> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://signals.joincomrades.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 08 Sep 2026 · Editorial > Comrades Editorial of 08 Sep 2026, by news group. > **[Comrades Editorial · 08 Sep 2026 (PDF)](https://dl.joincomrades.com/e/08-09-26)** *** ## In this edition 1. [BRICS and India's Strategic Opportunity](#h-1) International Relations ## International Relations ### BRICS and India's Strategic Opportunity [Source](https://www.drishtiias.com/current-affairs-news-analysis-editorials/news-editorials/08-09-2026) This editorial is based on “Harnessing BRICS ‘POWER’ to empower the world” published in the Hindu on 07/09/2026. The article highlights that BRICS must leverage its strategic framework to tackle protectionism, reform global governance, and strengthen the Global South's collective voice. Representing the Global South, BRICS enhances India's strategic autonomy and multilateral clout. As New Delhi hosts the 18th BRICS Summit on 12–13th September, 2026, addressing internal trade imbalances and China's dominance will be critical. By championing alternative financial architectures and digital public infrastructure during its presidency, India can steer the bloc toward result-oriented cooperation, ensuring it evolves into a balanced, equitable force capable of driving meaningful reform in international governance. **What is BRICS?** * **About:** * BRICS is an intergovernmental forum of major emerging economies and developing countries that coordinates positions on global economic, political, financial and developmental issues. * The acronym originally represented Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. * BRICS is generally identified with South–South Cooperation, emerging-market coordination, multilateralism and the Global South. * **Evolution from BRIC to BRICS+:** * The term “BRIC” was coined by British economist Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs in his 2001 paper, Building Better Global Economic BRICs. * The term referred to Brazil, Russia, India and China, which were identified as large emerging economies capable of acquiring a greater share of the global economy. * BRICS expanded to BRICS+ with the admission of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as new members in January 2024, followed by Indonesia in January 2025. * However, while Saudi Arabia is listed as a member on the official BRICS website, it has not yet formally confirmed or finalised its membership. * **Nature of the Grouping:** * BRICS is an informal, consensus-based intergovernmental grouping, rather than a treaty-based international organisation. * It does not have a founding charter, permanent secretariat or supranational authority comparable to the United Nations or European Union. * BRICS decisions are taken through consultation and consensus, and are expressed primarily through summit declarations, ministerial statements, action plans and memoranda of understanding. * **Stated Objectives and Areas of Cooperation:** * BRICS activities are organised broadly around three principal pillars: * **Political and Security Consultations:** Meetings are held among Foreign Ministers, National Security Advisers and other senior officials. Coordination also takes place in multilateral forums such as the United Nations, G20, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. * **Economic and Financial Cooperation:** Finance Ministers and central-bank governors hold regular meetings under the chairship of the member hosting the annual summit. Specific mechanisms include the New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement and BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. * **Cultural and People-to-People Cooperation:** BRICS cooperation is also conducted through specialised non-governmental and semi-governmental forums like the BRICS Business Council, BRICS Think Tanks Council, BRICS Academic Forum, BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, BRICS Youth Council and BRICS Civil Forum. * **India and BRICS:** * India was one of the four countries that initiated formal BRIC political cooperation and participated in the first summit in 2009. India has hosted BRICS summits in New Delhi in 2012, Goa in 2016 and virtually in 2021. * In 2012, at the Fourth BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India proposed the creation of a new multilateral development bank to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects. * The first President of the NDB was an Indian, K. V. Kamath. The NDB’s India Regional Office is located in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City). * India assumed the BRICS chairship on 1st January 2026. The official theme is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” * India’s chairship uses a people-centric and “Humanity First” approach to organise cooperation under the four themes embedded in the chairship title. What Role does BRICS Play in Advancing India’s Strategic Interests? * **Platform for Strategic Autonomy and Multi-Alignment:** * BRICS enables India to cooperate with major non-Western powers without entering a formal military or ideological alliance. * India can simultaneously participate in BRICS and SCO, maintain its partnership with Russia, and deepen cooperation with the Quad, G20, European Union and the United States. * BRICS therefore complements India’s policy of multi-alignment, under which engagement is determined by specific