ 55.50 per Equity Share of ₹ 10/- each aggregating ₹ 488.40 crores (previous year ₹ 17.00 per Equity Share of ₹ 10/- each aggregating ₹ 149.60 crores). 2. ITC Infotech Limited, UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, recorded Revenue of GBP 34.11 million (previous year GBP 30.30 million) and Net Profit of GBP 1.49 million (previous year GBP 1.45 million). 3. ITC Infotech (USA), Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Indivate Inc., recorded Revenue of US$ 158.58 million (previous year US$ 149.28 million) and Net Profit of US$ 6.69 million (previous year US$ 4.68 million). 4. ITC Infotech Do Brasil LTDA., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in October 2022, recorded Revenue of BRL 7.59 million (previous year BRL 1.37 million) and Net Profit of BRL 0.60 million (previous year BRL 0.12 million). 5. ITC Infotech de México, S.A. de C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in April 2023, recorded Revenue of MXN 5.90 million and Net Profit of MXN 0.75 million. 6. ITC Infotech France SAS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in February 2023, recorded Revenue of EUR 6.05 million and Net Profit of EUR 0.43 million. 7. |
ITC Infotech GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in March 2023, recorded Revenue of EUR 14.25 million and Net Profit of EUR 2.80 million. 8. ITC Infotech Malaysia SDN. BHD., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in February 2023, recorded Revenue of MYR 7.95 million and Net Profit of MYR 0.37 million. 9. ITC Infotech Arabia Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company incorporated in December 2023 is expected to be fully operational in FY 2024-25. The company’s investments in building technology-led solutions and offerings in future-focused capabilities were acknowledged in global benchmarking reports across analyst firms. In FY 2023-24, the company was recognised as ‘Disruptor’ across several Avasant RadarViewTM service provider benchmarking reports, including ‘Digital CX Services’, ‘Data Management and Advanced Analytics’, ‘Manufacturing Smart Industry’, ‘Internet of Things’, ‘End-user Computing’, ‘Digital Workplace’, and ‘Intelligent Automation’. The company was recognised as ‘Disruptor’ by HFS in ‘Horizons: Retail and CPG Service Providers, 2023’. The company received two ISG ‘Star of ExcellenceTM’ Awards in the categories of ‘Universal ISV/Cloud Vendor Ecosystem’ and ‘Industry Award for CPG + Retail’. In April 2024, the company signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% shareholding of Blazeclan Technologies Private Limited – a born-in-the-cloud consulting company providing Cloud services on AWS, Azure, and GCP. The acquisition reiterates the company’s commitment to help clients steer their digital transformation journey and deliver business outcomes built on the foundation of strong Cloud capabilities. Going forward, the company will continue to invest in strengthening key client relationships to accelerate. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** The company will also expand its portfolio of technology-focused capabilities across select industry verticals and sharpen its alliance ecosystem with future-ready Software Vendors in identified capability areas such as Digital, Data & Analytics, Cloud, and Infrastructure Services amongst others. Investments in hiring and training the right talent would also be sustained, with a focus on strengthening the company’s employee-centric, high-performance culture, driven by continuous learning. The company is poised to fulfil its vision of being a leading technology provider to global enterprises for building business-friendly solutions. **SECTION: Technico Agri Sciences Limited** During the year under review, potato production in India stood at 60.1 million MT, which was higher by 7% compared to the previous year. |
Availability of seed potatoes with farmers was also higher due to favourable weather conditions during the crop year 2022-23, leading to surplus stocks in cold stores and lower potato prices. Leveraging its institutional strengths, the company continued to take proactive measures to consolidate its relationship with farmers, enter new potato growing markets, and expand distribution in existing markets to achieve record high levels of seed sales during the year. The company’s leadership in production of early generation seed potatoes and strength in agronomy continue to support the ‘Bingo!’ range of potato chips of your Company and in servicing the seed potato requirements of the farmer base of your Company’s Agri Business. The company’s Revenue from Operations stood at ₹ 323.95 crores (previous year ₹ 257.77 crores) with Net Profit of ₹ 37.81 crores (previous year ₹ 41.38 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 37.82 crores (previous year ₹ 41.42 crores). The company continues to build on a strong foundation for the future and remains confident of effectively leveraging its deep domain expertise to fortify its market standing in the seed potato industry. **SECTION: Technico Pty Limited and its subsidiaries** The company continues to focus on upgradation and commercialisation of its TECHNITUBER® Seed Technology and customising the agronomy practices for deployment across various geographies. Further, the company is also engaged in the marketing of TECHNITUBER® seed produced at the facilities of its subsidiary in China and Technico Agri Sciences Limited, India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of your Company, to global customers. For the year under review: - Technico Pty Limited, Australia registered a turnover of Australian Dollars (A$) 1.69 million (previous year A$ 1.83 million) and a Net Profit of A$ 0.81 million (previous year A$ 1.04 million). - Technico Technologies Inc., Canada has wound down its Seed Potato business operations and sold the assets related to the business during the year. - Technico Asia Holdings Pty Limited, Australia, and Technico Horticultural (Kunming) Co. Limited, China – there were no significant events to report with respect to the above companies. |
**SECTION: WelcomHotels Lanka (Private) Limited** WelcomHotels Lanka (Private) Limited (WLPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of your Company, was incorporated in Sri Lanka in April 2012 with the objective of developing and operating a mixed-use development project (‘Project’) comprising a luxury hotel and a super-premium residential apartment complex situated on 5.86 acres of prime sea-facing land in Colombo. The Project has been accorded the status of a ‘Strategic Development Project’ entitling the company to various fiscal benefits in Sri Lanka. Further, the Project is also exempt from Sri Lankan foreign exchange regulations. Consequent to the IMF bailout programme and the various measures undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka including restructuring and divestment of state-owned enterprises, tax reforms to boost government revenues, etc., the Sri Lankan economy continues to be on the recovery path with tourist arrivals, worker remittances, and forex reserves showing healthy growth with stability in the currency exchange rate and moderation in inflation. Discussions on restructuring of foreign debt are currently underway and the Government of Sri Lanka expects the same to be concluded shortly. ``` ``` **SECTION: ITC Ratnadipa Hotel** The company’s hotel at Colombo, ‘ITC Ratnadipa’, situated along the shores of the Indian Ocean on one side and Beira Lake on the other, was inaugurated on 25th April, 2024 by the President of Sri Lanka in the presence of other dignitaries including the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. The hotel, a magnificent icon of responsible luxury with guest rooms, suites, and service apartments each offering breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean from private balconies, elegantly portrays Sri Lankan architecture and draws inspiration from the national flower of Sri Lanka, the floating water lily. Complementing its exquisite accommodations, ITC Ratnadipa shall also present nine signature dining destinations that offer a repertoire of local, national, and global cuisine. The hotel is being operationalised in a phased manner. Construction of the residential apartment complex is in the final stages and is expected to be completed in the first half of FY 2024-25. |
While the recent increase in tax rates on real estate has impacted the sales velocity of ‘The Sapphire Residences’ luxury apartments, the company expects the same to gain momentum given its unique positioning in the market and superior value proposition coupled with improved stability in the macro-economic environment and the launch of ITC Ratnadipa, in line with the trend in other mixed-use projects in Colombo. Your Company’s investment in WLPL stood at ₹ 3480 crores as at 31st March, 2024. **SECTION: Landbase India Limited** The company owns and operates the Classic Golf & Country Club, a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course – which continues to enjoy strong brand equity with its members, guests, and the golfing fraternity. During the year, the Club reaffirmed its position as one of the leading golf courses in Asia and hosted various prestigious tournaments & events ranging from Junior, Professional, and Corporate tournaments. The Club continues to be a member of the ‘Asian Tour Destinations’, which is an exclusive network of world-class golf venues with direct ties to the Asian Tour. The Club also hosted the European Challenge Tour Event, drawing participation from over 100 international players. The Club registered a robust increase in footfalls driving revenue growth during the year, with several initiatives to widen the membership base. These include initiatives to promote Junior Golf for young golfers as well as measures for promotion of the sport amongst corporates and communities in Delhi and NCR. The company also owns ‘ITC Grand Bharat’, a 104-key all-suite luxury retreat at Gurugram, which has been licensed to your Company. The retreat, an oasis of unhurried luxury, is co-located with the Classic Golf & Country Club. During the year, ‘ITC Grand Bharat’ strengthened its position as one of the leading luxury wedding destinations in the country and was also the destination of choice for several milestone celebrations among leading corporates. The retreat was also chosen for the G20 Sherpa meet and proudly hosted diplomats from all G20 nations, an acknowledgment of the exceptional quality of hospitality offered by the hotel. During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 44.01 crores (previous year ₹ 37.21 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 10.00 crores (Previous year ₹ 9.68 crores). |
Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 10.00 crores (Previous Year ₹ 9.60 crores). **SECTION: Srinivasa Resorts Limited** The company owns ‘ITC Kakatiya’ – a 188-key luxury hotel located in Hyderabad, which is operated and marketed by your Company. ITC Kakatiya is a USGBC LEED Platinum® Certified Hotel and is one of the finest luxury hotel and F&B destinations. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** ‘Dakshin’ was adjudged the ‘Best South Indian Premium Dining Restaurant’ at the Times Food Guide Nightlife Awards 2024 for the 14th consecutive year. The travel and tourism industry continues to remain buoyant on the back of rising demand and robust economic growth. The company is well-positioned to capitalise on the expected growth momentum leveraging its iconic cuisine brands and best-in-class service levels. During the year, the company experienced a strong resurgence in demand, which led to a consistent increase in average room rates and occupancy levels. The company invested in enhancing guest experience by upgrading its rooms to best-in-class luxury levels. During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 74.72 crores (previous year ₹ 72.46 crores) with Net Profit of ₹ 8.10 crores (previous year ₹ 7.55 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 8.15 crores (previous year ₹ 7.51 crores). **SECTION: Fortune Park Hotels Limited** The company, which caters to the ‘Mid-market to Upscale’ segment through a chain of hotels under the brand ‘Fortune’, continues to forge new alliances and expand its footprint. During the year, eight new hotels with 500+ rooms commenced operations across the country and cater to both the business and leisure segments. The company has also signed up 12 new properties during the year, taking the total property count to 66 hotels with over 5,000 rooms across 55 cities in India. Of these, 51 hotels (with over 3,800 rooms) are in operation while the remaining 15 hotels (over 1,200 rooms) are in various stages of development, and are slated to be commissioned in the near term. The company has been awarded multiple recognitions during the year including SATTE Award 2024 for ‘Hotel chain of the year - Mid-market segment’, Today’s Traveller Awards 2023 for ‘Premier Upscale Hotel chain’ and India Travel Awards North 2023 for ‘Best Upscale Hotel chain in India’. |
During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 54.92 crores (previous year: ₹ 44.35 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 11.22 crores (previous year: ₹ 5.34 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 11.09 crores (previous year ₹ 5.20 crores). The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of ₹ 15.00 per Equity Share of ₹ 10 each for the year ended 31st March, 2024 (previous year ₹ 12.50 per Equity Share). **SECTION: Bay Islands Hotels Limited** The company’s hotel in Port Blair, licensed to your Company, continues to offer a unique gateway to the Andamans with its strategic location, excellent architectural design, and superior product & service quality. Tourism in the Andamans received impetus from the completion of airport renovation and the launch of a new terminal during the year. Increase in tourist footfalls has led to improvement in occupancy and an increase in average room rates during the year. During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 3.79 crores (previous year ₹ 2.75 crores) and Net Profit and Total Comprehensive Income of ₹ 2.70 crores (previous year ₹ 1.92 crores). The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of ₹ 100.00 per Equity Share of ₹ 100 each for the year ended 31st March, 2024 (previous year ₹ 80.00 per Equity Share). **SECTION: ITC Hotels Limited** ITC Hotels Limited was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of your Company in July, 2023 with its main object being hotels and hospitality business. The company has been incorporated to carry on the Hotels Business of your Company post its demerger, pursuant to a Scheme of Arrangement amongst your Company and ITC Hotels Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors under Sections 230 to 232 read with other applicable provisions. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** **SECTION: Wimco Limited** The company’s business activities comprise fabrication and assembly of machinery for tube filling, cartoning, wrapping, material handling including conveyor solutions and engineering services for the FMCG and Pharmaceutical industries. During the year, the company’s order book remained muted amidst a challenging operating environment. |
The company’s Revenue from Operations for the year stood at ₹ 3.47 crores (previous year ₹ 11.46 crores) with a Net Loss of ₹ 1.88 crores (previous year Net Profit of ₹ 0.16 crore). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at (-) ₹ 1.93 crores (previous year ₹ 0.21 crore). **SECTION: North East Nutrients Private Limited** Your Company holds a 76% equity stake in North East Nutrients Private Limited, which has set up a food processing facility in Mangaldoi, Assam, to cater to the biscuits market in Assam and other north-eastern states. The company continues to focus on consistently improving operational efficiency and productivity. In recognition of its high standards of quality, the company received three Gold Awards at the ‘Convention on Quality Concepts’, 2023 organised by the Quality Circle Forum of India, Kolkata Chapter. The company’s Revenue from Operations for the year stood at ₹ 154.07 crores (previous year ₹ 160.69 crores), while Net Profit for the year was ₹ 14.90 crores (previous year ₹ 15.98 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 14.89 crores (previous year ₹ 16.14 crores). For FY 2023-24, the Board of Directors of the company has recommended a final dividend of ₹ 2 per equity share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 14.60 crores (previous year final dividend of ₹ 1.31 per equity share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 9.56 crores). **SECTION: ITC IndiVision Limited** ITC IndiVision Limited (IIVL) was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of your Company on 9th July, 2020. Construction of the company’s facility situated near Mysuru, Karnataka, was completed during the year and the plant was commissioned in March 2024. The facility, set up primarily for the manufacture and export of nicotine and nicotine derivative products, has the capability to produce purest nicotine derivatives conforming to US and EU pharmacopoeia standards. Customer trials and approval of product samples are currently underway. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 1.19 crores (previous year ₹ 0.01 crore) and Net Loss of ₹ 31.12 crores (previous year ₹ 1.68 crores), primarily on account of pre-operating revenue expenditure. Your Company’s investment in IIVL stood at ₹ 340 crores as at 31st March, 2024. |
**SECTION: ITC Fibre Innovations Limited** The company was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of your Company in March 2023 with the objective of foraying into the Moulded Fibre Products space. Moulded Fibre Products, made from renewable natural fibres such as wood, bamboo, bagasse, and waste paper, offer sustainable packaging solutions across industries including food service & delivery, pharmaceutical, beauty, and electronics. The company has set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Badiyakhedi, Madhya Pradesh, to pursue opportunities in this rapidly evolving space. The facility commenced commercial production in March 2024. For the period ended 31st March 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 1.26 crores with Net Loss of ₹ 3.56 crores. Your Company’s investment in IFIL stood at ₹ 200 crores as at 31st March, 2024. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** **SECTION: Russell Credit Limited** The company recorded Total Income of ₹ 60.91 crores (previous year ₹ 48.61 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 39.39 crores (previous year ₹ 38.30 crores). Growth in Total Income was driven by an increase in the yield of the company’s investments due to higher market interest rates during the year. Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 442.67 crores (previous year ₹ 55.24 crores), reflecting higher mark-to-market gains from long-term strategic investments vis-a-vis the previous year. The company continues to closely monitor its investments in line with market interest rate movements and explore opportunities to make strategic investments for the ITC Group. Temporary surplus liquidity of the company is mainly deployed in bonds, government securities, debt mutual funds, bank fixed deposits, certificate of deposits, etc. For FY 2023-24, the company declared a final dividend of ₹ 0.30 per Equity Share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 19.39 crores (previous year final dividend of ₹ 0.29 per Equity Share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 18.75 crores). **SECTION: Gold Flake Corporation Limited** The company holds a 50% equity stake in ITC Filtrona Limited (Formerly known as ITC Essentra Limited). During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 24.82 crores (previous year ₹ 19.97 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 23.12 crores (previous year ₹ 18.42 crores). |
The company declared an interim dividend of ₹ 14.10 per Equity Share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 22.56 crores (previous year ₹ 11.30 per Equity Share of ₹ 10 each, aggregating ₹ 18.08 crores). **SECTION: Greenacre Holdings Limited** The company provides maintenance services for commercial office buildings, engineering, procurement and construction management services, and project management consultancy services. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 11.61 crores (previous year ₹ 8.30 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 2.82 crores (previous year ₹ 1.99 crores). **SECTION: ITC Integrated Business Services Limited** (formerly known as ITC Investments & Holdings Limited) The company is in the business of providing support to the Business Shared Services operations of your Company. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 12.78 crores (previous year ₹ 0.65 crore) and Net Profit of ₹ 0.60 crore (previous year ₹ 0.04 crore). **SECTION: MRR Trading & Investment Company Limited** The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Integrated Business Services Limited, holds tenancy rights in a commercial building located in Mumbai and also provides estate maintenance services. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 7.38 lakh (previous year ₹ 7.25 lakh) and Net Profit of ₹ 0.66 lakh (previous year ₹ 0.28 lakh). **SECTION: Pavan Poplar Limited** The operations of the company continue to be adversely impacted pursuant to the Order of the Honourable High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital in February 2014 dismissing the Writ Petition filed by the company against the Order of the District Magistrate authorising the State authorities to take possession of the land leased to the company. The appeal filed by the company against the aforestated Order was admitted in April 2014 and the matter is pending before the Honourable High Court. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 0.14 crore (previous year ₹ 0.12 crore) and Net loss of ₹ 0.03 crore (previous year loss of ₹ 0.03 crore). **SECTION: Prag Agro Farm Limited** The operations of the company continue to be adversely impacted pursuant to the Order of the Honourable High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital in February 2014 dismissing the writ petition filed by the company against the Order of the District Magistrate authorising the State authorities to take possession. |
**SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** of the land leased to the company. The appeal filed by the company against the aforestated Order was admitted in April 2014 and the matter is pending before the Honourable High Court. During the year, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 0.10 crore (previous year ₹ 0.11 crore) and Net loss of ₹ 0.02 crore (previous year net loss of ₹ 0.05 crore). **SECTION: NOTES ON JOINT VENTURES** **SECTION: ITC Filtrona Limited (formerly known as ITC Essentra Limited) – a joint venture of Gold Flake Corporation Limited** The company registered strong growth during the year aided by agility in execution and effective customer service, despite significant volatility in the supply chain for certain input materials. The company retained its leadership position in the industry and remains the preferred supply chain partner for several well-known national brands. The company continues to leverage its core strengths of focused innovation, best-in-class quality, consistent delivery, and strong customer relationships. The company continues to partner with its customers and invest in technology upgradation and capability building towards sustaining its position as the ‘innovation and quality benchmark’ in the Indian cigarette filter industry. The company expanded its specialty filters manufacturing capacity during the year in line with its strategy of offering a wide range of innovative products to its customers. During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company’s Revenue from Operations stood at ₹ 743.45 crores (previous year ₹ 545.66 crores). Net Profit during the year stood at ₹ 80.80 crores (previous year ₹ 64.77 crores). The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of ₹ 100 per equity share of ₹ 10 each for the year ended 31st March, 2024 (previous year ₹ 100 per equity share). **SECTION: Maharaja Heritage Resorts Limited** Maharaja Heritage Resorts Limited (MHRL), a joint venture of your Company with Jodhana Heritage Resorts Private Limited, currently operates 38 properties across 14 States/Union Territories in India under the ‘WelcomHeritage’ brand. During the year, the company has added three new hotels. The company’s portfolio consists of palaces, forts, and resorts in popular historical, nature, and wildlife destinations, providing guests with distinct and differentiated experiences. |
During the year, your Company purchased the entire investment in MHRL held by Russell Credit Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, consequent to which your Company’s shareholding in MHRL aggregated 50% of its paid-up share capital. During the year ended 31st March, 2024, the company recorded Total Income of ₹ 8.12 crores (previous year ₹ 7.20 crores) and Net Profit of ₹ 0.93 crores (previous year ₹ 0.51 crores). Total Comprehensive Income for the year stood at ₹ 0.90 crores (previous year ₹ 0.49 crores). **SECTION: Espirit Hotels Private Limited** ``` ``` **SECTION: Espirit Hotels Private Limited (EHPL)** Espirit Hotels Private Limited (EHPL) was set up as a joint venture between your Company and the Ambience Group, Hyderabad, for developing a luxury hotel complex at Begumpet, Hyderabad. Your Company held a 26% equity stake in EHPL with a total investment of ₹46.51 crores as of 31st March, 2023. The JV partner had been citing concerns about the viability of the project and expressed inability to make further financial commitments. Consequently, your Company explored options regarding its investment in the Joint Venture. On 7th April, 2023, your Company divested its entire shareholding, i.e., 26% of the paid-up share capital, held in EHPL, resulting in EHPL ceasing to be a joint venture of your Company from that date. **SECTION: Logix Developers Private Limited (LDPL)** Logix Developers Private Limited (LDPL) is a joint venture between your Company and Logix Estates Private Limited for developing a luxury hotel-cum-service apartment complex at the company’s leasehold site located at Sector 105 in New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA). Your Company presently holds a 27.9% equity stake in LDPL. Your Company reiterated its commitment to developing the luxury hotel-cum-service apartment complex as envisaged under the JV Agreement and was not interested in alternative project plans proposed by the JV partner. However, the JV partner refused to progress the project and expressed intent to exit from the JV by selling its stake to your Company. Subsequently, the JV partner proposed that both parties should find a third party to sell the entire shareholding in LDPL. Your Company filed a petition before the erstwhile Company Law Board, stating that the affairs of the JV entity were being conducted in a manner prejudicial to your Company’s interests. |
The matter is currently before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The JV partner also filed a petition before the Honourable Delhi High Court for winding up the JV company, which was transferred to the NCLT. The matter has been heard on several occasions but could not be concluded. On 21st January, 2020, the matter was assigned to a new bench, and hearings are ongoing. In July 2022, LDPL received a communication from NOIDA authorities regarding the cancellation of the sub-lease for the land due to non-payment of lease instalments and non-fulfilment of sub-lease conditions, including forfeiture of the amount deposited. The company is evaluating all options to pursue its rights in the matter. Consequently, the company derecognised the leasehold land/assets and adjusted/reversed the lease liabilities towards NOIDA in its financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2022. During the year ended 31st March 2024, the company recorded a Net Profit of ₹0.21 crore (previous year ₹0.16 crore). The Net Worth of the company stood at ₹5.31 crores as of 31st March 2024 (previous year ₹5.10 crores). Your Company’s total investment in LDPL was ₹41.95 crores, and it had made provision for the entire investment amount as diminution in the carrying value in previous years, resulting in a carrying value of Nil as of 31st March 2024. The financial statements of LDPL for the year ended 31st March 2024 are yet to be approved by its Board of Directors. In the absence of audited financial statements of LDPL, the Consolidated Financial Statements of your Company for the year ended 31st March 2024 have been prepared based on the financial statements prepared by the management of LDPL. **SECTION: NOTES ON ASSOCIATES** **SECTION: ATC Limited (an associate of Gold Flake Corporation Limited)** The company is a contract manufacturer of cigarettes and has maintained high levels of operational efficiency and benchmark quality in its manufacturing operations. During the year, the company received the ‘FICCI Gold Award for Excellence in Safety Systems’ and the ‘Star Award of Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Excellence’ from the National Safety Council, Tamil Nadu. **SECTION: International Travel House Limited (ITHL)** The company provides complete business travel management solutions, including air ticketing, car rental services, hotel arrangements, meetings & events, as well as leisure travel and foreign exchange. |
