<h3><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ektogamat/2952129288/">Anderson Mancini</a></div>Here is the Radio Times list of the 50 greatest British <keyword id="91260" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="inventions">inventions</keyword>, in chronological order.</h3>
Reflecting telescope: Isaac Newton, 1668
Seed drill: Jethro Tull, 1701
Marine chronometer: John Harrison, 1761
Spinning frame: Richard Arkwright, 1768
Toothbrush: William Addis, c. 1770
Soda water: Joseph Priestley, 1772
Hydraulic press: Joseph Bramah, 1795
Steam engine: Richard Trevithick, 1801
Glider: George Cayley, 1804
Tension-spoked wheel: George Cayley, 1808
Tin can: Peter Durand, 1810
Modern fire extinguisher: George William Manby, 1818
Electric motor: Michael Faraday, 1821
Waterproof material: Charles Macintosh, 1823
Cement: Joseph Aspdin, 1824
Passenger railway: George Stephenson, 1825
Lawnmower: Edwin Beard Budding, 1827
Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot, 1835
Electric telegraph: Charles Wheatstone &amp; William Cooke, 1837
Chocolate bar: JS Fry &amp; Sons, 1847
Hypodermic syringe: Alexander Wood, 1853
Synthetic dye: William Perkin, 1856
Bessemer process: Henry Bessemer, 1856
Linoleum: Frederick Walton, 1860
Sewage system: Joseph Bazalgette, 1865
Modern Torpedo: Robert Whitehead, 1866
Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell, 1876
Light Bulb: Joseph Swan, 1880
Steam turbine: Charles Parsons, 1884
Safety bicycle: John Kemp Stanley, 1885
Pneumatic tyre: John Boyd Dunlop, 1887
Thermos flask: Sir James Dewar, 1892
Electric vacuum cleaner: Hubert Cecil Booth, 1901
Disc Brakes: Frederick William Lanchester, 1902
Stainless Steel: Harry Brearley, 1913
Military tank: Ernest Swinton, 1914
Television: John Logie Baird, 1925
Catseye: Percy Shaw, 1933
Jet Engine: Frank Whittle, 1937
Electronic programmable computer: Tommy Flowers, 1943
Hovercraft: Christopher Cockerell, 1953
Automatic kettle: Peter Hobbs, 1955
Float Glass: Alastair Pilkington, 1959
Hip Replacement: John Charnley, 1962
Carbon fibre: Royal Aircraft Establishment engineers, 1963
Collapsible baby buggy: Owen Maclaren, 1965
ATM: John Shepherd-Barron, 1967
World Wide Web: Tim Berners-Lee, 1989
Wind-up radio: Trevor Baylis, 1991
Steri-spray: Ian Helmore, c. 2008
Readers can nominate their own suggestions on the <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/">Radio Times</a> website.

