India has recently loosened up and simplified its rules on foreign direct investment making them more favorable for foreign investors, revealed Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry. The Investment limit has been increased from Rs 600 crore (~$110 million U.S.) to Rs 1,200 crore (~$220 million U.S.) for projects that need cabinet approval. The national investment rate at present is around 33%-34% of the budget and the target is to increase it to 36% by the end of the country's 12th 5-year plan. Marketing diversification has been on country's radar and the country has been successful in tapping new markets in Africa and other neighboring countries.

What Ministers Have to Say?

India's Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, Kamal Nath, claims that India faces an infrastructure deficit, particularly urban infrastructure. In India, at present approximately 430 million people are residing in cities and the number will

In a hope to curb imports and control its current account deficit, the Government of India raised the import duty by 2% to 6%. However, officials expect that there will be only a minimal drop in the demand of gold. So, really this is simply another means by which to close the budget deficit because of the domestic inelasticity of demand for gold. The Indian government wants to reduce gold's share of its import bill from 11.5%, the second-highest item after oil.

The main reason for the duty hike is the rising current account deficit, driven largely by India's traditionally large gold imports - demand which has grown with the price pulling back below $1600 per ounce and the rupee strengthening somewhat from its worst levels. The current account deficit reached an all time high of 5.4% of Gross Domestic Product in the

Home improvement retailers Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) released their quarterly results earlier this month against the backdrop of a housing recovery in the U.S. Home Depot delivered considerably better results as compared to its smaller rival while its share buyback budget is more than three times as big as Lowe's.

Home Depot's fourth-quarter profits were above analysts' estimates. The company's income rose by an impressive 32% from $774 million in the previous year to $1.02 billion, which translated into adjusted profits of $0.67 per share, 3 cents above analysts' estimates. The results also included a sales injection of $242 million coming from Hurricane Sandy repairs. So, what's bad for 4th quarter GDP is sometimes good for the window makers. A nascent recovery in housing has home values increasing for the first time in four years and that converts directly into more business for both firms as

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) released its fourth quarter results in January. To analysts' surprise Netflix, beat the forecast for both subscriber growth and profits. Net income was $0.13 per share as opposed to analysts' estimate of a loss of $0.07 per share which sent its stock skyrocketing by 73.36% between 23rd and 25th January to $169.60. This is the organization's biggest gain since the time it went public in May 2002. A report like this may finally dissipate the storm clouds that have been hanging over Netflix since the Quikster debacle in 2011 and prove that its longer-game strategy of moving into content creation is working.

For that to work subscriptions need to rise, which they did during the quarter, by 2.05 million in the U.S. and 1.8 million internationally. The U.S. subscriber base is now 27.2 million - 7.6% growth - while international accounts

As we stand at the edge of the fiscal cliff we also stand at the edge of another fundamental change in world politics and economics. The U.S. is becoming an oil producing giant. We've heard a lot about this recently-- the 'shale-gas' boom and the coming 'shale-oil' boom, which will turn the U.S. into Saudi Arabia and dispel the chimaera of energy independence and make it a reality for Americans. What effect this will have on prices is not germane to this article. There are so many cross-currents that handicapping oil and gas prices will have to wait for another day.

It is the shifts in where the supply and demand for oil are leading us and its effects on infrastructure that I want to focus on today. The global ramifications of U.S. oil and gas production are legion. Most notable is the pull back to the U.S. by the

During the last 5 years the South East Asians are increasingly coming to understand the merits of insurance. Thus, multinational insurance companies are now becoming more confident to make huge investments in these emerging SE Asian Markets. For instance, AIA Group (AAGIY.PK) [1299.HK], Manulife (MFC) and Prudential PLC (PRU) are now competing for mid-size acquisitions in the South East Asian region totaling up to $1 billion. And there are smaller insurance companies that are now starting to do initial bidding on different sectors of the SE Asian insurance market. Let's take a look at the developments in a couple of markets.

Malaysia

AIA Group in December 2012 completed its acquisition of ING Malaysia ING Insurance Asia the third largest insurer in Malaysia with the addition of more than 1.6 million clients and 9,200 new agents to its network in the Southeast Asian nation. The transaction involves the

Leading U.S vehicle manufacturers have been struggling in Europe due to the economic slowdown there. The latest figures have auto sales off 8.5% to start 2013. Due to this, the tire industry in North America and Europe is also looking at a rough year, despite what was an excellent 2012 for U.S. sales.

