ITC Limited or ITC is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Its diversified business includes five segments: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Hotels, Paperboards & Packaging, Agri Business & Information Technology. Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the company was renamed as the Indian Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and further to ITC Ltd in 2001.
ITC Ltd sells 80 percent of the cigarettes in India, where 275 million people use tobacco products and the total cigarette market is worth close to $6 billion (around Rs.65,000 crore).*
As a PR exercise, ITC Launched e-Chaupals through which computers and Internet access was provided to villagers to learn about better ways and innovation in the field of irrigation and related areas.
ITC Chaupals enables farmers to directly negotiate the sale of their produce with ITC Limited.
Online access enables farmers to obtain information on mandi prices, and good farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers.
This helps farmers improve the quality of their products, and helps in obtaining a better price.
There are nearly 6,500 e-Choupals in operation in 40,000 villages in 10 states, empowering around 4 million farmers.