The 50 Greatest Inventions From Britain 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Kacper Pempel Italy is a main flashpoint.</div></div></div>LONDON (Reuters) - Last year was the least tumultuous for the euro zone since Greece revealed a vast hole in its books back in 2009.
The consensus is that 2014 will be just as calm - a view held by some who were predicting the currency bloc's demise little more than a year ago.
The political will to keep the show on the road has held firm, the European Central Bank's pledge to underpin the euro continues to stave off bond market pressure and there is the prospect of economies growing at least a little.
Spain, Italy and Portugal are all emerging from recession and Greece should follow suit this year.
Yet there are plenty of reasons to be cautious.
<h3>EU ELECTIONS</h3>
High unemployment, austerity fatigue and still anemic growth offer the perfect backdrop for fringe parties to prosper at May's European parliamentary elections.
Some pundits predict a group of anti-euro parties including the National Front in France, Britain's UKIP, Syriza in Greece and the Dutch Freedom Party could capture 20 percent or more of the seats.
That could pressure the EU's main party groups to tack right and challenge Europe's ability to integrate further given new powers the parliament will have to rule on the majority of EU legislation.
"It could pull mainstream parties into more euroskeptic positions and complicate both the appointment of a new European Commission (due later in the year) and the task of passing banking union-related legislation," said Alastair Newton, senior political analyst at Nomura Securities.
<h3>BANK STRESS</h3>
That the EU has fallen short of its initial plans for a banking union to prevent future financial crises is plain.
For several years at least, the buck for a failing bank will ultimately stop with national governments, leaving the "doom loop" ensnaring weak banks and indebted sovereigns unbroken.
The ECB will publish health tests of Europe's biggest banks prior to taking over their supervision in November.
The scope for a major shock is limited given the extent to which banks have already recapitalized. Still, lending is likely to remain constrained until the tests are complete - hampering economic recovery - and the structure of banking union as it now exists could allow a future crisis to blow up.
<h3>GERMAN COURT</h3>
The main reason to be cheerful about the euro zone is the markets' unwillingness to test the ECB's safety net. Any hole in that would change the terms of the game at a stroke.
Germany's Constitutional Court will rule soon on the ECB's bond-buying program, its as yet unused mechanism to protect the euro zone.
The history of the Karlsruhe-based court has not been to reject outright any crisis-fighting measures though it has bestowed greater levels of scrutiny upon Germany's Bundestag.
But if it did take the nuclear option, the bond market could declare open season on the currency bloc's weaker members once more, pushing it back into crisis.
<h3>REFORM ZEAL</h3>
The ECB has consistently said it is buying time for countries to put their houses in order by curbing debts and enacting economic reforms needed to thrive in the 21st century.
The main flashpoints are Italy, which has stagnated for a decade and has a coalition government which may lack the cohesion to respond, and France which is teetering on the edge of a new recession.
"France remains the only major European economy which is beset by serious health problems and has not yet done much about it," Berenberg Bank said in its annual review of the euro zone.
President Francois Hollande used his New Year address to offer companies lower labor taxes if they hire more workers. But with his popularity levels at record lows, a radical leap is unlikely.
Austerity fatigue is most potent in Greece, the country that sparked the debt crisis.
Its coalition government refuses to countenance more cuts and will need some form of debt relief to put its finances on a sustainable path at a time when its parliamentary majority is down to just three seats and the anti-bailout Syriza opposition is ascendant in the polls.
<h3>DEFLATION</h3>
If deflation took hold - a big if - that would pose the direst threat of all, raising the prospect of a Japan-style lost decade and making national debts even harder to pay off.
A plunge in euro zone inflation to just 0.7 percent prompted the ECB to cut interest rates in November but many of its members are viscerally opposed to the sort of money printing that finally breathed life into Japan's economy.
"We must take care that we don't have inflation stuck permanently below 1 percent and thereby slip into the danger zone," ECB chief Mario Draghi said last week.
Even without deflation, any slippage in debt-cutting and structural reforms may require further action from the ECB.
The history of the euro zone crisis shows that while policymakers lose their sense of urgency when the pressure diminishes, they rush to bolster their defenses when the heat comes on and have consistently done so just in time.
"2014 stands to be more challenging and dangerous for euro zone financial markets than the surprisingly calm 2013," said
Russell Jones, economist at Llewellyn Consulting in London.
"(But) predictions of the euro area's imminent demise have proved systematically wide of the mark."
(Editing by Susan Fenton)

