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Poverty reduction not reaching very poor - Report

Developing countries have made much progress in reducing poverty and hunger but have not been as successful in reaching the poorest of the poor, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The International Food Policy Research Institute report, which used household survey data from 20 developing countries, found that poverty reduction has been slower for people living on less than 50 cents per day, most of them in Africa.

The report distinguishes between people who live on between 75 US cents and $1 a day; those who live on 50 to 75 cents a day and the ‘ultra poor’ who live on less than 50 cents a day.

It said 162 million people could be classified as ultra poor and if they were concentrated in a single country they would make up the seventh most populous nation after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan.

“It is staggering in today’s world that so many people are living on less than 50 cents a day,” Ruth Vargas Hill, co-author of the report, told Reuters.

“Global progress in reducing ultra poverty has been that much slower than progress in reducing poverty among the poor who live on more than 50 cents a day,” she added.

Hill said anti-poverty groups need to become better at targeting the poorest of the poor, adding: “When we look at who these people are, we find they are living in remote areas, they have much less education and fewer assets than the poor who live on more than 50 cents.”

She said those people were less able to take advantage of available opportunities for improving their incomes and that even microfinance programs, created to lend the poor small amounts, were not reaching the very poor.

The report finds progress in reducing poverty was mainly due to economic growth in China and India, where poverty levels have declined. For people just below the $1-a-day level it has fallen faster than for people living below 50 cents per day.

“Economic growth is definitely part of the answer, but what the findings show is just the presence of high economic growth is not enough to reach the poorest of the poor,” Hill said, adding, “In many cases there needs to be specific action taken to enable them to participate in growth.” Reuters

Lenovo unveils first addition to Think PC brand

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world’s third-biggest personal computer maker, unveiled on Tuesday its first new Think-branded products since buying the PC unit of International Business Machines Corp in 2005.

China’s top computer maker announced two products, the ThinkStation S10 and the ThinkStation D10, both aimed at professionals in industries such as oil and gas exploration, computer-aided design and digital content creation.

The ThinkStations run on chips from Intel Corp and will be available in January through Lenovo’s business partners and on its Web site, with the S10 starting at about $1,199 and the D10 at about $1,739.

“This is Lenovo stepping out from under IBM’s umbrella and trying to establish an identity of their own,” said Enderle Group principal analyst Rob Enderle.

He said workstations for business clients were also key for IBM, which used to market ThinkPad laptops before selling the line to Lenovo as it struggled with tough competition.

Lenovo said the National Basketball Association (NBA) and car racing team AT&T Williams Formula One are evaluating the new PCs, the first of an ongoing ThinkStation line-up.

Tom Tobul, Lenovo’s emerging products director, said he expects emerging markets to account for much of the 50 percent unit growth analysts are forecasting for the workstation market in the next five years.

“Given our strong presence in China and India we believe we can capture our fair share in emerging markets,” Tobul said at a launch event at the NBA’s Fifth Avenue store.

Lenovo, which focuses primarily on business clients, said last week its quarterly earnings nearly tripled. It had an 8.2 per cent share of the total PC market, followed closely by consumer-focused Acer Inc of Taiwan at 8.1 per cent.

But while Lenovo retained its lead over Acer in the third quarter, analysts say Acer may have leap-frogged Lenovo with its purchase of Gateway Inc last month. Both companies trail Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc.

Enderle said Lenovo’s expected move into the consumer PC market next year would be crucial to its growth. Businesses represent about 70 percent of the PC market but consumers, which take the remaining share, are the faster-growing segment.

“Moving into the consumer market is probably what’s going to provide them with their biggest boost because they become more broad,” Enderle said.

As more businesses pay close attention to environmental concerns, Lenovo’s energy-saving focus could boost sales of its ThinkStations, which boast 80 per cent power efficiency, leaving only 20 per cent of electricity wasted, Enderle said.

He estimates that average industry efficiency is closer to 60 percent.

NBA, which uses high-powered computers for everything from crunching game statistics to editing video footage, did not say how many ThinkStations it would order.

But NBA game analyst Bill Walton, a former basketball star, said he could see all the NBA’s 30 teams buying the products to help with half-time game discussions. “At least every team will have one of these,” he said. Reuters

Holcim open offer for India Ambuja to start soon

A delayed open offer by Swiss cement maker Holcim for a further 20 percent in India’s Ambuja Cements Ltd will start on Nov. 14, nearly a month behind the original date, a newspaper advertisement showed.

Holcim, which already owns about 40 percent in Ambuja, had said in August it planned to buy a further 20 percent in Ambuja Cements, or up to 306.6 million shares, from its public shareholders at 154 rupees per share beginning Oct. 18.

In October, offer manager DSP Merrill Lynch said the open offer was postponed till further notice and did not give a reason for the delay.

The open offer will now start on Nov. 14 and close on Dec. 3, an advertisement in the papers showed on Wednesday.

Assuming full acceptance, Holcim will hold 60.4 per cent in Ambuja on closing of the offer, DSP Merrill Lynch said in the advertisement.

Shares in Ambuja Cements were up 2.2 per cent at 147.25 rupees in a slightly firm Mumbai market.

Reuters

Microsoft sees long-life potential for Xbox 360

Microsoft Corp sees potential for its Xbox 360 video game console to stay on the market longer than the five-year lifespan that is typical for gaming hardware, an executive said on Tuesday.

Asked about long-term prospects for the game industry, Mindy Mount, chief financial officer for Microsoft’s entertainment division that includes the Xbox, pointed to Sony Corp’s PlayStation 2, which is still going strong after 7 years on the market.

“Look at the PS2; they’ve gone long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing,” Mount told a BMO Capital Markets conference on interactive entertainment.

“If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that’s great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability,” Mount said.

Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in November 2005, replacing the original Xbox that debuted four years earlier to challenge Sony for dominance in a video game industry that is on track to hit $40 billion this year.

Mount said features such as high-definition graphics make new machines attractive when compared against older hardware, but hinted that she sees less need to rush out an all-new console.

“At this point from the technological perspective, there are some real advances ... that make it worth having a next-generation console,” Mount said. “Right now there aren’t that many things on the horizon that you think, wow, that’s going to be a game-changer.”

Reuters