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Headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, ITC Limited (ITC) was one of India's leading private sector companies and a diversified conglomerate, with business interests ranging from FMCG, Hotels, Paperboards and Packaging, to Agri Business and Information Technology. But, among the various business segments, ITC remained as the market leader for cigarettes in India courtesy of its wide range of invaluable brands. Despite the company's move to strengthen its FMCG business and reduce contributions of the cigarettes vertical, in July of 2020, more than 74% of ITC's standalone profits before tax came from the tobacco segment. Because of this, many investors in domestic and global markets refrained from investing in the tobacco company with concerns of not abiding with the global Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) norms. Even as Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director of ITC, put in his best efforts to strengthen ITC's FMCG product portfolio through focused innovation, multi-channel distribution networks and digitisation, the brand's tobacco success could not be curtailed. Should ITC then divest its cigarettes business vertical to distance itself from the tobacco industry and solely focus its efforts on FMCG during the coming period?