The sector witnessed robust growth during the year, with domestic air travel exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The company’s revenue surpassed pre-COVID levels, driven by higher business volumes and improved yields. Focused interventions in recent years to optimise the cost structure have enabled improvement in margins. The company continues to provide mobility services with exemplary standards of safety and hygiene and is expanding its fleet of electric vehicles in line with its sustainability initiatives. Multiple digitalisation projects were implemented across mobility & travel-related services to enhance productivity, efficiency, and improve customer experience. During the year, your Company purchased the entire investment in ITHL held by Russell Credit Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, resulting in your Company’s shareholding in ITHL aggregating 48.96% of its paid-up share capital. The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of ₹5.00 per Equity Share of ₹10 each for the year ended 31st March 2024 (previous year ₹3.50 per equity share). **SECTION: Gujarat Hotels Limited** The company’s hotel, ‘Welcomhotel Vadodara’, is operated by your Company under an Operating License Agreement. The Board of Directors of the company has recommended a dividend of ₹2.50 per Equity Share of ₹10 each for the year ended 31st March 2024 (previous year ₹2.00 per Equity Share). **SECTION: Delectable Technologies Private Limited** Delectable Technologies Private Limited (Delectable) is engaged in the sale of FMCG products leveraging app-based technology through vending machines, primarily installed across office locations. During the year, your Company invested ₹3.50 crores in the Equity capital of Delectable, increasing your Company’s shareholding to 39.32% (previous year 33.42%) on a fully diluted basis. The company continues to expand its footprint through the installation of new vending machines. **SECTION: Sproutlife Foods Private Limited** Your Company fortified its presence in the fast-growing, nutrition-led health food space with a strategic investment in Sproutlife Foods Private Limited (Sproutlife), which owns the ‘Yogabar’ brand. During the year, investment in Sproutlife was made in two tranches aggregating ₹225 crores, increasing your Company’s stake in Sproutlife to 44.74% on a fully diluted basis. The brand continues to garner robust traction across its target markets and customer segments. The company expanded its healthy snacking portfolio with the launch of several differentiated offerings, including an oats range, corn flakes, dry fruits, and ‘no-maida’ choco cereal. |
Additionally, the company launched Yoga Baby - a range crafted to meet the nutritional needs of children with recipes inspired by traditional knowledge. **SECTION: Mother Sparsh Baby Care Private Limited** Mother Sparsh Baby Care Private Limited (Mother Sparsh) is a premium ayurvedic and natural personal care brand in the D2C space, offering a wide range of personal care products inspired by traditional values and practices, focusing on baby and mother care segments. During the year, your Company invested ₹11.54 crores in Mother Sparsh, resulting in your Company’s stake now standing at 26.5% (previous year 22%) on a fully diluted basis. Cumulative investment in Mother Sparsh stood at ₹45 crores as of 31st March 2024. **SECTION: Associates of Russell Credit Limited** Russell Investments Limited, Divya Management Limited, and Antrang Finance Limited are associates of Russell Credit Limited. These companies are Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) registered with the Reserve Bank of India and continue to explore opportunities for strategic investments. For further details on the performance of the above-mentioned associate companies, please refer to Form AOC-1 (Statement containing salient features of the financial statements of Subsidiaries / Associate companies / Joint Ventures), forming part of the Report and Accounts. **SECTION: INTERNAL FINANCIAL CONTROLS** The Corporate Governance Policy guides the conduct of affairs of your Company and delineates the roles, responsibilities, and authorities at each level of its three-tiered governance structure. The ITC Code of Conduct commits management to financial and accounting policies, systems, and processes. The Corporate Governance Policy and the ITC Code of Conduct are widely communicated across the enterprise and, together with the Strategy of Organisation, Planning & Review Processes, and the Risk Management Framework, provide the foundation for Internal Financial Controls concerning your Company’s Financial Statements. These Financial Statements are prepared based on Significant Accounting Policies selected by management and approved by the Audit Committee and the Board. These Policies are supported by Corporate Accounting and Systems Policies that apply to the entity as a whole to implement Corporate Governance and Significant Accounting Policies uniformly across your Company. The Accounting Policies are reviewed and updated periodically, supported by a set of Divisional policies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) established for individual Businesses. Your Company uses Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a business enabler and to maintain its books of accounts. |
The SOPs, along with transactional controls built into the ERP systems, ensure appropriate segregation of duties, tiered approval mechanisms, and maintenance of supporting records. The Information Management Policy reinforces the control environment. The systems, SOPs, and controls are reviewed by Divisional management and audited by Internal Audit, whose findings and recommendations are reviewed by the Audit Committee and tracked until implementation. Your Company has adequate internal financial controls concerning the Financial Statements, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding recording and providing reliable financial information, complying with applicable statutes, safeguarding assets from unauthorized use, ensuring transactions are carried out with adequate authorization, and complying with Corporate Policies and Processes. Such controls have been assessed during the year, considering the essential components of internal controls stated in the Guidance Note on Audit of Internal Financial Controls over Financial Reporting issued by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Based on the results of the assessment carried out by management, no reportable material weakness or significant deficiency in the design or operation of internal financial controls was observed. Nonetheless, your Company recognizes that any internal control framework, no matter how well designed, has inherent limitations, and regular audit and review processes ensure that such systems are reinforced on an ongoing basis. **SECTION: RISK MANAGEMENT** As a diversified enterprise, your Company focuses on a system-based approach to business risk management. The management of risk is embedded in the corporate strategies of developing a portfolio of world-class businesses that match organizational capability with opportunities in domestic and international markets. Accordingly, risk management has always been an integral part of your Company’s ‘Strategy of Organisation’ and straddles its planning, execution, and reporting processes & systems. Backed by strong internal control systems, the current Risk Management Framework consists of the following key elements: - The Corporate Governance Policy, approved by the Board, clearly lays down the roles and responsibilities of various entities in relation to risk management, covering a range of responsibilities from strategic to operational. These role definitions provide the foundation for appropriate risk management procedures, their effective implementation across your Company, and independent monitoring and reporting by Internal Audit. - The Risk Management Committee, constituted by the Board, monitors and reviews the strategic risk management plans of your Company and provides necessary directions. |
