Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO

By Dan Nosowitz

Steve Jobs with iPhone Wikimedia Commons: Matt Yohe

Steve Jobs, indisputably the most prominent technology CEO in the world, today announced his resignation as head of Apple.

Jobs has had, to say the least, a storied history with Apple, from co-founding it in 1976, forced out in 1985 (ushering in Apple's "dark period"), and coming back in 1996 to lead the company through its most fruitful time. The iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and continued refinement of the various Apple laptops (to the point where the company has made our favorite consumer laptopmany years running) have all sprung from the brain of Jobs, seen in the press as part auteur, part despot, and all genius. Jobs has also had serious health problems in recent years, at one point taking a leave from Apple to undergo surgery for pancreatic cancer.

In a brief resignation letter, Jobs wrote:

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

Much more will be written about Jobs and Apple in the hours and days to come, but we'd like to say that regardless of the sniping we've done in the past, we're in awe of Jobs's contributions to the tech world. He has been a pioneer, an artist, a geek among geeks, and his work won't be forgotten. Enjoy your retirement, Steve. You've earned it.

Engineers Discover Nanoscale Balancing Act That Mirrors Forces at Work in Living Systems

Engineering researchers have discovered that under the right circumstances, basic atomic forces can be exploited to enable nanoparticles to assemble into superclusters that are uniform in size and share attributes with viruses. (Credit: T.D.Nguyen, Glotzer Group, University of Michigan)

Science Daily  — A delicate balance of atomic forces can be exploited to make nanoparticle superclusters that are uniform in size -- an attribute that's important for many nanotech applications but hard to accomplish, University of Michigan researchers say.

U-M chemical engineering professors Nicholas Kotov and Sharon Glotzer led the research. The findings are newly published online in Nature Nanotechnology.The same type of forces are at work bringing the building blocks of viruses together, and the inorganic supercluster structures in this research are in many ways similar to viruses.

In another instance of forces behaving in unexpected ways at the nanoscale, they discovered that if you start with small nanoscale building blocks that are varied enough in size, the electrostatic repulsion force and van der Waals attraction force will balance each other and limit the growth of the clusters. This equilibrium enables the formation of clusters that are uniform in size.

"The breakthrough here is that we've discovered a generic mechanism that causes these nanoparticles to assemble into near perfect structures," Glotzer said. "The physics that we see is not special to this system, and could be exploited with other materials. Now that we know how it works, we can design new building blocks that will assemble the same way."

The inorganic superclusters -- technically called "supraparticles" -- that the researchers created out of red, powdery cadmium selenide are not artificial viruses. But they do share many attributes with the simplest forms of life, including size, shape, core-shell structure and the abilities to both assemble and dissemble, Kotov said.

"Having these functionalities in totally inorganic system is quite remarkable," Kotov said. "There is the potential to combine them with the beneficial properties of inorganic materials such as environmental resilience, light adsorption and electrical conductivity."

Zhiyong Tang, a collaborating professor at the National Center of Nanoscience and Technology in China, said, "It is also very impressive that such supraparticles can be further used as the building blocks to fabricate three-dimensional ordered assemblies. This secondary self-assembly behavior provides a feasible way to obtain large-scale nanostructures that are important for practical application."

Kotov is currently working on "breeding" these supraparticles to produce synthetic fuels from carbon dioxide. The work also has applications in drug delivery and solar cell research and it could dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing large quantities of supraparticles.

"By replicating the self-assembly processes that allow living organisms to grow and heal, we can simplify the production of many useful nanostructured systems from semiconductors and metals so much so that they can be made in any high school laboratory," Kotov said.

This research is funded by the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office

Sri Lanka lifts emergency laws after three decades

Sri Lanka lifts emergency laws after three decades

Press Trust Of India
Colombo, August 25, 2011

Sri Lanka on Thursday announced the lifting of the state of emergency imposed nearly 30 years ago to confront the threat from the Tamil Tigers.


The announcement was made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament saying, "I am satisfied that the state of emergency is no 

longer required. So we will not extend it".

 Rajapaksa said, "Today I propose to this assembly the withdrawal of the emergency laws to enable the country to conduct its affairs through its normal laws and in a democractic manner".

