His vision drove ITC to pursue business models that today support over 6 million livelihoods, many amongst the weakest in society.
During his time as executive chairman, the company's net revenues grew 17-fold to Rs 42,777 crore and profit after tax nearly 40 times to Rs 10,289 crore. Total shareholder returns grew at a compounded annual rate of around 20%. Besides numbers, his biggest achievement was to transform ITC from a cigarette company to a diversified enterprise.