- The Corporate Risk Management Cell facilitates the identification and prioritization of strategic and operational risks, development of appropriate mitigation strategies, and conducts periodic reviews of the progress on the management of identified risks. - A combination of centrally issued policies and Divisionally-evolved procedures ensures that business risks are effectively addressed. - Appropriate structures are in place to proactively monitor and manage inherent risks in businesses with unique/relatively high-risk profiles. - Foreign currency exposures are managed within the framework of the Forex Manual. - A strong and independent Internal Audit function at the Corporate level carries out risk-focused audits across all Businesses, enabling identification of areas where risk management processes may need strengthening. The Audit Committee of the Board reviews Internal Audit findings and provides strategic guidance on internal controls. The Audit Compliance Review Committee closely monitors the internal control environment within your Company, including the implementation of action plans emerging from internal audit findings. - At the Business level, Divisional Auditors continuously verify compliance with laid down policies and procedures and assist operating management in formulating control procedures. - A robust and comprehensive framework of strategic planning and performance management ensures the realization of business objectives based on effective strategy implementation. The annual planning exercise requires all Businesses to identify their top risks and set out a mitigation plan with agreed timelines and accountabilities. Businesses are required to confirm periodically that all relevant risks have been identified, assessed, evaluated, and that appropriate mitigation plans have been implemented. Your Company endeavors to continuously sharpen its Risk Management systems and processes in line with a rapidly changing business environment. Some of the Key Businesses of your Company have adopted the ISO 31000 Risk Management Standard, and the Risk Management systems and processes prevalent in these Businesses have been independently assessed for compliance. The centrally anchored initiative of conducting independent external reviews of key business processes with high ‘value at risk’ continued during the year, providing further assurance on the robustness of risk management practices. Recognizing Digital as a megatrend shaping the future, your Company remains focused on building a dynamic ‘Future-Tech’ enterprise powered by state-of-the-art digital technologies and infrastructure across the value chain, adding significant impetus to digital marketing, digital commerce, and digital operations. |
Your Company has made several interventions straddling strategic impact areas such as Intelligent new-age insights that reimagine Consumer Experience, Business Model Transformation, Smart Operations, and Employee Experience, which continue to be scaled up across your Company. Cutting-edge digital technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented/Virtual Reality, Robotic Process Automation, and mobile applications are being embraced by your Company’s Businesses. Cumulatively, these changes are affecting the risk profile of your Company in a heightened cyber threat environment. The ever-evolving nature of cyber threats and the increasing sophistication of attackers make cyber security risk management a critical focus area for the organization. A Cyber Security Committee, chaired by the Chief Information Officer, is in place to provide specific focus on cyber security-related risks, with the primary responsibility of tracking emerging practices & technologies and providing recommendations for enhancing the security of IT systems and infrastructure. A multi-tier cyber defense architecture comprising firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-malware systems is in place to detect, protect, and respond to cyber incidents at various access and data processing points across the organization. The security policies and practices are built on industry-standard frameworks such as NIST Cyber Security Framework and ISO 27001. The robustness of the security posture is also premised on end-user awareness of safe and secure practices. In the previous year, a maturity assessment of your Company’s cyber security architecture was undertaken by a global network and security solutions provider, finding that your Company’s cyber security systems and processes are on par with global leaders and outperform local peers. Further interventions are underway to enhance surveillance and response capabilities with the augmentation of cutting-edge technologies and skills of a NextGen Cyber Security Operations Centre (SOC). With the progressive transitioning of mission-critical data and transaction processing workloads to the Cloud, the network infrastructure is being transformed using contemporary network and security technologies into a Digital-Ready, Cloud-Secure wide area network, providing all authorized users fast, reliable, and safe connections from anywhere through any device at any time. Information Technology-Operational Technology (IT-OT) integration for Industrial Control Systems has been identified as a focus area, with guidelines formulated to ensure that your Company’s systems & processes remain contemporary and have best-in-class capabilities. |
A Continuous Threat Detection and Response (CTDR) platform is in the process of being progressively rolled out across your Company to provide real-time monitoring and analysis of network traffic, system logs, and other data sources to detect and respond to cyber threats. Guidelines for AI security governance are being implemented to ensure that its usage is secure and adheres to emerging safety, privacy, and regulatory standards. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** ``` ``` **SECTION: Water Stress Management** Water stress – a critical fallout of climate change – is being systematically managed by your Company’s integrated water stewardship approach. This approach addresses water risk at the catchment level by focusing on demand side management (i.e. improving water use efficiency in operations and promoting water-efficient agronomical practices) as well as supply side measures (including managed aquifer recharge and soil & moisture conservation measures). Interventions in this regard have been implemented across your Company’s Units in water stressed areas and key agri catchments. **SECTION: Agri-Commodity Sourcing and Trading** Your Company sources several commodities for use as inputs in its Businesses and engages in agri-commodity trading as part of its Agri Business. In respect of commodities sourced for use as inputs in its Businesses, your Company has well laid out policies to manage risks arising out of the inherent price volatility associated with such commodities. This includes robust mechanisms for monitoring market dynamics towards making informed sourcing decisions, well defined inventory holding norms based on considerations such as seasonality and the strategic nature of the commodity concerned, long-term contracts with suppliers, and continuous diversification of the supplier base to secure supply of critical items at competitive costs. Multiple sourcing models, wide geographical spread, extensive sourcing and supply chain network, and associated infrastructure in key growing areas coupled with deep-rooted farmer linkages and use of digital technologies ensure sourcing of high quality agri-commodities at competitive costs. In respect of Agri-commodity trading, your Company has a well defined policy to manage risks associated with sourcing of such commodities. This includes: - Segregation of duties and robust internal controls through a system of checks and balances embedded in the organisation and governance structure. - Clearly defined limits for trading positions (long and short) and net cash loss for specific commodities/commodity groups. |
- Mitigation of price, liquidity and counter party risks through hedging on commodity exchanges (mainly NCDEX) for certain commodities, as applicable. Correlation between prices prevailing in the physical market and those on the commodity exchange is analysed regularly to ensure effectiveness of hedging. - Robust monitoring and review mechanisms of net open positions and ‘value at risk’. - ECGC cover for exports (covering commercial & political risks) and credit insurance for large domestic customers. The combination of policies and processes as outlined above adequately addresses the various risks associated with sourcing of commodities for your Company’s Businesses. **SECTION: Report of the Board of Directors** Your Company’s strategy of backward integration in sourcing of agri-commodities such as wheat, potato, fruit pulp, spices, milk, and leaf tobacco; in-house manufacturing of paperboards, paper, and packaging (including pulp production and print cylinder making facilities); wood procurement from the economic vicinity of the Bhadrachalam unit, facilitates access to critical inputs at benchmark quality and competitive cost besides ensuring security of supplies. Further, each of your Company’s Businesses continuously focuses on product mix enrichment and yield improvement towards protecting margins and insulating operations from spikes in input prices. The Risk Management Committee met thrice during the year and was updated on the status and effectiveness of the risk management plans. The Audit Committee was also updated on the effectiveness of your Company’s Risk Management systems and policies. The risk management practices of your Company, as reviewed through the Risk Management Cell and Internal Audit processes, have been found to be relevant and commensurate with the size and complexity of its operations. **SECTION: Audit and Systems** Your Company believes that strong internal control systems that are commensurate with the scale, scope, and complexity of its operations are concomitant to the principle of governance that freedom of management should be exercised within a framework of appropriate checks and balances. Your Company remains committed to ensuring a mature and effective internal control environment that, inter alia, provides assurance on orderly and efficient conduct of operations, security of assets, prevention and detection of frauds/errors, accuracy and completeness of accounting records and Management Information Systems, timely preparation of reliable financial information, adherence with relevant statutes, and compliance with related party transactions. |
