Recent Developments:
- India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12–13 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, with the grouping completing 20 years since its establishment in 2006. India assumed the 2026 BRICS Chairship on 1 January under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, reflecting the people-centric principle of “Humanity First”.
- India’s year-long Chairship has involved more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements across over 25 Indian cities, organised around political-security, economic-financial, and cultural-people-to-people cooperation.
- The New Delhi Declaration has been adopted at the 18th Summit, with members addressing conflict resolution, terrorism, tariffs, sustainable development and global economic governance while attempting to accommodate divergent geopolitical positions within the expanded grouping.
- The Summit has also highlighted energy security, critical minerals, resilient supply chains and an orderly energy transition, recognising the continued importance of fossil fuels for developing economies while supporting lower-emission development.
Understanding BRICS:
Evolution and Membership:
- BRICS originated as BRIC, comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, and was formally established as an intergovernmental grouping in 2006, while the first leaders’ summit was held at Yekaterinburg in 2009.
- South Africa joined in 2010, converting BRIC into BRICS and strengthening the grouping’s representation of Africa.
- The 2023 Johannesburg Summit initiated major expansion, and Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the expanded grouping in 2024.
- Indonesia became a full member in January 2025, taking the number of full members to 11.
- BRICS has therefore evolved from an economic coordination platform into a broader forum dealing with global governance, development finance, trade, energy, technology and geopolitical issues.
Core Institutional Character:
- BRICS is not a military alliance or treaty-based security organisation, and its cooperation remains largely based on consultation, consensus and flexible coordination.
- Its institutional architecture includes the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), alongside ministerial mechanisms and sectoral working groups.
- The grouping’s central political demand is greater representation of emerging and developing economies in global institutions, particularly the United Nations Security Council, International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
BRICS and G7: Changing Global Economic Weight:
Economic and Demographic Significance:
- BRICS’ growing importance reflects the broader shift in global economic weight towards emerging and developing economies.
- IMF data show that emerging and developing economies collectively accounted for about 59.8% of global GDP in PPP terms in 2024, compared with about 40.2% for advanced economies, although these aggregates are broader than BRICS itself.
- The expanded BRICS grouping is estimated to account for around 36.8% of global GDP on a PPP basis, compared with less than 29% for the G7, demonstrating the growing aggregate economic weight of BRICS members.
- BRICS also possesses major advantages in population, energy resources, agricultural production, minerals and strategic raw materials, giving it considerable influence over global supply chains.
- However, nominal GDP and per-capita income present a different picture, because the G7 continues to possess much higher average income levels, technological capabilities and financial-market depth.
- Therefore, BRICS’ strength lies primarily in its aggregate scale and resource base, rather than comparable levels of individual prosperity.
Strategic Resources and Supply Chains:
- BRICS members collectively possess substantial shares of global oil, natural gas, coal, agricultural commodities and critical mineral resources, making the grouping relevant to global energy and food security.
- Cooperation over critical minerals, resilient supply chains and technology can reduce vulnerability to concentrated production and geopolitical disruptions.
- India can use this platform to promote diversification rather than replacing one form of dependency with another.
India’s Strategic Engagement with BRICS:
Strategic Autonomy and Multi-Alignment:
- India views BRICS primarily through the framework of strategic autonomy and multi-alignment, rather than as an anti-Western alliance.
- New Delhi simultaneously engages with BRICS, G20, Quad and SCO, demonstrating that participation in one grouping does not require abandoning partnerships in another.
- For India, BRICS provides diplomatic space to engage China and Russia, strengthen relations with the Global South and advocate reform of international institutions.
- India’s approach therefore seeks to transform BRICS into a platform for developmental cooperation and institutional reform, rather than an instrument for confrontation with Western powers.
India’s Institutional Contribution:
- India played an important role in creating the New Development Bank, after proposing a BRICS development bank at the 2012 New Delhi Summit.