The island nation has been under a state of emergency since 1983, when the LTTE under its late commander Velupillai Prabhakaran was posing a threat to the country's government and forces.

The announcement of the withdrawal of the draconian laws came as Colombo is facing intense international pressure to end the arbitrary laws with human rights group accusing authorities of misusing it to crack down on dissent.

The Parliament extended the state of emergency every month and the practise was continued despite the end of the war in 2009.

Rajapaksa said there had been not a single act of terrorism in the island since the war with the LTTE ended in May 2009.

mergency regulations allowed the security forces to detain a person whom they "believe may commit offences," for up to one year as a preventive measure.

Full Show - 8/23/11. Gaddafi still MIA...What's Next for Libya?

Gaddafi regime 'over' says foreign minister

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Rebels celebrate in Col Gaddafi's compound

Al Gaddafi and Yaser Arafat before he Died

Gaddafi's battered compound

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Gaddafi's compound falls

Inside Gaddafi's compound

Clegg: 'Gaddafi's regime is ending'

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20 Things You Didn't Know About... Nanotechnology

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Nanotechnology

How it might kill us, how it might save us, and how it was used in the smallest ever marketing stunt

by Rebecca Coffey

From the July-August special issue;

1  Get small. A nanometer is about the width of a strand of DNA; if you design, build, or use functional systems smaller than 100 of these, you’re a nanotechnologist.

2  By that definition, we have been doing nanotech for centuries. For instance, thecolors in medieval stained glass windows result from nanocrystalscreated in the heating and cooling of the glass.

3   Size matters. At the nano scale, materials take on unusual properties. Their color, transparency, and melting point often differ significantly from those of larger clumps of the same stuff.

4  Nanoscale bits of metal oxide, carbon fiber, or metal blends can detoxify hazardous waste: Their extreme solubility and chemical reactivity help them zero in on the nasty stuff.

5  This approach is already being used at sites in a dozen states, mostly to clean groundwater fouled by solvents, metals, and petroleum.

6  Brighter colors! Richer flavors! Less spoilage! Those are some of the reasons why companies are dumping nanoparticles into hundreds of products, including cosmetics, sunscreens, and food.

7  Analysts say the global market for manufactured goods using nanomaterials could hit $1.6 trillion by 2013.

8  Uh-oh. Studies show that nanoparticles can work their way into the bloodstream, penetrate cells, and get past the blood-brain barrier. Research has linked such particles to lung damage; the brain may be affected too.

9  But if those particles don’t kill us, they just might save us. Scientists at U.C. San Diego have designed afluorescent nanoparticle that glows inside the body, making it easier to image tumors and organ damage.

10  Yale researchers have created plastic nanospheres that encapsulate proteins called cytokines, which stimulate the immune system’s killer T-cells. An injection of those spheres could help fight disease and infection.

11  And in a University of Southern California lab, nanotubes have been used to create synthetic neurons (pdf).

12  The USC team is trying to assemble these neurons into functional networks, which would bring us closer to assistive brain implants.

13  In 1989, using an atomic force microscope, IBM engineer Don Eigler became the first person to move and control a single atom.

14  Eigler and his team later used 35 xenon atoms to spell out “IBM,” thus performing the world’s smallest PR stunt.

15  Atoms? Big whoop. Researchers at Princeton and U.C. Santa Barbara can control the spin of a singleelectron, trapping it in a “corral” created by applying voltage to minuscule electrodes.

16  But they’re not playing cowboy. The breakthrough could lead to powerful quantum computers that store and manipulate data in the spin of individual electrons.

17  Not to be outdone, Stan­ford scientists used scanning tunneling microscopy and holograms to write information within the interference patterns formed by electron waves on a copper sheet. The letters are less than a third the size of Eigler’s “IBM.”

18  Government researchers have created arrays of chromium nanodots that can store magnetic data with unprecedented uniformity. One goal: drawing more complex integrated circuits on silicon chips.

19  For the rodent who has everything. Georgia Tech scientists made piezoelectric generators out of nanowires and attached them to tiny hamster jackets. When the critters ran, the generators created electricity.