Your Company’s internal control systems include documented policies and procedures, segregation of duties, and careful selection and development of employees. Your Company’s independent and robust Internal Audit processes, both at the Business and Corporate level, provide assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls, compliance with operating systems, internal policies, and regulatory requirements. The role of Internal Audit is to enhance and protect organisational value by providing risk-based assurance, advice, and insight while enabling continuous improvement of your Company’s control systems. The Internal Audit function, consisting of professionally qualified accountants, engineers, and Information Technology (IT) specialists, is adequately skilled and resourced to deliver audit assurances at the highest levels. Targeted Learning and Development programmes on contemporary topics are periodically organised to enhance knowledge and skill sets. In the context of your Company’s IT environment, systems and policies relating to Information Management are periodically reviewed and benchmarked for contemporariness. Compliance with the Information Management policies receives focused attention from the Internal Audit function. With the increased importance of information security, cyber security, and adoption of emerging technologies, focused reviews are carried out for IT applications and processes across Businesses. These primarily focus on assessment of controls pertaining to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of business information and systems covering General IT Controls and security of your Company’s IT Infrastructure. All critical Business-led Information Technology systems undergo pre-implementation audit before being deployed in the operating environment, thereby delivering assurance with respect to the rigour of implementation and operational readiness of the proposed systems. The scope and coverage of Internal Audit remains contemporary and cognises, inter alia, for the rapid digitalisation of your Company’s business operations. **SECTION: Human Resource Development** The talent management strategy of your Company is to attract, retain, and develop human capital that enables your Company to sustain its position as one of India’s most valuable corporations, remaining customer-centric, nimble, and performance driven whilst continuing with its mission of building a responsible ‘Future-Tech’ enterprise. Your Company’s thought, strategy, and action are inspired by a larger purpose of being an exemplary Indian enterprise that not only delivers superior competitive performance but also embeds sustainability and inclusiveness at the core of its Businesses. |
This approach enables your Company to delight consumers and customers with a vibrant portfolio of industry-leading products and services while generating enduring value for the Indian economy and the larger community of stakeholders. Your Company’s employees relentlessly strive to deliver world-class performance, collaborating with each other and discharging their role as ‘trustees’ of all stakeholders. Your Company is committed to perpetuating this vitality – its growth as a value generating engine and also as an exemplary institution – so that it continues to succeed in its relentless pursuit of creating enduring value. Your Company’s Human Resources development approach spans four key organisational dimensions of Agility, Alignment, Ability, and Architecture which are supported through strategies crafted in areas of impact such as talent acquisition, engagement, diversity & inclusion, capability building, employee relations, performance & rewards, and employee well-being. The initiatives and processes of your Company strive to deliver the unique talent promise of ‘Building Winning Businesses, Building Business Leaders, and Creating Value for India’. The talent development practices help create, foster, and strengthen the capability of human capital to deliver critical outcomes on the vectors of strategic impact, operational efficiency, and capital productivity while reimagining consumer experience, driving business model transformation, and enhancing employee experience. Your Company’s ‘Strategy of Organisation’ is designed to promote agility through a culture and practice of distributed leadership enabled by a three-tier governance structure. This is manifested in market and consumer facing Businesses, which are driven by empowered, cluster-based teams and supported by shared assets and capabilities, enabling strategic relevance, speed, responsiveness, and operational excellence. This approach allows Businesses, through their Management Committees, to focus, develop, and execute Business Plans relevant to their product-market spaces while leveraging the institutional strengths of your Company and harvesting internal synergies. The year under review witnessed a significant shift towards a more agile, tech-savvy, and people-centric approach to talent management. Key talent trends include a continued focus on hybrid work arrangements, an increased emphasis on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives, the adoption and integration of digitisation and automation tools to enhance productivity, and application of AI tools across workstreams including talent acquisition, employee sentiment analysis, and employee query resolution. Companies are also prioritising employee well-being & mental health support, and designing an inclusive & flexible work environment to attract and retain top talent. |
Industry attrition levels decreased during the year and are expected to continue to be low in most sectors. Your Company’s unique employer equity as an exemplary Indian enterprise creating world-class brands, building business leaders, and generating economic, social, and environmental capital for the Indian economy, continues to play a pivotal role in the attraction and retention of high-quality talent. The management trainee programme, augmented with recruitment of experienced talent from the market, is an integral part of building a deep pipeline. Your Company continues to draw the finest management, technical, and commercial talent from premier institutions in the country and is ranked amongst the leading companies in these institutions. Intensive engagement with the country’s premier academic institutions over the years to communicate your Company’s talent proposition through case-study competitions, knowledge-sharing programmes by senior managers, on-ground exposure and factory visits for students, and the annual internship programmes have all contributed to creating a compelling proposition for the best candidates to aspire for a career with your Company. Your Company continues to enthuse talent with high-impact roles, competitive and performance-driven remuneration with an emphasis on long-term incentives, a wealth of learning opportunities, a commitment to enhancing diversity, equity & inclusion, an employee-centric climate, well-being focused infrastructure, and support that promotes fellowship and commitment amongst employees. Your Company’s talent development approach is founded on the belief that learning initiatives must remain synergistic and aligned to business outcomes. Towards this end, your Company has built a culture of application-focused continuous learning, innovation, and collaboration. Your Company provides managers with contemporary and relevant learning and development support through a combination of self-paced e-learning modules, classroom programmes, and application projects with emphasis on experiential learning, on-the-job assignments, and exposure to nationally and globally renowned faculty. Deep functional expertise is fostered early in one’s career through immersion in complex problem-solving assignments requiring the application of domain expertise. Managers are assessed on your Company’s behavioural competency framework and provided with learning and development support to address areas identified for improvement. Key talent is provided critical experiences in high-impact roles and mentored by senior managers, promoting the development of a steady pool of high-quality talent. Your Company has identified three capability vectors for making Businesses future-ready – Business Critical Functional Competencies, Leadership Development, and Organisation Identity & Pride. |
Globally benchmarked curriculum is made available in domains of digitalisation, data science and analytics, contemporary and best-in-class marketing practices, manufacturing strategy with a focus on the emerging digital landscape, business strategy, and commercial acumen. All of these interventions are delivered through subject matter experts, domestic and international, and supplemented with business-critical application projects. As a part of leadership development initiatives, the Reflections 360 programme provides leaders with feedback from team members, peers, and managers, enabling self-driven personal development. This is supplemented by immersive workshops and personalised one-on-one coaching being made available for senior managers. This approach ensures relevance and impact, thereby enhancing the capability index of your Company’s human capital. Periodic induction programmes, anchored by senior leaders, enable new entrants to appreciate your Company’s Vision, Mission, Culture, Values, and Strategies while fostering pride in affiliation with your Company. Your Company continues to strengthen its performance management system and its culture of accountability through the widespread adoption of the system of Management-by-Objectives. Performance planning through clearly defined goals, outcome-based assessment, and alignment of rewards for achievement of results have all contributed to a robust culture of ownership and accountability. ‘Career Conversations’ and succession planning processes have contributed to helping employees realise their potential, craft their careers while recognising their strengths and areas of development, and ensuring a sound workforce planning system. In the spirit of continuous improvement, your Company maintains a practice of periodically assessing employee engagement through a Company-wide survey. The recent survey in 2024 affirms high levels of employee engagement and reflects significant consolidation of gains achieved over recent years. The employee engagement, managerial effectiveness, and performance enablement indices have all improved, ranging from 10 to 16 percentage points since the survey’s inception in 2016. Employees have expressed overwhelming appreciation on several dimensions with over 96% of employees reporting a deep sense of pride and association with your Company, 94% of employees reporting a belief in your Company’s overarching goals & leadership, and 94% of employees reporting optimism for the future. These sentiments are reflected in your Company’s superior standing in terms of voluntary attrition across Businesses. |
