This is the year when some sporting stars might walk into the sunset.

Time to call it a day?

Business Standard

TWO WORLD records in quick succession. First, Hou Yifan (born Feb 1994) became the youngest winner of a senior world title when she beat her compatriot Lufei Ruan to become women's world champion.

CHESS (#663)

The gutter press in Paris was a powerful mobilising force. In the run-up to the French Revolution, it churned out reams of scandal, real and imagined, factual and twisted, about the Bourbon royals. Its particular target was Marie Antoinette, who must go down as one of history&rsquo;s more undeserving tragediennes.

Breaking the news

He has the reputation of being a stable performer, more comfortable with details than the big vision. Shyamal Majumdar looks at what could work for Noel Tata in the race to succeed his half-brother, Ratan Tata.

Will it be Noel's Tata?

This new year, bringing with it a blank slate and a fresh start , will be crucial for some more than others. Take a look at what numerologists Sanjay B Jumaani and Suniiel Naik have to say about these six headline-grabbers.

In the stars, for the stars

Looking forward to 2011? We certainly are.

Coming zoom!

Niira Radia&rsquo;s steep rise was fuelled by her association with the Tatas. Her fall may be more precipitous, says Suveen K Sinha, as that link weakens.

No encore for the non-core

Nilanjana S Roy picks the writers whose forthcoming books are worth looking forward to.

Ten for eleven

Bollywood is finally waking up to the magic of visual special effects. Priyanka Joshi finds out more on why 2011 promises to be a &lsquo;spectacular&rsquo; year for Hindi cinema, designed to make your eyes pop out.

Bollywood's 3D avatar

No more Instant Masterpieces, please: Call me conservative, but as a movie-lover with a sense of history, I think it&rsquo;s prudent to wait a decade or two before proclaiming a film an all-time classic. Yet, this is probably too much to ask in an age characterised by impatience, overreaction and microscopic attention spans. A bemusing recent development is the rush to declare a barely-released (or in some cases, a not-yet-released) movie a masterpiece. This happened most amusingly with Christopher Nolan&rsquo;s overrated Inception. Such was the hype around this film &mdash; and so intense the desire to canonise it &mdash; that when the first unfavourable review appeared in a mainstream publication, the online debate all but crashed the Internet.

Here's hoping for less hype

If 2010 was the year of reality television, 2011 could well be the year of lifestyle television channels. Zee Network&rsquo;s Khana Khazana, a 24X7 food channel, was launched in early December, joining the ranks of TLC, the pioneer in this category which launched in India in 2004, and NDTV Good Times. TLC went in for re-branding in September 2010, and leads the segment with a 58 per cent share of viewership in the genre.

Living it up, on TV

This is the maddest, meanest superbike of them all, that&rsquo;s why! We&rsquo;ll get the 2011 version, of course, which means the Ninja will come with traction control, three riding modes and an all-new 998cc, in-line four-cylinder motor. Oh, and a near-200 bhp power output. The &lsquo;11 ZX10R claims to be roughly 10 kg down on the outgoing one and that will make the Ninja even more of a monster than it already is.

Motorcycles to watch out for in 2011!

In a crowded year on the Web, WikiLeaks stood out.

Leaks and shadows

Meher Castelino lists some ideas that could catch on with the fashionistas and create waves in the coming year.

What will be in your closet?

Even as New Delhi consolidates its global standing this year with a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council, Jyoti Malhotra feels it will be the countries in its immediate neighbourhood that will be top priority for India&rsquo;s foreign office.

Peace in the neighbourhood

Afew days ago, Amul raised the price of milk &mdash; for the third time in a year. Anyone who is betting that the gains in food prices will fade with time needs to get ready to put the loser&rsquo;s share of money on the table. Runaway food prices are here to stay and taming that will need far greater structural changes than temporary clampdowns on hoarding and exports. If the last decade was about India&rsquo;s economic growth, food security is what we should worry about this decade.

Shedding onion tears

With five states going to polls, 2011 promises to provide enormous political entertainment.

Here come the polls

The cricket calendar for the year is packed with action &mdash; the World Cup in the subcontinent, the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League and high-profile tours to England and Australia. Reputations will be built and lost over the year. But away from the cricket pitch, its willow, leather and flannels, India&rsquo;s new-found sports icons, too, will be in action: Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar, Somdev Devvarman, MC Mary Kom, Vijender Kumar, Akhil Kumar and others.

London on their minds

With a price tag of just Rs 1 lakh, the Nano was meant for all those Indians who wanted to drive a car but couldn&rsquo;t afford to buy one. Once it&rsquo;s out on the road, pundits had said, the market will explode. Every nook and cranny of the country will be crammed with the small wonder. Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata group, had told The McKinsey Quarterly when the Nano was being conceived that such a car could sell up to a million pieces in a year.

A topsy-turvy ride

The four big themes that are likely to dominate 2011 and beyond.

Over to a brand new world

An understanding of leadership and its connection with the brain can help drive efficiency.

The neuroscience of leadership

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