Tata Indicom grows fastest
Tata Indicom announced on Tuesday that it has emerged as the fastest growing wireless operator as per the latest data published by TRAI for the year ending March 2007. The increase in Tata Indicom’s market share was the highest from 3.53 per cent in March 2004 to 9.7 per cent in March 2007, the company said in Bangalore. Despite being the late entrant, Tata Teleservices has crossed the milestone of 19 million subscribers. Since establishing a pan-India presence in March 2005, Tata Teleservices has registered a compounded annual growth rate of 112 per cent. The company added close to 7.6 million subscribers in the last fiscal, registering a 86 per cent increase.

RRB counters at worship places
In a bid to boost the business prospects of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), RBI on Tuesday permitted RRBs to set up extension counters at places of worship and market places. “'With a view to provide further liberalisation in the matter, it has been decided to allow RRBs to set up Extension Counters at places of worship and market places. The condition of being principal bankers would not apply in such cases,” RBI said in Mumbai. RRBs,  have to seek prior permission from the central bank.

ICICI Bank inks $1.5 bn loan pact
ICICI Bank on Tuesday in Mumbai signed a multi-tranche dual currency $1.5 billion syndication loan agreement in Singapore. ICICI Bank Deputy Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said this billion plus loan syndication is a benchmark deal as this facility marks India’s largest offshore syndicated loan financing by a financial institution. The $1.5 billion loan facility is split into three tranches: $ 500 million 364-day tranche (tranche A), an $ 500 million three-year tranche (tranche B) and an $ 500 million five-year tranche (tranche C). Tranche C will be repayable in two equal installments at the end of 4.5 years and 5 years and as such will have an average maturity of 4.75 years.