national interests rather than permanent bloc politics. * **Greater Voice in Global Governance Reform:** * BRICS provides India with a collective platform to demand more representative decision-making in the UN Security Council, IMF, World Bank and WTO. * The 2025 Rio de Janeiro Declaration called for comprehensive reform of these institutions, while Russia reiterated support for the aspirations of India and Brazil to play a greater role in the United Nations. * India uses this collective position to link its demand for permanent UNSC membership with the broader principle of equitable representation for Asia, Africa and Latin America. * **Leadership of the Global South:** * BRICS strengthens India’s ability to represent the development concerns of emerging economies, least-developed countries and the wider Global South. * India’s Voice of Global South Summits, G20 presidency and BRICS engagement provide interconnected platforms for raising concerns relating to food security, climate finance, sovereign debt, health equity and technology access. * **Access to Alternative Development Finance:** * The New Development Bank (NDB) provides India with an additional source of long-term finance for infrastructure and sustainable-development projects. * As of December 2024, India was the NDB’s largest borrower, accounting for approximately 26% of its portfolio, with 28 projects worth USD 9.09 billion; by April 2025, NDB described its Indian portfolio as nearly USD 10 billion. * NDB-supported projects include Chennai, Indore, and Mumbai metro systems, the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System, and the Namo Bharat high-speed trains. * **Expansion of Trade and Export Markets:** * BRICS connects India with large markets across Eurasia, Latin America, Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia. * The inclusion of the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and Indonesia broadens opportunities for Indian pharmaceuticals, digital services, automobiles, food products, engineering goods, textiles and renewable-energy equipment. * India’s total exports of goods and services reached a record USD 825 billion in 2024-25, BRICS can help diversify this export basket beyond traditional Western markets. * **Energy and Critical-Mineral Security:** * Expanded BRICS includes major producers of crude oil, natural gas, coal, uranium, nickel, iron ore and other critical minerals required by the Indian economy. * Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran are major hydrocarbon producers, while Brazil and South Africa possess significant mineral resources and Indonesia is a leading producer of nickel and coal. * The platform can support long-term supply arrangements, joint exploration, strategic reserves and investment in green hydrogen, nuclear energy, biofuels and critical-mineral value chains. * **Technology, Digital and Innovation Cooperation:** * BRICS provides India with a platform to advance its capabilities in digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fintech, space technology, health research and renewable energy. * India can showcase scalable systems such as Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface, CoWIN and the India Stack as adaptable development solutions for BRICS and partner countries. * Cooperation through the BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Framework Programme, Young Scientists Forum and Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation can supplement India’s domestic research ecosystem. * **Local Currency Settlement and Hedging Against Financial Volatility:** * BRICS offers India a structured mechanism to promote local currency trade settlements, cross-border digital payment interoperability, and bilateral currency swaps. * This allows India to reduce reliance on the US dollar for bilateral trade, protecting the domestic economy from foreign exchange volatility, high transaction costs, and global sanction-led supply disruptions. * Crucially, while India uses BRICS to enhance its financial sovereignty and internationalize the Indian Rupee (INR). What are the Major Challenges Hindering BRICS’ Effectiveness for India? * **Internal Political and Economic Heterogeneity:** * BRICS includes countries with widely different political systems, economic models, security interests and foreign-policy orientations. * It brings together democracies, monarchies and one-party systems; commodity exporters and manufacturing economies; and countries aligned differently on major geopolitical disputes. * This diversity often produces lowest-common-denominator declarations instead of common, implementable policies. * For instance, India and China have longstanding strategic and border tensions, while Russia’s confrontation with the West creates different foreign-policy priorities among BRICS members. * **China-Centred Economic Asymmetry:** * China’s economic size, manufacturing capacity and financial resources are substantially greater than those of most other BRICS members. * This creates concern that BRICS initiatives may reflect Chinese economic and geopolitical preferences, particularly in trade, connectivity, technology standards and financial arrangements. * India's record \$99.2 billion merchandise trade deficit with China in 2024–25 highlights deep import dependencies in critical sectors like electronics, pharmaceuticals, and solar equipment, posing significant strategic vulnerabilities. * **Consensus-Based