 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu news analysis. These are the list of news articles that will be discussed in the news analysis. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions of the newspaper. Now let us take up this oped article which talks about one of the 20th century's best known advocates for non-violent social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. Remember, the third Monday of every January is celebrated as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. So in this context let us have a brief understanding about the American civil rights movement and also about Dr. King. The syllabus relevant for this news article is given here for your reference. First let us have a brief understanding about the civil rights movement of USA but before that we should know about the background of the movement. See throughout the 17th and 18th centuries people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa and they were forced into slavery in the American colonies. They were exploited to work as servants and labor in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. The northern states of US had abolished slavery but then the institution of slavery remained absolutely vital in the southern states. By the mid 19th century the slavery abolition movement provoked a great debate over slavery that would result in what is known as American civil war. This American civil war was fought from 1861 to 1865 and the war was the culmination of the struggle between the advocates and the opponents of slavery. I know that the war officially abolished slavery. In the year 1868 the 14th amendment to the US Constitution gave the black people equal protection under the law and in 1870 the 15th amendment granted black American men the right to vote. But still many white Americans especially those in the south were unhappy that people they once enslaved were now on a more or less equal playing field. This means that discrimination against black people didn't end. By the mid 20th century black Americans had more than enough of prejudice and violence against them and in this regard they along with many white Americans mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned for around two decades and this fight for equality came to be known as the civil rights movement. It took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s and this civil rights movement aimed to gain equal rights for the black Americans under the law in the United States. The movement eventually resulted in a number of part breaking laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Oating Rights Act of 1965 which ended several vestiges of racial discrimination. It led to the empowerment of African Americans like never before. So you might have read about a person named Rosa Parks in your NCRT social and political life textbook of class 8. Now let us have a short briefing about it. See on December 1955 a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. So back in those times the segregation laws stated black passengers to be seated only at designated seats at the back of the bus and Rosa Parks had complied to the laws and while she was traveling a white man got onto the bus and he couldn't find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus so the bus driver instructed Parks and other three black passengers to give up their seats for the white man. Parks refused to give her seat and for this reason she was arrested but word of her arrest ignited outrage and support and Parks became the mother of the modern-day civil rights movement. With this the black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Associations or MIA that was led by the Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. Now when we talk about Martin Luther King Jr. he led the civil rights movement in US from the mid 1950s until his death by assassination in the year 1968. His leadership was fundamental to the movement's success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which promoted nonviolent tactics such as the massive march on Washington in the year 1963 to achieve the civil rights. One of the most famous work of Martin Luther is his high-haver dream speech that was delivered in the year 1963 in which he spoke of his dream of a United States that is void of segregation and racism. Further he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Know that Martin Luther King was very much influenced and acquainted with Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence as well as with the thought of contemporary protestant theologians. Now when we come to India's case we all know that the Indian constitution recognizes every person as equal so this means that every individual in the country from all genders caste religions tribes educational and economical backgrounds are recognized as equal. The leaders of many streams of a struggle for national liberation deliberated for nearly three years to draw a roadmap for the objectives and governance structure of India and this gave our constitution an inclusive orientation which could cater to the country's cultural spatial and social diversity. To make it more simple we can say that the constitution of India was a result of long and arduous struggle of our freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to free India from colonialism. But still can we say that inequality ceased to exist in India if that is the question then the answer is no it doesn't. See as the author of this editorial points out India continues to see atrocities, Dalip tribal and minority communities due to a hierarchical social structure which is prevalent in our country and to conclude the author says that we should draw inspiration from leaders like Dr. King and strive for a more inclusive and equal society. With this information let us now move on to the next article. See this news article from editorial page talks about the booming share market in the country despite the fall in growth rates and