20  Zhong Lin Wang, co-inventor of the jacket, envisions a shirt that charges your cell phone as you stroll, or an implanted device for measuring blood pressure that’s powered by your own heartbeat.

9 Ways Carbon Nanotubes Just Might Rock the World

Nanotubes have been billed as the key to curing cancer, building space elevators, and creating real-world Spidermen. Whether they're totally tubular or just an overhyped pipe dream remains to be seen.

by Eliza Strickland

Oh carbon nanotubes, is there anything you can't do?

Nanotubes can be envisioned as one-atom thick sheets of carbon that have been rolled into tubes. Researchers know that when things get that small, they act a little weird, and labs around the world are now racing to capitalize on nanotubes' strange properties. With their extraordinary strength and fascinating knack for conducting electricity and heat, nanotubes are finding applications in everything from cancer treatments to hydrogen cars. These structures of carbon may be tiny—a nanotube's diameter is about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair—but their impact on science and technology has been enormous.

Here, we count down nine of the most enticing possibilities for these giants on the Lilliputian stage. They probably won't all pan out, but if nanotubes fulfill just a few of these predictions, they'll be worth the buzz.

9. X-traordinary X-raysA new nanotube-based imaging system could take sharper, faster pictures that trump today's X-rays and CT scans. Researchers from the University of North Carolina say their device will be especially useful for imaging organs that are perpetually in motion, like the heart and lungs.

In a traditional X-ray machine, a filament emits electrons when it is heated above a certain threshold, and those electrons fly through the body and hit a metal electrode on the other side, creating images; CT scans produce three-dimensional images by rotating the electron source. But the new system uses an array of carbon nanotubes that emit hundreds of electrons simultaneously as soon as voltage is applied to them. The system is faster than a regular X-ray machine because there are no filaments to warm up, and the multiple nanotube emitters can also take pictures from many different angles without moving.

8. Helping the Hydrogen CarCars powered by hydrogen fuel cells have been a clean energy dream for years, but they've been held back largely by the expense of making fuel cells. The Department of Energy estimates that half of a fuel cell's price tag comes from the platinum catalyst used to speed up the reaction that produces energy. But in February a team of researchers found that bundles of carbon nanotubes doped with nitrogen form a more efficient and more compact catalyst.

While carbon nanotubes are currently fairly expensive to produce, researchers note that the price has been plummeting. Researchers from the University of Dayton, Ohio note that nanotube production costs have fallen 100-fold since 1990, while no such price reductions are likely with platinum, a limited natural resource.

7. Diagnosis Via NanotubeSpanish researchers say nanotubes can even help with an embarrassing medical problem, and have created a biosensor that can diagnose yeast infections (the irritating fungal infections that can take hold on the genitals). The scientists say their gadget provides a quicker diagnosis that today's typical method, in which a cell sample is taken and cultured in the lab to look for the presence of the Candida albicans fungus.

The researchers built a transistor that contains carbon nanotubes and antibodies programmed to attack theCandida yeast cells. When a cell sample is put on the biosensor, the interaction between the yeast and the antibodies changes the electric current of the device. The extremely conductive nanotubes record the change and allow researchers to measure how much yeast is present.

6. The Smallest Chips in the LandNanotubes could even spell the end of a building block of our modern world: the silicon-based computer chip. Several research groups have found ways to "unzip" carbon nanotubes to produce atom-thick ribbons of graphene. Like silicon, graphene is a semiconductor, but the nano-sized ribbons could be used to pack much more processing power on every computer chip.

Researchers have made graphene ribbons before, but never as easily—previously the ribbons were cut from larger graphene sheets, which offered little control over their size and shape. In contrast, unzipping nanotubes is a precise process. One research group first stuck the nanotubes to a polymer film, then used argon gas to etch away a strip from each tube to produce the nanoribbons.

Nanotubes have been billed as the key to curing cancer, building space elevators, and creating real-world Spidermen. Whether they're totally tubular or just an overhyped pipe dream remains to be seen.

by Eliza Strickland

published online August 6, 2009 

5. Turn It Up!The next application could make for a noisier world: Chinese researchers have found a way to make flexible,paper-thin loudspeakers out of nanotube sheets. The scientists say the technology could be used to add an auditory dimension to anything from clothing to magazines—and to prove their point, they put one on a waving flag.

