Forex level rises $33 mnMUMBAI: India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $33.09 billion on September 17 from $32.986 billion in the previous week, RBI said in its weekly statistical supplement on Saturday. The loans and advances by the RBI to the Government rose to Rs 7266 crore in the week to September 10 from Rs 5608 crore in the previous week, it said.Birla MFMUMBAI: Birla Mutual Fund has launched its opended gilt fund, Birla Gilt Plus. The objective of the fund is to generate income and capital appreciation through investments exclusively in government securities (Gilts). The fund will open for initial subscription upto October 11, 1999. Investor can enter Birla Gilt Plus with an initial subscription amount of Rs 3,000 and additional sum may be invested in multiples of Rs 1000. No load will be charged.Gulf Oil IntlMUMBAI: Gulf Oil International has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Oil Bangladesh Ltd, a leading petro-products company in Bangladesh, formarketing Gulf branded lubricants. The signing of the MoU is another step the international lube giants has taken to expand its worldwide network to promote the Gulf brand through alliances with strategic partners.Balmer LawrieMUMBAI: C V Chandrasekharan, managing director of Balmer Lawrie & Company, has been formally presented with the coveted ISO-9002 certificate for the company's travel and tours operations by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) of the Netherlands. Balmer is perhaps the first largest multi-locational travel agency in India to get a quality systems certification.New RBI EDMUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed M R Umarji, former executive director of Corporation Bank, as the central bank's executive director with effect from September one, 1999. Umarji will look after RBI's Department of Non-banking Supervision, RBI said in a statement.Giorgio FoodsMUMBAI: Giorgio Foods Inc of USA, the world's largest trader and manufacturer of mushrooms, as per anexclusive buying agreement with Transchem Ltd will buying entire mushroom production of this company. Further Giorgio Foods will collaborate with Transchem in the business of growing cultivating and packing mushrooms.ICES SoftwareMUMBAI: ICES Software Ltd, an Indo-Canadian joint venture has achieved a turnover of Rs 7.92 crore for the quarter ended June 1999 and earned a net profit of Rs 2.57 crore. ICES which has an order book of Rs 25 crore is planning to enter into futuristic software development areas of leading edge information technologies.BoB CardsMUMBAI: The shareholders of BoB Cards, a wholly owned subsidiary of BoB, have given their nod for doubling the company's share capital to Rs 20 crore by issuing one crore equity shares of Rs 10 each. They have also approved an offer of one crore equity shares of Rs 10 each on a rights basis to BoB.LNG projectNEW DELHI: GAIL, the Tatas and the French MNC Total SA will set up a joint venture Indian Natural Gas Pvt Ltd(Indigas) for the import of liquified natural gas (LNG) at Trombay during the current fiscal.
