🚨 @Evening: Rising Covid, Biden's Failure And More

1. 📰 Catch Up

• NIA said that many Kerala-based leaders of the now-banned PFI were in touch with top leaders of the global terror organisations, ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

• Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Vikramaditya Singh said that the financial assistance from Centre will be required to implement the 'Old Pension Scheme'.

• Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, "Will enter Karnataka, like China entered India" amid border row between the two states.

• Sher Bahadur Deuba elected as the leader of the parliamentary party, likely to lead the next government as Nepali Congress emerged as the single-largest party.

• Rs 2,500 crore to be invested in the Greenfield Bhogapuram Airport of Andhra Pradesh which GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL) is developing.

2. 📈 Rising Covid: What India Should Do

Around the world: Some epidemiologists are saying that 60 per cent of the Chinese may be infected over the next three months.

• Three cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7, driving China's Covid surge, were detected in India today.

• The US is already warning that in the ongoing winter, another global infection surge is coming.

• Whatever happens in the US or China affects everybody — it is a fair bet that infections will surge across the world.

What India should do: The Indian government has asked states to start sequencing Covid genomes for estimating their virulence.

• R Jagannathan suggests that random testing and serosurveys should be increased to check for possible dips in immunity levels.

• Re-immunisation — possibly with third and fourth booster doses — of the vulnerable sections of the population should be done.

• Work should start on creating new vaccine variants with greater efficiencies against the new Omicron mutants.

3. 📘 Ashneer Grover's Doglapan

Doglapan: The Hard Truth about Life and Start-Ups is the unfettered story of Ashneer Grover.

• It elaborates upon his journey and his role in the making of two unicorns-Grofers, as CFO, and BharatPe, as co-founder.

• It becomes an interesting read to distinguish fact from fiction amid controversy and media spotlight surrounding Grover.

Shark Tank India: Ashneer Grover became a household name because of his appearance as a judge on the popular TV show Shark Tank India season 1.

• Now season 2 of the show is set to start on 2 January 2023 but Grover will not appear on the screen.

• This season's judges are Amit Jain, Vineeta Singh, Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, Peeyush Bansal and Anupam Mittal.

4. 🤦‍♂️ Biden's Gamble Didn't Work

The US planned to replace Russia as Europe’s principal energy provider when the Ukraine war broke out.

• That plan didn't work because the US failed to ramp up domestic hydrocarbon production and exports to anywhere near requisite levels.

Result: American exports of oil and gas (the latter is compressed and shipped as Liquified Natural Gas, or LNG) have stagnated.

• In fact, average monthly exports of LNG since April 2020 are less than what America was exporting in late 2021.

• Specifically, LNG exports from America to Europe in the past four months (data cut-off is September 2022) are less than March and April 2022.

• Total oil exports have also declined, as have exports to Europe.

• Europe is in a mess, struggling to cope with soaring inflation and energy shortages in winter.

5. 📜 New Additions In UNESCO's Tentative List

The sites: India has added three sites to the tentative list of UNESCO heritage sites, taking the count to 52.

• The Sun Temple of Modhera, Gujarat is dedicated to the Sun God and is one of the remarkable gems of temple architecture in India.

• Vadnagar is an ancient city in Mehsana district of Gujarat and is endowed with rich built heritage.

• The third site, Unakoti contains a series of Shaivite rock sculptures in the northern part of Tripura and is known as the chiselled 'Angkor Wat of the North-East' region.

UNESCO's tentative list is an 'inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination'.

• A senior official said that the names of the three sites for inclusion in the tentative list were sent 'about 15 days ago'.

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said that these inclusions will provide a big boost to India's cultural heritage.

• A total of six Indian sites have been added to the Tentative List so far this year.