- The NDB provides development finance for infrastructure and sustainable-development projects and represents an attempt by emerging economies to strengthen their own multilateral financial capacity.
- BRICS cooperation on local-currency settlements, payment systems and financial connectivity also reflects India’s interest in reducing transaction costs without necessarily supporting the creation of a common currency.
- India’s experience with UPI and Digital Public Infrastructure gives it an opportunity to promote interoperable digital-payment systems among developing economies.
Major Areas of BRICS Cooperation:
Development Finance and Global Financial Reform:
- BRICS seeks greater representation of developing economies in the IMF, World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks.
- The NDB can become a stronger source of financing for infrastructure, climate adaptation, renewable energy and sustainable urbanisation.
- Existing BRICS declarations have also supported stronger local-currency financing and development of local bond markets.
- For India, strengthening the NDB is more practical than pursuing an immediate common BRICS currency.
Trade and Local-Currency Settlements:
- BRICS members have increasingly explored bilateral trade settlement in national currencies to reduce dependence on dollar-based correspondent banking.
- India has promoted local-currency arrangements with partners such as Russia, the UAE and Indonesia, while retaining flexibility in its external payments architecture.
- Local-currency settlement can reduce conversion costs and exchange-rate exposure, but large-scale adoption requires deep financial markets, convertibility, liquidity and macroeconomic stability.
- A single BRICS currency remains impractical because member economies differ substantially in inflation, monetary policy, exchange-rate regimes and capital-account structures.
Digital Public Infrastructure and Technology:
- India can promote cooperation in digital identity, instant payments, open networks, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital governance.
- Interoperability among national payment systems could provide a practical alternative to dependence on conventional correspondent-banking networks.
- Technology cooperation should remain focused on developmental outcomes, affordability, cybersecurity and data protection, rather than merely geopolitical competition.
Energy, Climate and Critical Minerals:
- BRICS can coordinate on energy security, renewable-energy investment, critical minerals and resilient energy infrastructure.
- The 2026 Summit has emphasised an orderly, equitable and inclusive energy transition, while recognising that fossil fuels continue to play a significant role in developing economies.
- India can advocate technology-neutral and development-sensitive climate policies, consistent with the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
- Cooperation in critical minerals can support clean-energy technologies while reducing supply-chain concentration.
Internal Divergences and Challenges:
China-Russia Approach versus Indian-Brazilian Approach:
- China and Russia generally view BRICS as a mechanism for creating greater strategic autonomy from Western-led institutions and reducing dependence on the US dollar.
- India and Brazil generally emphasise economic cooperation, development and reform of global governance without turning BRICS into an explicitly anti-Western bloc.
- This divergence creates a fundamental debate over whether BRICS should become a geopolitical counterweight or a development-oriented multilateral platform.
Expansion and Consensus:
- Expansion has increased BRICS’ geographical reach but has also made consensus more difficult because members have different strategic interests and conflicting regional positions.
- The presence of countries with competing interests in West Asia illustrates the difficulty of producing common positions on sensitive geopolitical conflicts.
- The 2026 Summit demonstrated that consensus remains possible, but reaching it requires substantial diplomatic balancing.
- Expansion therefore increases representational legitimacy while simultaneously creating a coordination and coherence problem.
India-China Strategic Competition:
- India’s engagement with BRICS exists alongside unresolved border, trade, technology and strategic concerns with China.
- BRICS cannot eliminate bilateral disputes among its members, making issue-based cooperation more realistic than expectations of strategic unity.
- India must therefore combine institutional engagement with strategic caution.
The BRICS Currency Debate:
Why a Common Currency Remains Difficult:
- A common BRICS currency would require substantial economic convergence, institutional coordination, financial integration and credible monetary governance.
- Member economies differ significantly in inflation, exchange-rate regimes, capital controls, fiscal conditions and financial-market depth.
