News Release

Mumbai, July 5, 2001

ICICIdirect forms Advisory Council to implement global best practices

ICICI Web Trade Limited (ICICIdirect), a fully owned subsidiary of ICICI Limited (NYSE: IC) announced today that it has constituted an Advisory Council to represent the leading edge of change in financial services and technology communities and bring focus to the convergence of these disciplines.

The Advisory Council will deliberate on best practices and global benchmarks in the broking industry. The Council will advise ICICIdirect on issues such as customer education & transparency, risk management, self-regulation, processes for internalisation of global best practices, managing knowledge transfer, tracking trends in Information Technology.

The recommendations made by the Advisory Council would be submitted as a White Paper to the regulators, stock exchanges and infrastructure providers to encourage industry-wide adoption of best practices.

The Advisory Council comprises of leading experts from finance, technology, regulatory authorities, market participants and representatives of ICICI. Mr. K. V. Kamath, Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Limited will be the Chairman of the Council.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. K.V. Kamath, "It is imperative to instill investor confidence in the equity markets and adoption of best practices by the players along with customer education is essential to reach this goal. The Advisory Council of ICICIdirect strives to contribute to this process."

The Advisory Council has the following members:

1. Dr. R. H. Patil, Chairman, Clearing Corporation of India and former Managing Director, National Stock Exchange.
2. Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti, Managing Partner & CEO, Haribhakti Group.
3. Dr. D. B. Pathak, Head- K R School of Information Technology, IIT, Mumbai.
4. Mr. David Walton, Electronic Data Systems, USA.

Members from ICICI

1. Mr. K. V. Kamath, Managing Director & CEO
2. Ms. Lalita D. Gupte, Joint Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer
3. Ms. Kalpana Morparia, Executive Director
4. Mr. S. Mukherji, Executive Director

Members from ICICI Bank

1. Mr. H. N. Sinor, Managing Director & CEO
2. Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Executive Director

ICICIdirect: A brief background
Starting its services on April 17, 2000, ICICIDirect has become India's favourite online share trading site with a customer base of 110,000. ICICIDirect has a daily traded volume of Rs. 200 million.

The unique 3-in2 trading account of ICICIDirect offers a hassle-free and seamless trading experience for the customer. The customer's bank account, demat account and the broking account are linked automatically wherein the customer can transact without waiting to call the broker, get the order executed at a particular price, get the order confirmation details and draw/deposit cheques/TIFDs.

In December 2000, ICICIdirect launched Asia's first online mutual fund plaza. The Mutual Fund Plaza enables customers of ICICIDirect to transact online in a paperless environment in various Mutual Fund schemes through user friendly transactions including Purchases, Redemptions, Switches and Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) and Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP).

Except for the historical information contained herein, statements in this release which contain words or phrases such as "will", "aim", "will likely result", "believe", "expect", "will continue", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future", "objective", "goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar expressions or variations of such expressions may constitute "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to ICICI Group's ability to successfully implement our online strategy, our growth and expansion, the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses, technological changes, investment income, cash flow projections, our exposure to market risks as well as other risks detailed in the reports filed by ICICI Limited with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. ICICI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.

For further press queries please call Charudatta Deshpande at 91-22-26538208
or e-mail:charudatta.deshpande@icicbank.com.