Goodyear (GT) posted breakeven results for its fourth quarter, down from a profit of $18 million in the same period in 2011 and has reduced its outlook due to weak demand of vehicles in the debt ridden Europe. The company's net sales fell by 11% to $5.05 billion, significantly lower than analysts' estimate of $5.34 billion. The global tire volumes for the quarter fell by 7% to 40 million units due to lower European sales. The company narrowly avoided a loss due to a dip in raw material costs and gains from the Union City, Tenn.,

Merck & Co. (MRK), the world's third largest drug maker by sales, is partnering with South Korean Samsung Bioepis, a joint venture that operates as a subsidiary of Samsung Biologics, to develop and market 'bio-similar' drugs that act as alternative to the much more expensive biologic drugs. The financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, but it was revealed that Samsung Bioepis will develop the drugs and would get all the necessary regulatory approvals, which will then be sold to Merck, who will be responsible for marketing activities.

Although 'bio-similars' are often referred to as generic versions of biologic drugs, they are nowhere near as low-priced as generics are compared to conventional drugs. The world's leading drug makers have been reporting declining sales in the last couple of years on losses of valuable patents, and are now facing tough competition from generics. Both Merck and its chief rival Pfizer

The only American company that has received an LNG export license, Cheniere Energy (LNG), has now filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) as it moves towards developing a fifth and sixth processing unit - known as 'trains' to expand the terminal's capacity. The company is capitalizing from the decline in natural gas prices in the U.S. The company now has enough buyers from Asia and Europe lined up to keep six trains operating near full capacity. This is putting Cheniere in the position of having to continue taking on debt to fund future revenue streams.

With the two new trains, Cheniere now wants to increase its export capacity by 9 million metric tons. The company has also filed a separate application to supply LNG from the two new trains to countries that hold and do not hold a free

Post Mobile World Congress, I want to focus on the 520 with this article because it is an important development for Nokia's overall strategy to ride the little bit of momentum it has generated in the U.S. market with the flagship 920.

The 520 is a pure entry-level device using a mix of last year's specs and this year's OS, Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Phone 8 (WP8). The older generation Lumias and Windows Phone 7 devices were always behind the curve, either too under-featured to compete at the top end of the market or too expensive for the rapidly evolving commodity portion of the market. Google's (GOOG) Android owned this portion of the market with players like Huawei, Kyocera, ZTE and Samsung providing the only real option for a new phone for non-contract MVNO's like MetroPCS (PCS) and others.

The Lumia 520 breaks into that market with an

Texas Instruments (TXN), the world's leading analog chipmaker and third largest semiconductor manufacturer, reported an 11% drop in quarterly income to $264 million as revenues dropped by 13% to $2.98 billion, just managing to beat the revenue estimates by around $30 million. Operating profits have dropped by 62% from $365 million in Q4-2011 to $139 million in Q4 2012. Excluding a tax benefit of $0.15 per share, the earnings per share was $0.08, 1 cent more than analysts' estimate. The long-term story for TI has been its unwillingness to commit to the future in mobile computing which ultimately pushed its OMAP SoC to the fringes of the ARM (ARMH) revolution in smartphones.

For the current quarter, Texas Instruments has given a dim forecast, where revenues are expected to fall from the current levels to between $2.69 billion and $2.91 billion, while earnings will be between $0.24 and $0.32

In 2012, America's aircraft manufacturing behemoth Boeing (BA) sold more than 600 planes, earned record revenues, had an impressive backlog of orders and a fourth quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates as the company increased its dividend by 10% and resumed its $3.6 billion share buyback program, but all of these achievements, including the company capturing the crown as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer in 2012 from its European rival Airbus (EADSY.PK), were overshadowed by the grounding of its new 787 Dreamliner due to battery failures.

Boeing announced its fourth quarter results on 30th January. Boeing's quarterly deliveries for commercial aircrafts rose by 29% to 165 units. The company delivered 601 aircrafts in 2012, up 26% from last year and earned record segment revenues of $49.13 billion. In the same period, Airbus's deliveries rose by 10.1% to a record level of 588 units.

In mid-January, the crew aboard

It is going to be cheaper to get a sip of Starbucks (SBUX) coffee in India than in any other neighboring countries in South-East Asia, including ones with stronger currencies like Singapore or Malaysia. The reason behind this is its local sourcing arrangement with Tata Coffee. India is the only country where Starbucks will not have to import a majority of its beans for its local stores. And the company assures customers that the taste will be the same as it is worldwide.

McDonald's (MCD) and other U.S. chains promise the same things but it is rarely the case. The menu and coffee blends will be tailored to local tastes in order to be successful. Moreover, India is a place where price sensitivity is far higher than it is in other places. Add to that the extreme worry over opening up foreign retailers' ability to compete locally and

Last year, was the year of the write down at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). New CEO Meg Whitman finally began cleaning up the messes of her predecessors and took an $8.8 billion write down on Autonomy and another $10.8 billion related to the 2008 acquisition of EDS and the stock retreated back to 2002 levels, the year when HP acquired Compaq for $25 billion ushering in the days of cheap laptops and board room squabbles. But to start 2013 HP finally delivered news that wasn't outright awful and for that the market responded with a massive short-covering rally.