employment. For example the Sensex has been found tracking an upward path from 40,817 in 2020 to 48,569 in 2021. This shows the stock prices to be performing way better. See in between the temporary downward slides were there because of pandemic related lockdowns but the Sensex on overall has been performing better in the last one year. See the Sensex is the benchmark index of India's Bombay Stock Exchange and it is comprised of 30 of the largest and most actively traded stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange thereby providing a gauge of India's economy. See stock means a group of shares of a company as we all know the productivity that is industrial production has not been well in the last year due to pandemic but despite this stock market is performing better meaning the stock transactions are not originating from productive activities in the real economy. So generally when companies get profits they give divide into shareholders and as a result the demand for their shares go high in the market which leads to the increase in share prices and this increase in share prices is reflected in booming stock market but the productivity has been low which means there was no big profits to the companies but despite this stock market is booming so this is something which is surprising and alarming as well. With the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic during April to June in the first quarter of 2020 India's GDP growth rate in real terms fell to a low of minus 23.1 percentage and this deceleration in the second quarter continued at minus 7.5 percentage to the worst. The GDP growth in India has been declining even before the pandemic that is declining from 6 percent in 2018 to 4 percent for 2019 and even during this declining trend the financial sector is continued moving up. Thus in India the bonanza reaped in the stock market bears no testimony to the dark side of the economy which includes the uprooting of migrants following the pandemic lockdowns the protest of farmers on land rights and the vast stream of the jobless in the country. So the question is whether this booming stock can continue if the answer is negative it results in distress and devastation not only on those in the financial market but also for the economy has a hole. So when we say financial market we are referring to any marketplace where the trading of securities occurs including the stock market, bond market, forex market and derivatives market etc. So to understand a little bit more we need to understand from where financial markets are getting money. See only if they have money they can buy stocks. So from where they are getting this money. So as already said it is not from production. See finance as said above not linked to productive sector is called as fictious capital and this was identified first by Karl Marx. These rising stocks generate financial wealth for those with access to financial circuit. So whoever is holding stocks they will get more profits and as a result they may acquire even more stocks. In this context also understand the relation with cheaper loans. If interest rates are low they can help pitch stock prices higher as many people will get easy money from banks to invest. If you see interest rate cuts have been cut in the last year in order to revive pandemic economy. So all this growth in financial market is subject to market confidence that is people should have confidence in market in order to invest otherwise the stocks will fail. So the market may suddenly stall when expectations turn adverse and reason example for this is the financial collapse with the sub prime crisis of 2008 which inflicted large social cost of unemployment and poverty in the real economy. So possibilities of a sudden collapse of confidence in the financial sector will have a very devastating effect on the entire economy and this may push many people back to poverty. Kittastrops as mentioned above highlights the need for an alternative policies on the part of the government as well as a bit of caution on part of individual investors. This paradox of the continuing financial boom with real economy going through a stagnation has been found to be replicated in other developing as well as advanced economies and these include the major emerging countries such as Brazil and Argentina along with advanced economics such as the United States and the UK. Simultaneously the employment in these countries has been dismissed with jobs at levels much less than what is needed. So both the government and investors should be very careful because if this bubble burst the consequences on the society as a whole will be devastating when it is already suffering with the Wuhan virus. Now we have this editorial article which talks about the recent decision of WhatsApp to delay the update of its privacy policy following the negative reaction from its users. So we know that the Facebook which owns WhatsApp is announced this month about its terms of service and privacy policy according to which users would no longer be able to opt out of sharing data with Facebook. This triggered a mass exodus from WhatsApp to alternative platforms such as Signal and Telegram. So in this editorial the author talks on how nations worldwide strive to protect the privacy of their citizens. In this context let us have a brief understanding of the right to privacy and data protection. First let us talk about the right to privacy. See the right to privacy it simply means a right to be let alone. It is a right of a person to be free from any unwarranted interference. We know that privacy was not considered as a fundamental right. As the Supreme Court in the year 1954 had dismissed the existence of a right to privacy in its judgment in MP Sharma versus Satish Chandra case. But in the government versus state of Madhya Pradesh case of 1975 the Supreme Court for the first time held the existence of a fundamental right to privacy under Article 21. So right to privacy gained a small recognition