Manufacturing in those days was heavily import-dependent. Aspiring for a self-sufficient future, the Company spearheaded indigenisation of all aspects of production, working in collaboration with other companies and small-scale ancillary units. By the late 50s, its imports had fallen to a fraction and, by 1969, virtually all materials were sourced from within the country.

The early 70s witnessed a momentous turning point. The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1973 came into being. The regulatory pressure on corporates to reduce foreign ownership combined with the vision of the first Indian Chairman Shri Ajit Narain Haksar, paved the way for Indianisation of the Company and its Management. The vision was to build an Indian enterprise that would derive its inspiration from the needs of Indian society and craft its growth strategies accordingly. It triggered ITC’s first major diversification into the Hotels business (1975), followed by its entry into the Paperboards business (1977). Both were critical nation-building interventions. The hotel industry would open new avenues for foreign exchange earnings by boosting tourism. The engagement with the paperboard industry would mark ITC’s entry into the core sector, with an opportunity to create livelihoods in a backward area.

This changing character of the Company found expression in the change of its name from Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited to India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970, moving on to I.T.C. Limited in 1974 and finally to the current form of ‘ITC Limited’ without full stops in 2001.

In the decade and a half following the initial diversification forays into hotels and paperboards, the Company ran into severe challenges. These were highly capital-intensive businesses which made huge demands on the Company’s resources. Since these businesses were structured as separate companies during this period, their ability to raise capital and achieve meaningful scale was stunted. Consequently, these businesses remained on a slow growth path.

The decade from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties witnessed feverish strategic activities. The Company entered the financial services business and set up ITC Classic Finance Ltd. Almost simultaneously it entered the edible oils business and set up ‘ITC Agro Tech Ltd.’, which was to later launch the popular brand ‘Sundrop’. During this period, the Hotels business took its iconic restaurant ‘Bukhara’ beyond the shores of India into New York and Chicago. ITC acquired the specialty papers company ‘Tribeni Tissues Ltd.’. Aspiring to become an international trading house in the likeness of a Japanese ‘sogo shosha’, ‘ITC Global Holdings Pte Ltd.’ was set up in Singapore. Additional capital was raised through an issue of Global Depository Receipts to finance the Company’s expanding profile.

When the current Chairman took over in 1996, ITC was experiencing an unenviable mix of challenges: its core cigarette business had just been slapped with a retrospective excise duty demand of Rs. 803 crores; its earlier diversifications into hotels and paperboards had not reached fruition for want of adequate investments; its more recent forays into financial services, edible oils and international trading were still incurring losses; the Company’s weak diversification performance was facing severe criticism; to compound matters, a battle for control of the Company had ensued amidst a huge public smear campaign which significantly damaged its reputation; and India had just entered into a phase of economic liberalisation, changing the country’s competitive landscape beyond recognition.