MUMBAI: Former State Bank of India chairman M S Verma has joined the Reserve Bank of India as honorary advisor on Monday. He will advise the central bank on three crucial areas of gold trading, sick banks and supervision of financial institutions. He has also been requested by the central bank to work on policy initiatives required to reduce incidence of NPAs, problem of inter-bank reconciliation of accounts and implementation of RBI directives on credit to exports, agriculture and small-scale industries.

Metrec group's zinc contract

MUMBAI: Metrec Group of companies has recently had a long term contract with US Zinc for production zinc metal in India. It will be launched in January 1999. Metrec is also into recycling of metals in a big way. The group has started a greenfield project in Hyderabad recently with an investment of Rs 1.5 crore. The plant will be manufacturing zinc chloride and its supplies are targeted to the Eveready plants of Hyderabad and Madras,Geep Industries, Mysore, Indo National, Nellore. Metrec is also planning a merger with its parent company, Asiatic Chemical Industries, shortly.

German Remedies

MUMBAI: The state-of-the-art pharmaceutical production of German Remedies Ltd at Kundaim, Goa, for products of Madaus AG was formally inaugurated on December 11, 1998. M Knoll, managing director, German Remedies and a top management team of Madaus AG led by Udo Madaus and Andreas Madaus were present. The plant had commenced production in March 1998.