Its latest quarterly results beat analysts' estimates and it raised its FY-2013 outlook somewhat. After destroying more than $30 billion in ill-advised M&A deals over the past decade, HP finally showed up for work. I hate to be mean about this but, frankly, the situation is embarrassing for one of the truly innovative

Marthan Oil (MRO) and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) recently announced their Q4 results with both companies reporting a decline in earnings. Marathon's earnings dropped by 41%, while Occidental reported a whopping 79% decline in its earnings. Both companies wrote down assets during the quarter so much of these are balance sheet, not operational losses. Occidental Petroleum wrote-down some of its mid-continental U.S. assets as its bottom line was hit by falling prices for oil and natural gas. Marathon Oil recorded high oil and gas sales but still fell short of the analysts estimates because of higher taxes and increases in exploration costs.

Marathon Oil created Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) in 2011 to optimize its petroleum assets, with the aim to drill in oil wealthy fields of the United States. In the previous quarter, Marathon Oil's revenues increased by 11.2% to $4.24 billion as its production increased by

Russia is home to the world's biggest natural gas reserves and the Russian state owned Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) is the sole exporter of the commodity. As I noted earlier in a previous article, the firm, which is a key supplier to Europe, is facing a significant threat from the Norwegian energy company, Statoil (STO), which is strengthening its foothold in debt ridden, and therefore very price sensitive, Europe. Gazprom meets ~25% of the total European gas requirements which makes it the biggest player in the continent's gas sector while Statoil is quickly gaining ground on it. Statoil's recent discovery successes create a powerful argument for future growth, some of which will come at Gazprom's expense.

Going over the latest financials quickly, the company's fourth quarter net profit dropped by 49% on lower prices but higher volumes delivered from $4.51 billion in Q4-2011 to $2.36 billion but was well above

Both Huawei and ZTE have taken the mobile industry by surprise. Their rise in the last couple of years is nothing short of impressive. These firms are not only winning significant market share in the cheap smartphone war they are also making inroads in wireless telecom equipment. The latest IDC data for Q4-2012 showed that for the first time ever two Chinese firms have secured two spots amongst the five leading global smartphone players with Huawei at number 3, behind Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and Apple (AAPL) while ZTE is at number 5, behind Sony. But of the two, Huawei, in particular, is creating disruption beyond just the low-end of the smartphone industry by challenging Ericsson (ERIC) and Cisco (CSCO) in telecom equipment.

ABI Research reported the top of the 2012 market share for mobile infrastructure Radio Access Networks (RAN) was shared by Ericcson and

Energy behemoth Exxon Mobil (XOM) has recently added an additional 1.8 billion barrels of oil equivalents (BOE) to its proven oil and gas reserves in 2012, of which 1.4 billion were crude and other liquids. This takes Exxon's total proven reserves to 25.2 billion boe at the end of 2012, increasing from 24.9 billion boe at the end of 2011. It has been strategically moving away from gas towards liquids, after purchasing a number of quality assets at low valuations. In 2011, its total reserves comprised of 51% natural gas and 49% liquids; by 2012, this changed to 49% natural gas and 51% liquids. The 2012 liquid additions represent a 174% reserve replacement ratio (RRR) for crude and other liquids in 2012 and just 56% for natural gas. Over a decade, however, crude and other liquids' replacement ratio has been 102% while Exxon loaded up on natural gas reserves

How do you know when a central banker is lying? "His lips are moving." Ok, so it's an old joke but an accurate one. FOMC Chairman Bernanke gave the first part of his semi-annual report on monetary policy to the U.S. Senate banking committee - and for the first time in months he said what he is actually doing. The asset purchase programs known as QE III and QEIV have been in full flight now for the past three months, but from the moment they began the talk has been about how quickly the Fed would reverse policy and withdraw the money. Bernanke has been threatening us with taking the punch bowl away for five years now but he never has. And, after Tuesday's testimony it should be clear that he never will.

The response in the Gold - and the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) -- market

Last year, when Starbucks (SBUX) announced its plans to expand into Vietnam by opening its first store in Ho Chi Minh City in February, it was part of its grander strategy to expand into emerging markets. In fact, Starbucks now predicts that within a couple of years, China will replace Canada as the company's second biggest market after the U.S. The Vietnam expansion was welcomed by analysts because, unlike India, Vietnam is already a coffee loving nation and is the world's second biggest coffee exporter - though mostly of Robusta which Starbucks does not normally serve. Yum Brands (YUM) is already operating in the country and has made expansion in emerging markets a focus of its growth strategy. The country now has also gotten the attention of Dunkin' Donuts, owned by Dunkin' Brands (DNKN), which has signed a franchise deal with Vietnam Food and Beverage Co. to