On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made: 1. State should have some institutions to ensure its appropriate role in a digital society. 2. State should ensure that private parties do not violate the citizens’ right to privacy. 3. Digital economy is not compatible with the idea of not violating the citizens’ privacy. Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

UPSC CSAT 2020 Q2: On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made: — Answer & Explanation

Passage—2

In India, the current focus on the right to privacy is based on some new realities of the digital age. A right is a substantive right only if it works in all situations, and for everyone. A right to free expression for an individual about her exploitation, for instance, is meaningless without actual availability of security that guarantees that private force cannot be used to thwart this right. The role of the State, therefore, is not just to abstain from preventing rightful free expression, but also to actively ensure that private parties are not able to block it.

CSAT 2020 · Q2

Reading comprehension Medium

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1.State should have some institutions to ensure its appropriate role in a digital society.
2.State should ensure that private parties do not violate the citizens’ right to privacy.
3.Digital economy is not compatible with the idea of not violating the citizens’ privacy.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) 1 and 2

The author says a right is real only when the State also stops private parties from blocking it. That rests on two unstated premises: the State must stop private violations of privacy (2), and it needs some institutional means to play this active role (1). Nothing suggests the digital economy and privacy are incompatible.

✓ 1. The State is asked to 'actively ensure' that private parties cannot block a right. An active guarantee of this kind needs some machinery — institutions — to carry it out.
✓ 2. The passage opens with the right to privacy and ends by saying the State's role is to ensure 'private parties are not able to block it' — a substantive right must hold against private force too.
✗ 3. The passage never says the digital economy and privacy cannot go together; it only says the digital age brings new realities that shape the focus on privacy.

Remember · An assumption is what the author must take for granted for the argument to work — check whether the conclusion collapses without it.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Passage—2

CSAT 2020 · Q2

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