Join us for some ITC trivia 

Aultrin Vijay has a quick test for you to see how savvy you are about the life and times of YC Deveshwar. Like did you know about his rise in ITC? A factory head at 28, a division head by 31, and by 37, he was a director on the company’s board

12 Jul 2019 | By PrintWeek India

Deveshwar was conferred the Padma Bhushan for his service to the nation

 Q.  What was Yogesh Chander Deveshwar's nickname?
 A. He was known as YCD among the corporate circles. And Yogi by close friends.

 Q.  When did Yogesh Chander Deveshwar join ITC?
 A. He joined the board of ITC Ltd in 1984. This is 16 years after he joined the company after completion of his mechanical engineering course from IIT, Delhi.

 Q.  In 1996, he was appointed the chief executive and chairman of ITC, which was a tobacco giant. What did he achieve in two decades?
 A. He transformed the Kolkata-headquartered company from being a cigarette maker to being a broad-based conglomerate. This meant businesses in FMCG, hotels, paper and packaging, and agri-business.

 Q.  What happened a day before he was appointed chairman?
 A. The Centre slapped a retrospective excise duty demand on ITC for Rs 803 crore.

 Q.  What did Deveshwar do in between 1991-94?
 A. He was the chairman and managing director of Air India.

 Q.  How many popular brands does ITC boast of, now?
 A. At least 50 popular brands. From Aashirvaad and Sunfeast to Classmate and Bingo!

 Q.  What is the update on cigarettes?
 A. Even today, ITC are market leaders. And ITC accounts for two out of three legal cigarettes sold in India.

 Q.  The Harvard Business School ranked Apple's Steve Jobs at the numero uno CEO in 2012. What else did it to?
 A. Harvard ranked Deveshwar the seventh best-performing CEO in the world in 2012.

 Q.  What was his target for 2030?
 A. To grow ITC’s non-cigarette FMCG business revenue to Rs 1 lakh crore.

 Q.  Why is Fountain Court an important landmark?
 A. It is the official residence of ITC chairman on Little Russel Street in Kolkata.