5 Reasons To Be Wary Of The Euro Zone In 2014

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Reuters</div></div>Elections are underway in India and results are due May 16.
Many expect opposition leader Narendra Modi to become India's next prime minister and there's hope he could help revive economic growth in India which has been languishing.
Modi has been credited with driving Gujarat's economic growth since he took the helm as chief minister of the north west Indian state in 2001.
Modinomics: The Gujarat story
In a report published in September last year, Vijay K. Gaba at InvesTrekk wrote that "India is struggling with the limitations of the Nehruvian model of economic development that we have followed since independence." 
He described the current model as one that general calls for a large role of the private sector, but with "active state intervention during extremities of business cycle and argues against higher savings in both private and public sector." Modinomics on the other hand supports a free market with minimal state intervention.
<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/daa87f88-ae0e-11e3-974d-00144feab7de.html#axzz2yVF5E74I">David Pilling at the Financial Times</a> also recently wrote of Modi's getting-things-done leadership style. "Part of Mr Modi's attraction is that, by sheer force of will, he may be able to override some of the checks and balances of Indian democracy and introduce some of the clear-headedness of growth-driven China," he wrote.
Gujarat's real GDP has climbed 10.3% year-over-year between fiscal year (FY) 2003 and FY12, that's 2.4 percentage points above India's real GDP growth in the same period, Christopher Wood at CLSA pointed out in a note late last year.
Modi's candidacy is "about marketing the impressive track record in Gujarat over a 12-year period of achieving broad-based growth across the agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors since Modi assumed office…" Wood writes. 
"Modi's best chance of winning convincingly is if he can tap, helped by the intelligent use of social media, 'big data' and the like, the pro-growth aspirations of an estimated 149m young voters who will be voting for the first time in next year's general election, representing about 20% of the electorate.
Last year, Goldman Sachs put out a note titled <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-report-angers-indian-government-2013-11">'Modi-fying our view: raise India to Marketweight'</a>. Timothy Moe, author of the note cited six key reasons for this, the top being, ""optimism over political change, led by BJP's prime ministerial candidate Mr. Modi, is dominating economic concerns," sparking outrage in India.
Is it all just hype? 
But some legitimately wonder if Modinomics will work for the rest of India and if Modi has been too generous in slathering on this self-praise.
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/modinomics-narendra-modi-india-bjp">The Guardian</a> and <a href="http://qz.com/171409/gujarat-by-the-numbers/">Quartz</a> took a long look at Gujarat's economy in the years before Modi came to power, and found that Gujarat was doing well in the two decades before Modi came to power. And certain indicators like foreign direct investment, show that Gujarat actually lags other states.
There are also those that argue that placing the blame of recent lackluster growth squarely on the shoulders of the central government is too simplistic.
"The belief in certain quarters is that as long as the next government were to go all out at de-bottle-necking projects, sentiment would surge and this would spark an investment revival in the economy," writes Toshi Jain at JPMorgan. But he thinks this is an "overly-simplistic read on the situation" because many stalled projects have more to do with various state governments than the central government. Perhaps then, a Modi government would also hit the same roadblocks.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</div></div>Modi can't shake his past 
There is of course one thing that Modi has never been able to dodge, questions surrounding his role in the deadly Gujarat riots of 2002, in which over 1,000 people were killed, women raped, and thousands displaced.
Modi's detractors also point to his ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a Hindu supremacist group.
Nomura's Alastair Newton points out that on a February 23 rally in Assam, Modi called for Hindu migrants from Bangladesh to be assimilated back into India. He also said non-Hindus should be sent back to their home nations. Modi's rhetoric has raised concerns about what this could mean for neighborhood politics. <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VPNxrUuYeE4eSiC6nIF7NM/The-symbolism-of-Varanasi-in-2014.html"></a>
<a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VPNxrUuYeE4eSiC6nIF7NM/The-symbolism-of-Varanasi-in-2014.html">Indian publication LiveMint</a> also pointed to Modi's decision to contest the seat in the holy city of Varanasi as a sign that he hasn't abandoned his Hindu supremacist ideology: 
"It is widely expected that Modi's nomination from Varanasi will positively affect the outcome for the BJP in a number of other seats in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which are electorally important as together the two states send 120 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha. Further, the choice of Varanasi is also symbolic in nature which indicates that the party may not have completely abandoned the Hindutva ideology."
It's a guessing game 
For now the polls are calling for a BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and NDA (National Democratic Alliance) coalition, winning 230-240 seats and headed by Narendra Modi. But Indian polls have been woefully wrong in the past. 
In 2004, the polls grossly overestimated the seats the incumbent would win and the Sensex crashed 11% the day after, and the rupee lost 3%. In 2009, the polls underestimated the seats the incumbent would win and the following day stocks went on a tear and the rupee surged 4%.
The bottom line however is that whichever party comes to power, they have a long road to reviving economic growth. Morgan Stanley's Ridham Desai thinks the new government needs to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/india-sees-worlds-biggest-election-2014-4">push through five key reforms</a>. Drive wage growth in line with productivity, cut the fiscal deficit, improve the business environment, rethink India's urbanization policy, and address structural rigidities in the energy and mining sectors.
If the rise of what's been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-indian-2014-elections-matter-2013-9">dubbed India's third front</a>, a string of regional parties, does end with a messy coalition, the Indian economy could continue to sputter for another five years.