The nanospeakers don't generate sound like conventional speakers, which make noise by vibrating the surrounding air molecules. Instead, they harness a phenomenon called the thermoacoustic effect, which is how lightning produces thunder. When an electric current runs through the nanotube sheets, they heat and expand the air near them, creating sound waves.

4. Taking Lessons from the Gecko Real-world Spidermen could one day scamper up walls thanks to an adhesive made of carbon nanotubes. The substance mimics the design of gecko feet, which are covered in millions of tiny hairs that each end in a profusion of spatula-shaped tips. The lizards can defy gravity and walk up sheer surfaces because when those tiny tips are close to a surface, they induce a strong attractive force that operates on the atomic scale, known as the van der Waals force.

The nanotech version of this system is a glue that is ten times stickier than the gecko's feet. Researchers made arrays of vertically aligned nanotubes that were topped with shorter nanotube bits, like branching treetops. The adhesive worked on a variety of surfaces, including slick glass and rough sandpaper, but its hold could easily be broken by those who knew the trick. Just like a gecko lifting its foot away from the wall, researchers pulled the glue pad away at a 90-degree angle so that only the tips of the branching nanotube bits were touching the surface, and it easily came away.

3. Flexible, Bendable ElectronicsImagine a computer screen that could be bent, folded in half, and even crumpled like a sheet of newspaper, without affecting its function in the slightest. Researchers at the University of Tokyo took a step in that direction in May when they constructed a display made of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) paired with a rubbery, nanotube-based conductor.

The organic compounds in an OLED system emit light when an electric current is passed through them, and they need no backlight, making them thinner than traditional displays. As nanotubes are natural semiconductors, they channel the electricity to the organic compounds. Researchers can envision enough technological applications to fill a World's Fair, including everything from food packages with interactive displays to artificial skin for robots and coatings for airplanes that would check the craft for wear and tear.

Low-cost, large-scale fabrication could be around the corner: The researchers used a cheap industrial printing process to deposit the nanotubes on a rubbery surface.

2. Space Elevator, Going UpCarbon nanotubes are renowned for their superior strength, and in March researchers from the University of Texas manipulated that property to create a material that is simultaneously strong, stretchy, and nearly as light as air. The researchers made an aerogel (a low-density solid) out of nanotubes, and found that in was as strong as steel. Meanwhile, applying voltage to the material made it stretchier than rubber.

What possible uses could the world find for such a material? One idea is to fashion nanotube ropes to act as cables for a space elevator, which could lift astronauts, cargo, or even tourists into orbit. The 62,000-mile-long cables would have to be strong and flexible so they wouldn't break when buffeted by atmospheric storms and space debris, but light enough so they wouldn't collapse under their own weight.

1. Tumor BlitzThe tiny tubes could even end up as must-haves in cancer hospitals one day. In a recent study, researchers injected carbon nanotubes into kidney tumors in mice, and then directed a near-infrared laser at the tumors. The tubes responded to the laser blast by vibrating, which created enough heat to kill surrounding tumor cells.

In the group that received the highest dose of nanotubes followed by a 30-second laser treatment, the tumors shrank and completely disappeared in 80 percent of the mice. The procedure didn't appear to damage the animals’ internal organs, and left only a slight burn on the skin. But researchers haven't yet proven that nanotubes are safe and non-toxic and say that much more research must be done before such procedures are ready to be tested in humans.

Corporate philosophy::::

Theertayatra - Sai Temple, Saamirpeta - 01

ICT Training and Gender

Making Uzbek Farms Sustainable

Making Uzbek Farms Sustainable

Every morning Ergash Holmatov has tea with his extended family. He breaks Uzbek bread, "non," made with wheat he has grown. Holmatov thinks there is nothing in the world tastier than bread that comes from his own farm close to the capital Tashkent.

Matluba Mukhamedova, Communications Officer in the Tashkent Office, offers this story.

Five years ago, when agricultural cooperatives were abolished and private farms established, Holmatov decided to become a farmer. He got 72 hectares of irrigated land, and started growing wheat. It was not an easy transition for the former accountant.