- Consequently, the more realistic near-term approach is local-currency settlement and interoperable payment infrastructure rather than a supranational currency.
India’s Preferred Approach:
- India can support greater use of national currencies where economically viable while retaining the US dollar as an important component of international trade and reserves.
- India’s preference for interoperable payment systems is consistent with its experience in building UPI-based digital payment infrastructure.
- The objective should therefore be diversification of payment channels, not an abrupt attempt to replace the dollar.
Significance of BRICS for India:
Economic Significance:
- BRICS provides India access to major markets, investment opportunities and cooperation on energy, agriculture, infrastructure, technology and critical minerals.
- Greater intra-BRICS trade can support export diversification and strengthen India’s position in emerging-market supply chains.
- Cooperation through the NDB can supplement domestic development finance for sustainable infrastructure.
Diplomatic Significance:
- BRICS strengthens India’s position as a voice of the Global South and provides a platform for advocating reform of global institutions.
- It enables India to maintain dialogue with countries that have limited engagement through Western-led institutions.
- India can use its role to promote issue-based consensus, rather than ideological blocs.
Strategic Significance:
- BRICS provides India with an additional platform for managing relations with China and Russia while maintaining strong partnerships with the United States, Europe, Japan and other Indo-Pacific partners.
- Such engagement reinforces India’s broader strategy of multi-alignment and strategic autonomy.
Way Forward for India:
Building a Development-Oriented BRICS:
- India should prioritise development finance, digital public infrastructure, health cooperation, food security, climate finance and resilient supply chains.
- The NDB should be strengthened through faster project implementation, broader financing instruments and greater mobilisation of private capital.
- BRICS cooperation should focus on measurable outcomes rather than broad political declarations.
Strengthening Global Governance Reform:
- India should continue advocating greater representation of developing countries in the UN Security Council, IMF, World Bank and other multilateral institutions.
- Reform should focus on making global institutions more representative, accountable and responsive to contemporary economic realities.
Promoting Practical Economic Integration:
- India can promote interoperable digital-payment systems, local-currency settlements, trade facilitation and resilient supply chains.
- Cooperation in critical minerals, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, food systems and clean-energy technologies can generate tangible economic benefits.
Maintaining Strategic Balance:
- India should prevent BRICS from becoming an explicitly anti-Western bloc, because such positioning would restrict India’s strategic autonomy.
- New Delhi should instead present BRICS as a constructive platform for multipolarity, development and institutional reform.
Conclusion:
- After two decades, BRICS has acquired significant economic scale, demographic weight and geopolitical relevance, but its internal diversity prevents it from functioning as a unified strategic bloc.
- Its long-term relevance will depend less on declarations against Western dominance and more on its ability to deliver development finance, trade facilitation, digital connectivity, energy security, climate cooperation and institutional reform.
- For India, the most effective strategy is to make BRICS development-oriented, inclusive and issue-based, while preserving strategic autonomy and constructive engagement with both Western and non-Western partners.
- The 2026 New Delhi Summit provides India an opportunity to demonstrate that multipolarity can mean greater cooperation and representation rather than permanent geopolitical confrontation.
Value Addition for UPSC:
Key Concepts:
- BRICS: Platform of major emerging economies seeking greater cooperation and reform of global governance.
- Strategic Autonomy: Ability of a state to pursue national interests without binding itself to a fixed alliance bloc.
- Multi-Alignment: Simultaneous engagement with multiple power centres according to issue-specific national interests.
- Global South: Broad political and economic grouping of developing and emerging economies seeking greater representation in global governance.
- NDB: BRICS-led multilateral development bank focused on infrastructure and sustainable development.
- CRA: Financial safety-net mechanism designed to provide liquidity support to BRICS members facing balance-of-payments pressures.
One-Line Mains Insight:
- India should seek to transform BRICS from a forum of geopolitical grievances into a platform delivering development, institutional reform and practical cooperation for the Global South.