Institutional Inertia:** * BRICS functions by consensus and lacks a permanent secretariat with independent implementation authority. * Consensus protects sovereign equality but allows one or more members to delay decisions on politically sensitive questions. * The absence of permanent administrative machinery can produce weak monitoring, fragmented ministerial initiatives, duplication of working groups and limited follow-through between rotating chairships. * **Gap Between Ambitious Declarations and Operational Delivery:** * Proposals relating to local-currency trade, alternative payment systems, financial safety nets and institutional reform have progressed more slowly than summit rhetoric. * Although the NDB had approved USD 42.9 billion across 139 projects by the end of 2025, this scale remains modest compared with the financing capacity of the World Bank system and major regional development banks. What Strategies Can India Adopt to Maximise the Benefits of BRICS? * **Institutionalise BRICS through India’s 2026 Chairship:** * India should use its 2026 chairship to transform BRICS from a declaration-oriented forum into a result-oriented institutional mechanism. * India can propose an Implementation Index containing project deadlines, financial commitments, responsible agencies and measurable outcomes to address the persistent gap between summit declarations and implementation. * **Driving Global Financial Architecture Reform and Decollarization:** * India can leverage BRICS to accelerate the reform of Bretton Woods institutions, where developing nations remain under-represented in voting quotas. * Furthermore, pushing for Local Currency Settlement Systems (LCSS) mitigates foreign exchange volatility and reduces reliance on the US Dollar for bilateral trade. * Infrastructure financing and cross-border transactions may therefore become insulated from Western economic sanctions and currency fluctuations, instead of remaining tied to unyielding US Dollar-denominated debts. * **Creating a Multilateral BRICS Critical Minerals Cartel:** * India can spearhead a strategic mineral partnership within BRICS to secure unhindered access to lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements required for advanced manufacturing and renewable energy transitions. * Cooperation should extend beyond imports to joint exploration, mineral processing, strategic stockpiles, technology transfer, green hydrogen, biofuels and recycling, thereby supporting India’s energy transition and manufacturing ambitions. * **Transform BRICS into an Export and Market-Access Platform:** * India should use BRICS to secure preferential market access and diversify exports across Latin America, Africa, West Asia, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. * India should establish sector-specific trade facilitation groups, mutual-recognition arrangements and simplified customs procedures, rather than pursuing an immediate BRICS-wide free trade agreement that may disproportionately benefit China. * **Lead BRICS Cooperation on Digital Public Infrastructure:** * India should make its experience with Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface, DigiLocker, CoWIN and India Stack the foundation of a BRICS digital-development partnership. * India can assist interested BRICS and partner countries in developing interoperable platforms for digital identity, instant payments, financial inclusion, health records and public-service delivery. * A BRICS DPI repository and regulatory sandbox could promote technological collaboration while establishing safeguards for cybersecurity, privacy, data sovereignty and responsible artificial intelligence. * **Build Issue-Based Coalitions for Global Governance Reform:** * India should form smaller coalitions within BRICS to pursue concrete reforms of the UN Security Council, IMF, World Bank and WTO. * India can work with Brazil and South Africa through IBSA for democratic multilateralism and greater representation of developing countries, while coordinating separately with African members on climate finance and sovereign debt. * **Position India as a Bridge, Not a Bloc Follower:** * India should preserve BRICS as a platform for inclusive multilateralism and strategic autonomy, rather than allowing it to become an explicitly China-led or anti-Western coalition. * India’s simultaneous participation in BRICS, G20, Quad, SCO, IBSA and Indo-Pacific institutions enables it to communicate across competing geopolitical groupings. * It should use this bridging position to advance practical cooperation on climate finance, food and health security, counter-terrorism, debt sustainability and resilient supply chains, while resisting proposals that conflict with India’s territorial integrity, financial stability or independent foreign policy. **Conclusion** * BRICS remains indispensable for India’s strategic autonomy and Global South leadership. However, internal economic asymmetries, structural trade deficits, and China-centric dominance pose severe challenges. To counter these vulnerabilities, India’s 2026 chairship must prioritize financial decolonization, digital leadership, and result-oriented reforms rather than allowing the bloc to serve single-nation geopolitical interests. By fostering a cohesive, equitable framework, India can transform BRICS into an effective, balanced force capable of driving genuine global governance reform. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.