Everything You Need To Know About 'Modinomics' The New Economic Strategy That Could Be Coming To India

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Reuters/Jason Lee</div></div><keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> held its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/qa-what-is-chinas-3rd-plenum-2013-11">much anticipated Third Plenum</a> earlier this month. And markets reacted favorably to the "decision" that followed a few days later.
Policymakers said they would loosen <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-announces-change-to-one-child-policy-2013-11">China's one child policy,</a> abolish the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-abolish-harsh-labor-camps-2013-11">notorious labor-camps</a>, encourage more private investment in state-owned enterprises, push more rural land <keyword id="6447217" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="reforms">reforms</keyword>, and advance more financial reform in the form of interest rate and capital account liberalization.
Clearly this is a lot to digest.
So, we reached out to some of our top China experts and asked them them three simple questions. 1. What were you most disappointed by? 2. What was the most meaningful reform? and 3. What has the media gotten wrong?
Here's what they said.
<h3>Business Insider: What was the most disappointing thing about the 3rd Plenum?</h3>
David Cui, Bank of America: "The only disappointment is, other than stating vaguely that the leaders aim to achieve "decisive" results in important areas and critical segments by 2020, there is no other comment on timeline. We are afraid that the implementation will be on a piecemeal basis and only easy reforms, like one-child policy and raising utilities prices, will see any meaningful progress anytime soon, while tough reforms, like land, Hukou and SOE reforms, will be left to languish."
Bill Bishop, Sinocism: "Perhaps the most disappointing is the language around the state-owned economy. It is better than nothing but there could be some real contradictions in allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources. So we just do not now what is really going to happen over the next few years, and given that there was some expectation that there would be nothing in here about SOE reform this is perhaps a sign of some resolve towards cleaning them up and making them more efficient, even if widespread privatization is not on the table."
Diana Choyleva, Lombard Street Research: "I think capital account opening and interest rate liberalization and land rights are the most meaningful. ...My disappointment is only that they didn't commit to a more concrete timetable. My view is that such reform will need to be implemented fairly quickly to be successful."
Alaistair Chan, Moodys: "There are always more reforms in China that could be announced and enacted, as China still has a long way to go in its transition toward developed economy status. One change that was not forthcoming (although the chance of it happening was admittedly slim) was political reform, and providing greater transparency in the government's actions."
Patrick Chovanec, Silvercrest Asset Management: "I think what came out of the plenum is about as good as can be expected. I don't see any major disappointments." 
Alastair Newton, Nomura: "My expectations were a good deal lower than markets' generally; so there was nothing I expected to see which doesn't appear to be there in one form or other. The problem with singling out any particular issue is that so many areas are interrelated, ie reform in one necessitates wider reforms. However, if I had to single out one it was the failure - again - of the CCP firmly to grasp the nettle of rural land reform, ie giving the farmers right of land ownership."
<h3>BI: What is the most meaningful reform we've seen from the <keyword id="1933689" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Third-Plenum">third plenum</keyword>?</h3>
DC: "From [where] we stand, the most meaningful reform resulting from the 3rd Plenum is the decision by policymakers to allow the market to play a decisive role in resources allocation. Furthermore, it is a significant and somewhat surprising development that SOE reform has been given a very prominent position in the larger reform agenda."
BB: "The most important things about this report are the shift in language to talking about the market playing a decisive role, the establishment of the reform small leading group reporting to party center, and the new national security commission."
DC, LSR: "The above reform [capital account and interest rate liberalization] and rural land rights."
