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ITC turned 100 on Tuesday quite a remarkable achievement if one remembers its humble, small beginnings, as a single brand--tobacco--company in 1910, registering its presence in Calcutta's Radhabazar Lane with a small office. In 100 years, it's traveled quite a distance from there, not least the change of name from Imperial Tobacco Company to Indian Tobacco Companyin1970, then to I.T.C. in 1974 to reflect its diversification programme and finally to ITC without stops, as it were, in 2001.

As it steps into its centenary year, it's a multiple brand company, making strategic investments in the fast-moving consumer goods space, is a market leader in the paperboard and packaging industry, runs the second largest hotel chain in India and is a long-term agri-business player. In the FMCG space alone, it's into cigarettes, branded foods like biscuits, atta, spices, snacks, confectionery and ready-to-eat products, personal care from shampoos to fairness creams, lifestyle garments and accessories, education and stationery, incense sticks and safety matches. Chairman YC Deveshwar, at the 99th annual general meeting in July , said the product portfolio is sure to be expanded over time.

And while 65% of its revenues still come from the tobacco segment, the steady cash flows have helped the company to diversify, over the last five years, significantly--as a result; tobacco's contribution has gone down from 85% to 65%. There have been many challenges along the way--its hotels and paper business, which needed deep pockets, found it difficult to grow; the edible oil business it entered in 1988 didn't do well and the company had to exit the brand a decade later; the tobacco business began to come under a severe tax regime, which has incidentally got harsher; its foray into international trading and financial services incurred losses before being sold off, and worse, it fought a public, rather ugly , mother-of-all battles for ownership with BAT.

But the restructuring that followed has begun to show results. The FMCG businesses it has entered in the last 5-8 years are still in the red, but the long-term view is that earnings are set to accelerate, given the fact that domestic consumption is set to rise, not diminish. The balance sheet is reflecting some of this: in the first 50 years, ITC's gross income was Rs 37 crore, now it's pegged at Rs 26,863 crore with a profit after tax of Rs 4,061 crore.

Along the way, ITC also should be given credit for its role in sustainable development, the benchmarks it has created in environmental and social responsibility. It's been a water positive company for eight years in a row, carbon positive for five years, and solid waste recycling positive for three years. Two of its buildings-ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon and the ITC Royal Gardenia Hotel in Bangalore-have got the platinum LEED rating for their green energy and environment-friendly design. According to Deveshwar,n early 31% of energy consumed by ITC is from clean and renewable sources such as wind power. At least one top competitor in the hotel industry is seriously thinking of investing in windmills to reduce power costs.

In 2000, ITC launched the e-Choupal initiative, taking IT to farmers and providing them access to markets and inputs, managing to hook 4 million farmers to the network. It has also a ready distribution platform, with ITC nurturing ambitions of being the top FMCG player in the country. In fact, the FMCG business will benefit most from its backend agri set-up, from sourcing to distribution. For instance, if ITC products are available in over 6 million retail outlets, the company's distribution network directly services more than 2 million outlets. Deveshwar likes to harp on the inter-connectivity of ITC's many businesses, not least its "deep linkages in rural India". Its farm and social forestry endeavors are not only creating sustainable livelihoods but also enabling the company to look there for raw material for its paper and packaging segment.

Already, its social and farm forestry initiatives have greened more than 1,00,000 hectares; its watershed programmes have set up 3,000 water bodies across states. These can only make the various businesses sustainable in the long run.

The agri-business can add value to foods and tobacco. At ITC's AGM, Deveshwar said that when the company launched the ready to-eat foods in 2001 with Kitchens of India, he said it was an obvious thing to do because "we had the best chefs in our hotels". In future, one cannot rule out ITC's entry into health and wellness, to cite just one example, given how they are a natural extension of luxury hotels-from hospitality to hospitals! It's not without reason that the company is now giving a renewed thrust to its IT division. As it steps into the next 100 years, ITC has urban and rural India on its radar.