"When we got the land, we faced a lot of problems as the equipment we had was old and often broke down. We lacked plows and equipment to treat the land before sowing plants," he says.

He wanted to buy a new tractor for 99 million Uzbek sum, or about US$60, 000, but did not have the capital and could not afford payments on a conventional bank loan.

"Then I heard that the World Bank financed Rural Enterprise Support project could help with purchase of machinery, but I would need to develop a business plan. I prepared my business plan and submitted it to Microcreditbank," he explains.

With the loan, he and his son Ulugbek bought the tractor. Ulugbek—also an accountant with few farm skills—took tractor driving courses. The Holmatovs now cultivate their own land and also earn money by using their tractor on farms that don't have machinery. "In 2011, we earned about UZS20 million from these services. This is helping us pay the interest on our loan," says Ergash Holmatov.

New private farms like the Holmatovs are benefiting from a US$68 million project supported by the World Bank-supported that was initiated to increase farmers' productivity and profitability. The Rural Enterprise Support Project gives credit lines to local commercial banks, which in turn lend to farmers. In addition to teaching farmers how to work with banks, the project is training farmers to run a business and apply new agricultural techniques. It is also improving irrigation and drainage, which is crucial in a country with scarce water resources.

World Bank credit lines differ from those provided by local commercial banks: they are longer term–up to ten years including a three year grace period; Major local banks provide credit only for three years. And—unlike other loans which are issued only in Uzbek soums, these funds are loaned in either soums or US dollars, which allows farmers to buy equipment outside the country. Local banks benefit from the low interest rate and long repayment term and are able to increase their number of loans.

Umarali Kholjonboev, Microcredit bank officer says: "In total, 20 projects were funded across the Tashkent region, 14 of which were funded to purchase agricultural equipment. The loans are extended to farmers for a long-term period of ten years including three years grace period. The Interest rate is lower and very competitive as compared to the average Uzbek commercial bank interest rate.

In addition to equipment, farmers use the lines of credit to buy poultry, livestock, and to stock fish ponds, or plant new fruit tree varieties that bear more and more quickly.

Like the Holmatovs, most people running newly established private farms come from non-agrarian backgrounds. They needed to learn how to farm. The project held seminars on different topics ranging from pest control, sowing seeds and saving water, to laws and business planning. Long-time farmers share their experiences with newcomers at farm schools and demonstration plots established under the project.

Khudoyberdy Abdujabborov, agronomist and former kolkhoz chairman, heads one of these schools. "We teach how to properly supply, distribute and save water." With the help of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, water meters have been built on about 100 farms and are already changing farmers' behavior.

"In the past, we used water very liberally; now all the water is metered. We used 3,800-4,200 liters of water per hectare. We now scientifically reassess the amount of water needed and put this into practice, thus using 15-20% less. If we replicate this across the whole district, oblast and country, it will result in large water savings," Abdujabborov says.

Water users associations have been reorganized and are now based on geography rather than administrative boundaries. Siddikov Abdunabi, project coordinator, says: "In Buka we had 21 water users associations: the farms located on the upper reach (of the river) never cared about the water needs of the farms located in the lower reaches."

This meant downstream farms watered their seeds too late and were not productive. Twenty one existing associations were reorganized into just six located along the water flow. Now all the farms have water when their crops need it.

As farms become more productive farmers' lives will improve. And this will allow Ergash Holmatov's son and grandson to keep growing wheat. So that one day Holmatov's grandson can break "non" for his kids at breakfast.

South Sudan launches its first GDP estimate

SUBMITTED BY THOMAS DANIELEWITZ 

The dust had hardly settled from South Sudan’s Independence Day celebrations before the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of South Sudan formerly known as the Southern Sudan Center for Census, Statistics and Evaluation, released the new country’s first estimate of GDP. The long-awaited figures were revealed at a well-attended press conference at the NBS on 16 August 2011. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the event, but I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in late July in the company of NBS’ Director of Economic Statistics, David Chan Thiang, and his small team of dedicated economists and statisticians.

It was a very positive experience. Despite obvious adversities in terms of staff and infrastructure, NBS has managed to publish a variety of high-quality statistical products since 2005 - primarily within demographic and social domains.

