ITC has won the Golden Peacock Award for excellence in corporate governance 2005, instituted by the Institute of Directors, New Delhi, in association with the World Council for Corporate Governance and Centre for Corporate Governance. The jury presenting the award, under the Chairmanship of Justice P N Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India, selected ITC the winner in the private sector. The award will be presented at the 16th World Congress on Total Quality on January 20, 2006, at New Delhi by the Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. ITC was the first company in the country to voluntarily seek a corporate governance rating.

Corporate governance in ITC takes place at three interlinked levels - strategic supervision by the board of directors, strategic management by the corporate management committee and executive management by the divisional chief executive assisted by the divisional management committee. ITC has attempted to strike the right balance between freedom of management and accountability to shareholders by segregating strategic supervision from strategic and executive management, the company said in a release issued here today.