FMCG Ethics

In the first year of college I had a discussion with a friend as to whether a person, who believes in cigarette smoking being an evil, may or may not work for a company like ITC. My friend argued that ITC is not into cigarettes and that even the paper that we use to study comes from ITC's paper division. At that time I was somehow not convinced with his argument. But looking at this company's progress now, I am not ashamed to admit that I was wrong. ITC's concentration on the rural India is only going to help the country develop. ITC's e-choupal, the "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" contest for b-schools are all aimed at rural development. I am quite proud to see the company winning the Development Gateway Award for 2005, previously known as the Peterzberg Award. The award has recognised ITC's e-Choupal as "the most exemplary contribution in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) during the last 10 years" (Source:Hindu Business line)
The topic of ethics in FMCG also takes me to another discussion. I was previously of the opinion that I should buy things made by Indian companies only. For example, I used to buy Parachute because it was manufactured by Marico (Though the name sounds western, it is actually just a derivative of the name of the founder - Mariawala. The company was formerly called "Bombay Oil Industries Ltd"), which is an Indian company. Now I see that the foreign firms not only employ locals in their plants, but also re-employ the profits earned back into the firm. So why not go for the products of these companies? Just because their major share holding is abroad? To my knowledge even we can invest in foreign financial markets. When the world is becoming a global town, entities like companies don't seem to belong to any single country.