under Article 21. Now remember in 2017 Justice K.S. Putaswamy versus Union of India case. The Supreme Court in its unanimous judgment ruled that right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution. And in its judgment the Supreme Court confirmed that the right to privacy is a fundamental right that does not need to be separately articulated but can be derived from articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The court said that it is a natural right which protects an individual from the scrutiny of the state in their home of their movements and over their reproductive choices, the choice of their partners, food habits etc. So therefore any action by the state that results in an infringement of the right to privacy is subject to judicial review. But the court also held that the fundamental right to privacy is not absolute and will always be subject to reasonable restrictions. Now let us talk about data protection regulations. See data protection regulations ensure the security of individuals personal data and regulate the collection usage transfer and disclosure of the said data. They also provide access to data of the individuals and places accountability measures for organization processing personal data and in this regard they provide remedies for unauthorized and harmful processing. Here we should note that currently in India the usage and transfer of personal data of citizens is regulated by the Information Technology or IT Rules 2011 which comes under the IT Act of 2000. In July 2017 a committee of experts shared by Justice B and Sri Krishna was set up to examine various issues related to data protection in India and the government introduced a bill called Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019 in the parliament based on the recommendations of the committee and it is to provide protection of the privacy of individuals relating to the personal data. So in this article the author praises your Abstringent General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR which enabled the people there to control their data much more than anywhere else in the world and he also points out to India's failure to bring such a law and he prescribes that the government should bring such a law as soon as possible. Recently it has come to light that the year 2020 along with the year 2016 was the hottest year on record and what is even more saddening is that 9 out of the 10 warmest years were from the year 2010 to 2020. In the year 2020 North Polar region parts of northern Europe and Russia recorded the highest temperature increase. In this context now let us see about global surface temperature. See the global surface temperature is calculated using the average temperature at the surface of the sea and the average temperature over the air on land. If this average is lower than the global average then it is called global cooling and if it is higher than the global average then it is called as global warming. Scientists from the NASA are of the opinion that this trend of increasing global temperature will only keep getting worse and this is mainly due to the increase in deforestation and the usage of fossil fuels at alarming rates. Apart from these other factors that leads to the increase in surface temperature includes unsustainable farming and plantations, the usage of synthetic fertilizers, oil drilling and also the melting of permafrost. The scientists are with the feeling that if this trend continues then every upcoming year will emerge as the oddest year. Now let us analyze the constant rise in average global surface temperature with the help of a graph given below. See the graph displays the change in temperature and the extent of warmth or coldness experienced each year between 1880 to 2020. In comparison to the average temperature range that was witnessed between the years 1951 and 1980. As per the graph the year 2020 was 1.02 degree Celsius warmer when compared to the average temperature. Now let us look at the month wise impact. The chart below depicts the estimations of the monthly temperature for the period between 1980 to 2015 for every year since 1890. As you can see most of the lines that are featured at the peak are found to be between the years 2010 to 2020. Now let us look at the region wise impact of the increase in surface temperature. The graph shows the extent to which a particular region is warmer or cooler in 2020 compared to the average estimations between the years 1951 to 1980. In the picture the region marked in red corresponds to the Arctic region, the parts of northern Russia and Europe. This shows that these areas experienced highest increase in surface temperature. Now let us see some of the consequential effects of such increase in surface temperature. See the increase in the surface temperature stresses ecosystems through the rise in temperature which leads to water shortages, increased wildfires in forest, drought, wheat and pest invasions and also in the intense storm damage. In addition to these it will also affect natural icons. We have already seen how the increase in global warming has impacted the Great Barrier Reef. Now let us focus on the way forward and look for some of the ways to mitigate the global temperature which includes shifting to renewable energy, promoting a forestation and reduced deforestation, less electricity consumption, reducing water usage and also in getting back to sustainable agriculture. With this we have come to the end of this news article. Let us move on to the next news article. See this news article which says that United Kingdom has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the G7 summit which is scheduled to be held in June. Apart from India, Australia and South Korea are also invited as guest countries. See G7 is an informal block of industrialized democracies which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The European Union which is a unique supranational organization is not a sovereign member state and