NBS seems particularly adept at dissemination and communication with a knack for writing clear and concise reports and making use of their well-structured website as the main dissemination tool: http://ssnbs.org/.

However, estimating GDP is very different from counting people, bed nets and toilets or recording health and education characteristics. It’s a difficult task to accurately estimate the production, consumption and investments of the myriad households, corporations and government institutions – especially given the scarce data available. In a poor-data environment, assumptions and guesstimates are needed to fill in the blanks, and national accountants have to be inventive and creative. It requires a lot of experience to do that well, and that’s when statistics become less of a science and more of an art.

The fact that NBS managed to pull off this feat is truly remarkable.The anticipation and attention to the release of the estimate added to the pressure on NBS.
Gross National Income (GNI)¹ is used to determine the official income status of countries, and this determines potential access to concessional borrowing from international lenders such as the World Bank and IMF. The World Bank International Development Assistance (IDA) ceiling is currently a GNI of US$1,165 per capita.

So what was the verdict? It turns out that in terms of overall income generation; South Sudan does quite well compared to its neighbors in East Africa.GDP per capita in 2010 was estimated at US$1,546 compared to US$769 in Kenya and just US$189 in Burundi. As a result of the oil revenue sharing deal with the North, gross national income (GNI) is much lower GNI at US$984 per capita. But this is still significantly higher than any country in East Africa:

Table: GDP and GNI of East African Countries in 2010, million USD, current
source: GDP Press Release, South Sudan NBS, 11 August 2011

People visiting South Sudan may find these numbers surprising. As your airplane descends towards Juba Airport, you see grassland stretching endlessly, deserted in every direction. Compared to the bustling, congested streets of Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam, Juba seems quiet and provincial. The city has few paved roads and is almost devoid of multi-storey buildings. Poverty is rife, and the vast majority of the population still lives in rural areas in the traditional, thatched-roof houses with scant access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Mortality rates and illiteracy is high and basic services are largely inaccessible. It seems odd that this should be the richest country in East Africa in per capita terms.

However, to those familiar with South Sudan, the GDP numbers will be confirmation that the country is rich in oil and natural resources, but has yet to transform the abundant natural endowments into infrastructure and improved livelihoods.

Export of oil amounts to 71 percent of GDP, and oil revenue accounts for almost 98 percent of total Government revenue. Income inequality is high (Gini coeffient is 46)², which may explain some of the mismatch, but more importantly, coming out of civil war and strife, the Government of South Sudan still spends around one third of the budget on “security and rule of law”³.

In terms of statistics, despite the initial success stories, a lot of challenges remain. South Sudan authorities are still disputing the population numbers from the 2008 Population and Housing Census, claiming that some areas in the south were not adequately covered. Some experts estimate that the official population of South Sudan of 8.3 million is probably closer to 9 million people. The Government has expressed plans to conduct a new Population and Housing Census within the next 5 years.

The first GDP estimate has been released, but economic statistics is still in its infancy in South Sudan. The new GDP figures were compiled using expenditure information, i.e. survey data on household consumption, government expenditure records, capital investment information, in addition to data on exports and imports. A stronger estimate could be constructed by estimating GDP from the production side, i.e. by collecting and aggregating the actual production volumes, values and costs of producers within agriculture, manufacturing, mining and quarrying and other important industries in the economy. The more information, the more robust the estimate, especially if the production and expenditure sides could be reconciled in a comprehensive and coherent supply-use table framework.

While the construction of a supply-use table is a medium to long-term objective for the NBS, the collection of industry data has already started. NBS has established a business register and the results of the first business survey are due shortly. The NBS is also in the planning phase of the first agricultural survey. Statistics Norway is supporting the initiative through financial and technical assistance, and the IMF has established a trust fund to support economic statistics.  

The World Bank will soon be joining ranks with other donors supporting statistics in South Sudan. So far a US$424,000 grant from the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building has been approved to support priority activities in the coming years. This includes training and study visits on economic statistics and technical assistance on designing the National Strategy for Development of Statistics (NSDS).

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¹. GNI is defined as GDP less net payments to the rest of the world
². National Baseline Household Survey 2010, SSCCSE
^3. Key Indicators for Southern Sudan, SSCCSE, 8 February 2011