During the year, a range of engagement programmes were undertaken including initiatives such as leadership outreach through extensive communication, recognition programmes acknowledging exceptional contributions of employees and teams, career conversations and development planning for robust positioning and progression decisions, and investments in employee wellbeing. The year witnessed the Cigarettes Business winning the Economic Times - Human Capital Award (Gold) for ‘Excellence in Communication Strategy’ and the Hotels Business winning the ‘Skill India Industry Partner Award – 2024’ and ‘Golden Peacock National Training Award – 2024’. Your Company’s efforts to enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are founded on the conviction that a diverse workforce contributes to rich discourse, promotes holistic perspectives, fosters creative solutions, and is integral to serving customers better while creating value for all stakeholders. Your Company’s policy on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion articulates and institutionalises this conviction. Your Company is committed to enhancing gender diversity and participation of the differently abled in the workforce. Such concerted actions span three vectors, i.e. Representation, Inclusion & Enablement, and Commitment & Assurance. Measures to enhance diversity include ensuring sufficient representation of women in selection pools and deployment of the differently abled across suitable opportunities in the value chain. Through progressive policies offering flexible work arrangements, extended child-care leave, travel support for infants and caregivers, secure transport, paternity leave, same-gender partner medical benefits, infrastructure support coupled with various sensitisation programmes, Employee Resource Groups, development interventions tailored for women talent, and the commitment and sponsorship of leaders; your Company provides an enabling environment to further its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. To ensure a safe and progressive work environment, Internal Committees have been institutionalised as per provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. The focused efforts across these dimensions have resulted in a 25% increase of women managers in your Company since FY 2021-22. Your Company continued its practice of active leadership outreach to employees. Periodic communication with the ITC community through ‘StudioOne Townhalls’ led by the Chairman, provided employees avenues to hear from and engage with leaders about your Company’s vision, strategy, and milestones. This was supplemented by a more personalised engagement through the ‘StudioOne Xchange’ initiative. |
The Chairman and other members of the Corporate Management Committee interacted with managers across Businesses in small groups, sharing your Company’s vision and strategies while also inviting suggestions and feedback. Your Company believes that alignment of all employees to a shared vision and purpose is vital for winning in the marketplace. It also recognises the mutuality of interests with key stakeholders and is committed to continue building harmonious employee relations. Your Company remains dedicated to an Employee Relations climate of partnership and mutuality while ensuring operations are competitive, flexible, and responsive. The Employee Relations philosophy of your Company, anchored in the tenets of Scientific Management, Industrial Democracy, Human Relations, and Employee well-being, has contributed towards building a robust platform which has aided the conclusion of collective bargaining agreements at several of its manufacturing units and hotel properties, ensuring smooth commencement of operations at greenfield locations and the execution of productivity improvement practices. In its relentless pursuit of excellence and value creation, your Company offers an abundance of opportunities for employees to grow and thrive in an environment of trust, empowerment, and continuous learning. The access to best-in-class resources, technology, and infrastructure, the prospect of building businesses rooted in value chains in India, and the deployment of deep consumer insights to create and shape Indian brands are the defining hallmarks of ‘The ITC Way’. This unique blend of a high-performance culture coupled with care and respect for people remain vital to realizing your Company’s vision of sustaining its position as one of India’s most valuable and admired corporations. **SECTION: Whistleblower Policy** Your Company’s Whistleblower Policy encourages Directors and employees to bring to your Company’s attention instances of illegal or unethical conduct, actual or suspected incidents of fraud, actions that affect the financial integrity of your Company, or actual or suspected instances of leak of unpublished price sensitive information, that could adversely impact your Company’s operations, business performance, and/or reputation. The Policy requires your Company to investigate such incidents, when reported, in an impartial manner and take appropriate action to ensure that the requisite standards of professional and ethical conduct are always upheld. Anonymous complaints are also entertained if the same is backed by specific allegations & verifiable facts and is accompanied with supporting evidence. |
It is your Company’s Policy to ensure that no complainant is victimised or harassed for bringing such incidents to the attention of your Company, and to keep the information disclosed during the course of the investigation as confidential. ``` ``` **SECTION: Whistleblower Policy** The practice of the Whistleblower Policy is overseen by the Audit Committee, and no employee was denied access to the Committee during the year. The Whistleblower Policy is available on your Company’s corporate website at [Whistleblower Policy](https://www.itcportal.com/whistleblower-policy). During the year, your Company received five complaints in terms of the Whistleblower Policy, out of which four complaints were investigated, and appropriate action(s) were taken. Investigation is underway for the remaining complaint. **SECTION: SUSTAINABILITY 2.0** Your Company believes that when enterprises make societal value creation an integral part of their corporate strategy, powerful drivers of innovation emerge that make growth more enduring for all stakeholders. This paradigm is called ‘Responsible Competitiveness’ - an abiding strategy that focuses on extreme competitiveness but in a manner that replenishes the environment and supports sustainable livelihoods. Your Company’s innovative business models synergise the building of economic, environmental, and social capital, thus embedding sustainability at the core of its corporate strategy. Today, this strategy has not only contributed to building strong businesses of the future as well as a portfolio of winning world-class brands, but also in making your Company a global exemplar in ‘Triple Bottom Line’ performance. Your Company is the only enterprise in the world of comparable dimensions to have achieved and sustained the three key global indices of environmental sustainability: being ‘water positive’ (for 22 years), ‘carbon positive’ (for 19 years), and ‘solid waste recycling positive’ (for 17 years). This approach has enabled your Company and its businesses to support sustainable livelihoods for more than six million people. Your Company is actively working towards Sustainability 2.0, an agenda which reimagines sustainability under the pressing challenges of climate change and social inequity. Sustainability 2.0 calls for inclusive strategies that can support sustainable livelihoods, pursue newer ways to fight climate change, enable the transition to a net-zero economy, work towards ensuring water security for all, and create an effective circular economy for post-consumer packaging waste. It also entails protecting and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services through the adoption of nature-based solutions. |
