The total income of the company increased 24.80 per cent to Rs 2934.69 crore (Rs 29.34 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 2351.40 crore (Rs 23.51 billion) in the corresponding quarter a year ago, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Addressing the company's annual general meeting, chairman Y C Deveshwar said ITC would be investing Rs 14,000-15,000 crore (Rs 140 to 150 billion) over the next few years and would further enlarge ITC's economic contribution.
The aim was to achieve leadership status in all its businesses, he said. In the last decade, shareholder returns, measured in terms of increase in market capitalisation and dividends, grew at a compound rate of over 30 per cent per annum, he pointed out.
ITC became a 'water-positive' and 'carbon-positive' corporation on the back of several energy conservation measures, usage of carbon neutral fuels and carbon sequestration through large-scale agro-forestry programmes and was making rapid strides towards attaining 'zero solid waste' status.
The ITC hotel business had embarked on the next phase of aggressive expansion that would unveil, initially, the finest hotels in Bangalore and Chennai.
The ITC e-choupal had 10 Choupal are already operational, while nine 9 were in an advanced stage of completion and its rural retailing initiative will be scaled up by another 40 Choupal Saagars in the next 12 to 18 months.
Deveshwar said investments of over Rs 6000 crore (Rs 60 billion) towards enhancing the competitiveness of its businesses support led to direct employment to the tune of 28,000 across the Group and indirect employment across the value chains of nearly 5 million people, whose livelihoods are substantially linked to their association with ITC.
Over the next 5-7 years, ITC intended to create nearly 6300 water harvesting structures and thereby extend critical irrigation to more than 50,000 hectares of rain-fed arable land.
Additional Inputs: PTI