AC: "I can't really point to a single policy that stands out as the best or most meaningful. I think the overall scope and range (the "comprehensive" nature) of the reforms is the most meaningful aspect. It shows Beijing's commitment to building momentum for a general attitude towards reform in all levels of government. The confident push toward allowing markets to play a "decisive" role in the economy is very welcome and is an acknowledgment that the government is not capable of directing the next era of economic growth."
PC: "We haven't seen ANY reforms come out of the plenum yet. We've seen a plan. I'll be watching eagerly to see what actually follows."
TL: Ending the labor camp, significantly easing the one child policy, and vertically integrate judiciary system.
AN: "I don't have a view on this other than that implementation will be key irrespective." 
BI: What is the one thing the media is getting wrong?
DC: "There is very little discussion on the negative impact of the coming round of reforms on the market. Take SOE reform as an example, it's true that SOEs currently in competitive sectors like F&amp;B and logistics will benefit because proper incentive schemes may be put in place for their senior managers. However, these type of companies only account for roughly 10% of MSCI China. On the other hand, government protected SOE sectors, whose franchise value may get eroded by the reforms, account for roughly 75% of the index. The same is probably true for the overall reform program. We assess that it will be negative to major banks because of interest rate deregulation and increasing competition, to property market due to the property tax and rising land supply and to investment led sectors as a result of the rebalancing of the economy as consumption-driven. Again these sectors account for a far bigger market cap than the likely beneficiaries."
DC, LSR: "They missed the strength of the communiqué message which we got right."
BB: "Many in the media were too quick to jump on the initial communique and say there is no real reform. my understanding is that the reaction was so negative to the communique (not just in the western media but inside china) that they moved up the release of the Decision from 11.20 to last Friday.
"Now we are at risk of too much exuberance. As I wrote Monday "The Decision is impressive and shows that the leadership is both aware of and committed to deep reforms. Friday's exuberance however may be a bit overdone as the truly hard part is not the drafting but the implementation of changes that will affect interests throughout society. But at least Xi has clearly articulated resolve and vision for reform. That is huge progress, especially after the last few years. China still faces significant economic and social challenges, but lack of political will no longer appears to be one of them." "The other thing is that this may help end some of the misguided commentary about Xi as a Maoist I have been arguing for a while that he looks more Dengist than Maoist, and the Third Plenum Decision only makes that view stronger. Others are coming around, including the WSJ editorial page today."
AC: "Reform in China is a continual process. Hence this is just one part (albeit an important part) of a multi-decade long process. The plans are a blueprint, and will change based on how fast different parts of the bureaucracy react and on economic circumstances and so on. So the exact ideas are not as important as the general comprehensive nature of the entire document."
PC: "There's a big difference between announcing reforms and implementing them. There's a notion out there that the big obstacle to market reform in China is entrenched special interests, and that the plenum document shows that this obstacle has been overcome. Maybe. But there are also many practical obstacles to reform, because real reform would significant change the dynamics of the Chinese economy, in ways that could very disruptive in the short term. So we need to judge China's latest reform push by its results, not its intentions (and some of those results need to happen very fast to avoid some serious economic problems that are brewing -- just look at what the interbank lending rate is doing while everyone cheers the plenum reform plan)." 
TL: "[It's] hard to see. Media are different."
AN: "First, it was too up-beat in the run-up, then it was too down-beat last week faced with something well short of its own hyperbole. Now it isn't giving enough thought to the challenges of implementation."

You Searched For "Alastair Newton" and got 4 results

The 50 Greatest Inventions From Britain

The Telegraph

5 Reasons To Be Wary Of The Euro Zone In 2014

Mike Peacock, Reuters

Everything You Need To Know About 'Modinomics' The New Economic Strategy That Could Be Coming To India

Mamta Badkar

7 Experts Identify The Best And Worst Things About China's Latest String Of Reforms

Mamta Badkar