hence the name G7 or the group of seven. The European Union is therefore a non-enumerated member of G7 and it does not assume the rotating G7 presidency. See the G7 members meet annually in order to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security and energy policy. The initial group of six countries first met in the year 1975 in order to exchange ideas on possible solutions to a global economic crisis. In the year 1976, Canada joined the grouping and hence it became G7 or the group of seven. So collectively they represent 40% of the global GDP and 10% of the world's population. If you remember the United Kingdom Prime Minister was invited as a chief guest to India's Republic Day celebrations but due to a new wave of COVID-19 he has cancelled his visit to India. Further, cooperation between the UK and India is significant this year as India is a non-permanent member at the United Nations Security Council where the United Kingdom will take over the presidency in February. See the presidency of United Nations Security Council will be changed every month among its members in alphabetical order. Currently the presidency is with Tunisia for January 2021. Next it will be taken by UK for February 2021 and US for March 2021. So therefore both permanent and non-permanent members are eligible to become president of the United Nations Security Council. India as current non-permanent member will get its presidency in August 2021. With this we have come to the end of this news analysis. Now let us move on to the prelims practice questions. Look at this question. It says, Which of the following rightly describes fictious capital? Option A. Finances that are not linked to productive sector. Option B. Government guaranteeing the loans taken by the non-banking institutions. Option C. Finances accumulated through market speculations. Option D. Finances accumulated through P-notes. So as seen in the discussion, Finances that are not linked to the productive sector is called as fictious capital. And it was identified first by Karl Marx. So therefore the right option is Option A, which says finances not linked to the productive sector. Now let us take up this prelims practice question regarding the right to privacy. The question says, Consider the following statements with reference to right to privacy. Statement one, Right to privacy is explicitly stated in the Indian constitution. Statement two, Right to privacy is an absolute right under the Indian constitution. See as seen in the news analysis, In 2017 Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. S. Union of India case, the Supreme Court in its judgment ruled that right to privacy was a fundamental right under the constitution. And in its judgment, the Supreme Court confirmed that the right to privacy is a fundamental right that does not need to be separately articulated, but can be derived from articles 14, 19 and 21 of Indian constitutions. So, when you look at the first statement in this regard, we find that the right to privacy is not explicitly stated in the constitution, but it can be derived from articles 14, 19 and 21. So, therefore the statement one is incorrect. Now coming to statement two, it says right to privacy is an absolute right under the Indian constitution. Again as seen in the news analysis, the court also held that the fundamental right to privacy is not absolute and it will always be subjected to reasonable restrictions. So, statement two is also incorrect. So, the question asked which of the statements given above is or are incorrect. So, since both the statements are incorrect, the right option is option C both 1 and 2. Now, let us take up this prelims practice questions regarding the surface temperature. It says, consider the following statements with regard to global surface temperature rise. Statement one, the year 2020 was the most warmest year on record along with 2016. Statement two, the highest temperature rise was seen in regions in and around Antarctica. Which of the following statement is or are correct? So, when you look at statement one as seen in the discussion, the year 2020 was the most warmest year on record along with 2016. And therefore, the statement one is right. And when you take up statement two, it is incorrect because in the year 2020, the North Polar region, parts of Northern Europe and Russia recorded highest temperature increase and it was not Antarctica. So, therefore, since they ask you to identify the correct statement, option A is the right answer because only first statement or the statement one is right. Now, look at this prelims practice question. In which one of the following groups are all the four countries members of G7? So, as seen in the discussion, G7 is an informal block of industrialized democracies which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US. So, when you look at the options, in option B, all the four countries are members of G7. That is Germany, Italy, European Union and the UK. All the four are members of G7 and here it is to be noted that European Union is a unique supranational organization and not a sovereign member state. And this European Union is therefore non-enumerated member of G7 and it does not assume the rotating G7 presidency. So, therefore, the right option is option B that is Germany, Italy, European Union and the United Kingdom. Now, look at this main question. Though the American Civil War culminated in freeing the nation's 4 million enslaved people, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, substantiate. So, here substantiate means you need to provide evidence to support your answer. So, therefore, when you are writing the answer, you should give a brief idea about slavery in America. Then you can talk about the civil war and the subsequent abolition of slavery. And you can also talk about how the discrimination continued to prevail even after the subsequent abolition of slavery. And then you can also talk about the civil rights movement, its causes and consequences.