ITC's Puri will have to walk the tightrope in achieving Deveshwar's goals

To take the Rs 49,000 crore ITC to the top slot in the highly competitive FMCG business will require some aggression

In 2011, just after getting another five-year term as chairman of ITC, Yogesh Chandra Deveshwar (excluding cigarettes) elaborated his broad vision for the tobacco-to-Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company in a free-wheeling interview with Business Standard. One, he wanted ITC to become the country’s largest FMCG company (excluding cigarettes) overtaking its key rivals like Hindustan Unilever and Nestle in the next 10 to 15 years. Two, he envisioned that half of the group’s profits would come from non-tobacco business within the same time period. Three, he was open to spinning off the FMCG business into a separate company maybe when