Your Company believes that agility in thought and action, meaningful public-private-people partnerships, and Responsible Competitiveness will act as core enablers of this new agenda. Your Company has the potential to make a large-scale impact not only from an economic standpoint but also from the perspective of supporting livelihoods and social enablement because of its presence across several critical sectors of the economy. With its bold Sustainability 2.0 agenda, your Company is setting the bar higher and remains committed to making a meaningful contribution to the Nation’s future while retaining its status as a sustainability exemplar. **SECTION: The Sustainability 2.0 ambitions include:** **SECTION: Climate Change** - Enhancing the share of renewable energy usage to 50% of total energy consumption by 2030. - Meeting 100% of purchased grid electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2030. - Reducing specific energy consumption by 30% and specific Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2030 as compared to the FY 2018-19 baseline. - Sustain and enhance carbon sequestration by expanding forestry projects through your Company’s Social and Farm Forestry programme and other such initiatives covering over 1.5 million acres by 2030. **SECTION: Water Stewardship** - Achieving 40% reduction in specific water consumption by 2030 as compared to the FY 2018-19 baseline. - Creation of rainwater harvesting potential equivalent to over five times the net water consumption by 2030. - Certification of all sites in high water stressed areas as per the international water stewardship standard by Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) by 2035. - Improve crop water-use efficiency in agri-value chains through demand-side management interventions and enable savings of 2,000 million kl of water by 2030. **SECTION: Plastic Waste and Circular Economy** - 100% of your Company’s Packaging to be Reusable, Recyclable, or Compostable/Biodegradable by 2028. - Sustain plastic neutrality (attained in FY 2021-22) by enabling sustainable management of waste in excess of the amount of packaging utilized. **SECTION: Sustainable Agriculture** - Promote climate-smart village approach in core Agri Business catchments covering over 3 million acres by 2030 to build climate resilience across agri value chains. **SECTION: Biodiversity Conservation** - Revive & sustain ecosystem services and products provided by nature, through adoption of nature-based solutions and biodiversity conservation covering over one million acres by 2030. **SECTION: Sustainable Livelihoods** - Supporting sustainable livelihoods for 10 million people by 2030. |
Your Company’s Businesses are actively working towards achieving your Company’s Sustainability 2.0 vision. During the year, over 50% of your Company’s total energy requirements were met from renewable sources. With this, your Company has already met its 2030 commitment of achieving 50% renewable energy share in FY 2023-24 itself, i.e., seven years in advance. Commendable progress has been made in line with 2030 targets relating to specific energy, specific GHG emissions, and specific water consumption across Businesses as well. In line with its commitment, your Company continued to remain plastic neutral during FY 2023-24 by sustainably managing more plastic packaging waste than the amount of plastic packaging utilized. During the year, your Company’s large-scale programmes on Sustainable Agriculture were augmented to cover 2.7 million acres. A detailed performance dashboard against 2030 commitments is available in your Company’s Sustainability Report, 2024. To achieve its Sustainability 2.0 vision, your Company continues to strengthen its management approach, which is guided by a comprehensive set of sustainability policies and is being implemented across the organization. Your Company has put in place robust mechanisms for engaging with key stakeholders, identification of material sustainability issues, and progressively monitoring and mitigating the impacts along the value chain of each Business. Your Company will continue to update these systems and processes in line with evolving disclosure standards and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements. Your Company’s 20th Sustainability Report published during the year detailed the progress made across all dimensions of the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ for FY 2022-23. This report was prepared in conformance with ‘In Accordance – Comprehensive’ criteria of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and is third-party assured to ‘Reasonable Level’ as per International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000. The report continues to be aligned to the requirements of the Integrated Reporting Framework as well. Your Company’s Sustainability Report for FY 2023-24 is being prepared and will be made available on your Company’s corporate website in due course. In addition, the Business Responsibility & Sustainability Report (BRSR), as mandated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the year under review, is annexed to the Report and Accounts. |
The BRSR maps the sustainability performance of your Company against the nine principles forming part of the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. During the year, your Company sustained its ‘AA’ rating by MSCI-ESG for the sixth consecutive year, the highest rating among global tobacco majors, and has also been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for the fourth year in a row. Additionally, your Company entered the prestigious ‘A List’ for CDP Water by achieving the highest ‘A’ rating (Leadership Level), which is higher than the Asia and Global average of ‘C’. For CDP Climate, your Company retained its ‘A -’ (Leadership Level) rating, which is higher than the Asia and Global average of ‘C’. **SECTION: Contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)** Your Company’s Sustainability strategies and Social Investment Programmes & interventions, in addition to their alignment with national priorities, are also well positioned to contribute to the achievement of India’s commitment under the UN SDGs. Your Company’s multi-dimensional environmental and social interventions, which have been scaled up over the years, contribute favourably to all 17 UN SDGs. For instance, your Company’s programme on Climate Smart Agriculture is aligned to the Government’s National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture and also contributes to the achievement of multiple SDGs, including SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). A comprehensive statement linking your Company’s interventions to the SDGs, including corresponding targets, will be available in your Company’s Sustainability Report for FY 2023-24. **SECTION: Building Climate Resilience** Your Company recognises the urgent need to combat climate change for building a more secure future and the role it can play in enabling a net-zero economy. To address the risks of climate change, your Company’s climate strategy places equal emphasis on transitioning to a low carbon economy and adapting to the worst impacts of climate change. Your Company is pursuing a low carbon growth strategy through extensive decarbonisation programmes across its value chain. These include increasing the share of renewable energy, continuous reduction of specific energy, construction of green buildings, greening logistics & optimising distance-to-market, and promoting regenerative agriculture practices in agri-value chains. |
Your Company is also conducting life-cycle analysis (LCA) studies for developing a portfolio of innovative and sustainable products in line with growing consumer preference for climate-friendly products. Additionally, in order to address short-medium term as well as long-term physical risks of climate change, your Company is working with climate experts to conduct comprehensive climate risk and vulnerability assessments using climate models across its key agri value chains and operating locations (factories, hotels, and warehouses). These assessments utilise the latest AI-enabled climate modelling tools for projecting the extent of risk from climate hazards related to changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, flooding, and other extreme weather events over decadal time frames covering the period till 2100 under various Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5). Detailed farm-level studies have been conducted to understand the potential adverse impacts of climate change on your Company’s key agri-value chains. These risk assessments help further calibrate the climate resilience measures that are being implemented across your Company’s value chains. For major crops like wheat, pulpwood, and leaf tobacco among others, there is significant and sustained work being done by your Company on the development of climate-tolerant varieties as well as dissemination of climate-resilient and regenerative agronomic practices in the growing areas. Over 140 locations of your Company, encompassing both owned as well as key value chain facilities, have been assessed for climate risk. Based on the findings of these assessments, detailed site-specific studies are undertaken for developing contextual location-specific adaptation plans and strategies. **SECTION: Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy** As a responsible corporate citizen, your Company has made a commitment to reduce dependence on energy from fossil fuels. Accordingly, all factories incorporate appropriate green features, and premium luxury hotels and office complexes continue to be certified at the highest level by either the US Green Building Council (USGBC) or Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). During the year, despite a significant increase in scale of operations, over 50% (previous year: 43%) of your Company’s total energy requirements were met from renewable sources such as biomass, wind, and solar. |
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
No dataset card yet
- Downloads last month
- 62