Canara Bank launches retail sale of gold coins

Canara Bank, on Wednesday, introduced the retail sale of customised gold coins through its specified branches across the country. The price of coins will be based on the market rate of  gold and can be purchased by both customers and non-customers from the designated branches. In the City, gold coins are available at Canara Bank Cantonment and Jayanagar shopping complex branches.

The customised gold coins is pure 24 karat, supplied in tamper-proof certified cards and will be launched through 18 branches, Canara Bank CMD MBN Rao said, adding that the number of outlets will be increased to 100 branches in course of time.

Max Life launches SMART AssureT

Max New York Life Insurance, on Wednesday, introduced SMART AssureT, a unit-linked insurance plan to provide higher returns on higher investments. The plan provides opportunity for long-term wealth creation along with efficiency, affordability and flexibility in handling the consumers’ complex financial needs. 

SMART AssureT offers the customer a choice of allocating up to 100 per cent of premium paid beyond specified premium bracket. As the premium amount goes up, the allocation charges keep decreasing with no allocation charges levied on premiums upward of Rs 3 lakh. The plan also allocates guaranteed Persistency Units to the customer’s Fund Value at maturity. SMART AssureT caters to wide customer segment with the entry age ranging from as low as 91 days to as high as 75 years and the maximum age at maturity of 85 years.

Juniper Networks          expands R&D centre

Juniper Networks Inc, on Wednesday, announced that it has doubled the size of its research and development centre in Bangalore. The centre now has capacity for over 1,200 staff. The expansion, to over 250,000 square feet of floorspace, comes five years after the R&D centre first began operations with a staff of 30 engineers. Currently 900 engineers and support staff are based here, said the company.

“The Bangalore facility is now Juniper’s largest R&D centre outside the United States and it continues to grow rapidly as the company invests in R&D,” said Sridhar Sarathy, Managing Director for India operations. “A quarter of Juniper’s engineers are based here, and they contribute to all stages of product development and to all product lines,” added Mr Sarathy.

Tata Sky crosses twenty lakh milestone

Tata Sky Ltd, the JV between TATA Group and STAR, on Wednesday announced in Mumbai that it has crossed the 20 lakh connections mark milestone. This makes Tata Sky the fastest-growing direct-to-home provider in the country having added 20 lakh mark in just 20 months after its launch, claimed a press release.

Tata Sky has also set up three high-end 24x7 call centres in Hyderabad, Mohali and Pune supporting 11 languages. The company claimed it was also the first to offer interactive services for every member of a family ranging from education, cooking, quizzing, sports to 24x7 darshan of leading temples of India.

Kotak Mahindra AMC launches Sensex ETF

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, on Wednesday, announced in Mumbai the launch of an exchange traded fund focusing on investing in stocks that comprise the BSE Sensex. The investment objective of the scheme is to provide returns that closely correspond to the total returns of the BSE Sensex subject to tracking errors.

    The scheme’s performance will be benchmarked against BSE Sensex. The fund is open for subscription from May 07 to May 16, 2008.

MRPL Q4 net profit up  23 pc at Rs 225 crore

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), an ONGC Group Company and a Mini Ratna I, on Wednesday reported 23.62 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 225 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, compared with Rs 182 crore in the year-ago period. Turnover of the company rose 39.74 per cent to Rs 10,812 crore from Rs 7,737 crore in the year-ago quarter.

MRPL posted 142 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 1,272 crore for the whole year ended March 31, as against Rs 525 crore in the previous financial year. The company’s turnover recorded 14 per cent growth at Rs 37,339 crore, compared with Rs 32,208 crore in the previous financial year.