The committees will be headed by executive and non-executive directors from its 13-member board.

ITC had posted a turnover of Rs 8069.37 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000, against Rs 7700.96 crore in the previous year. Profit before taxes was Rs 1228.95 crore in 1999-2000, against Rs 938.03 crore in the previous fiscal.

A note in the latest annual report says that the corporate governance strategy will be implemented at three interlinked levels --strategic supervision, strategic management and executive management.

While strategic supervision will be done by the board, strategic management will be undertaken by the corporate management committee. Executive management will be looked after by the divisional chief executive officer of thebusiness who in turn will be assisted by the respective divisional management committee.

The company says that the three-tier structure will ensure supervision on behalf of shareholders. The structure of the corporate governance initiative is focused on enhancing quality, efficiency and effectiveness.

The six committees will cover nominations, audit, remuneration, compensation, legal & safety auditing and corporate management.As a policy, the committees are required to hold six meetings in one year and possibly one meeting has to be held every two months. In a related move, ITC plans to sell its IT division and subsidiary stake to a new IT company. The company proposes to seek shareholder approval to sell to a new subsidiary, the assets of its in-house information systems division and its stake in UK-based information technology subsidiary ITC Infotech Ltd.

According to a resolution to be tabled for approval at the forthcoming annual general meeting, the company proposes to sell its assets in the ISDto the new subsidiary for a written down value of Rs 3.16 crore. Divestment of ITC's stake in its UK-based subsidiary has been valued at close to Rs 3.15 crore which will be transferred to the new Indian IT subsidiary. The resolution also points out that the 180-odd employees of ISD will be transferred to the new subsidiary.

This restructuring exercise is being undertaken to restructure and consolidate ITC's IT business under a new umbrella in India. Earlier during the year, ITC Infotech announced a tie-up with Infobank International Holdings Plc to develop solutions for Infobank's InTrade suite of B2B e-commerce software.

Last month, Infotech announced a strategic alliance with Compaq India for providing end-to-end web-enabled solutions focusing on the Asia-Pacific region. The alliance will develop industry and application domains and industry portals.

The domains proposed to be developed will be in areas where Infotech has expertise - fast-moving consumer goods, hospitality, paper & packaging, retailand commodity trading.

The alliance will provide applications for customer relationship management, supply chain and logistics management, enterprise applications, Business2 Business and Business to Consumer solutions.

Compaq is to provide mission-critical and internet-enabling technology.