New Delhi: BRICS wasn’t imagined as an anti-west group. But, as Richard Fontaine and Gibbs McKinley point out in Foreign Affairs, geopolitical churn is sending the 10-country group in a new direction.
“Over the past decade, China and Russia have ramped up their efforts to steer their fellow BRICS members toward a worldview contrary to Washington’s interests,” says the report.
Fontaine and McKinley also zero in on the breakdown of India-US ties, citing the equation as a key factor in the BRICS reconfiguration. The group is named for its first five members, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
“And then, at the drop of a hat, (US President Donald) Trump upended the relationship. He antagonized New Delhi by repeatedly insisting that he had ended the May 2025 clash between India and Pakistan in Kashmir—a claim New Delhi rejects—and by hosting the Pakistani army chief of staff at the White House in June,” it states.
The report also assesses the relationship of other BRICS nations with the US. “Bilateral relations with Brazil were never as close, ambitious, or transformative as those with India,” it says. “Then, as with India, Trump’s return to power set relations on a downward trajectory.”
“The United States does have legitimate grievances with Brazil, India, and South Africa. New Delhi has historically maintained a protectionist trade policy, with an average tariff rate of 12 percent, and it started buying Russian oil in large quantities after the invasion of Ukraine to take advantage of the discounted price caused by sanctions,” it adds, arguing that jeopardising its relationships with the “swing states”—countries essential to determining the global order—could be damaging to US interests.
“Instead of alienating such global swing states, the United States should be working with them,” write Fontaine and McKinley. “India remains a key player in the Indo-Pacific, and Washington should keep using the Quad to balance Chinese power.”
In the BBC, Ffion Wynne asks a game-changing question—literally. “Could India’s win for the ages redefine women’s cricket?”
On Thursday evening, Jemimah Rodrigues played a historic innings against Australia and catapulted India straight to the Women’s World Cup final, where the team will face off against South Africa.
“Known for her bubbly personality and infectious smile no matter what she does on the field, this was a different side to Rodrigues—one of grit and determination in an innings of pure class. She was already a star—but now has a chance to go stratospheric,” writes Wynne about Rodrigues who, remarkably, was dropped for India’s group stage match against England a mere 11 days ago.
The import of last night’s match is twofold. First, says the BBC, the batting was “arguably of the highest quality that women’s cricket has ever seen”. Secondly, an India win can stand to change the nature of the sport in India.
“The pace at which women’s cricket is growing in India is unbelievable,” former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala tells the BBC.
“It is a proper career now for women. If India go on to win this World Cup, this will change women’s cricket. The game is growing rapidly worldwide but in a commercial aspect, this will change drastically,” he added.
COP30 is set to begin in November—and Sumant Sinha, founder of ReNew Energy, a renewable energy giant, also happens to be co-chair of World Economic Forum’s Alliance of CEO climate leaders. The alliance at this year’s COP30 will push “for measures to counter the slowing in transition to clean energy.”
In the run-up to the conference, due to be held in Brazil, Financial Times has an interview with Sumant Sinha.
“The numbers are compelling. India wants to get to 500GW by 2030, and has 225GW of non-fossil fuel capacity installed so far. Therefore, we need 275GW in the next five years; almost 50GW a year. Last year, as an industry, we only did 30. This year, that 30 might go up to 40. Which means as we approach 2030, we will have to add 60W of capacity a year at the very least,” he tells FT’s Veena Venugopal.
Sinha also talks about India’s place in the global order. “The world is still struggling to understand how proactive India has been on climate change and energy transition. But people are beginning to realise that 500GW is a serious target and we are getting close to achieving it,” he says.
In The New York Times, Anupreeta Das and Pragati K.B. explain the cloud seeding phenomenon, Delhi’s deadly pollution, and the experiment’s failure in India’s capital.
Cloud seeding isn’t a new technology and has been used previously to reduce pollution. It involves inserting chemicals into moisture-laden clouds. The droplets cluster around the chemical particles and eventually become heavy enough and fall down as rain, they write.
“The first trial was conducted on Oct. 23, and two more on Tuesday. Scientists expected rainfall within four hours of injecting the clouds, but none of the trials produced the expected results. The chemical mixture was dispersed over six neighborhoods in Delhi’s outer regions using flares attached to the wings of an aircraft,” says the report.
There is debate around whether cloud seeding can succeed in Delhi, notes the report.
“There is some debate on whether cloud seeding can succeed in Delhi. Last year, the Indian government’s environment ministry said that the process would not work in Delhi during cooler months. ‘Effective cloud seeding requires specific cloud conditions, which are generally absent during Delhi’s cold and dry winter months’, it said,” according to the report, which proceeds to explain why Delhi is polluted at this time of the year.
Weight-loss drugs are spreading across the world, says The Economist.
So far, “GLP-1s, a powerful new class of weight-loss drugs, were confined mostly to rich countries” but demand for them has been increasing, it says.
GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are gaining steam in India and China—and the expiry of patents next year means that Indian drugmakers will be gearing up to build cheaper, homegrown versions.
“India’s drugmakers, already the source of a fifth of the world’s generic medicines, are moving fast. At least ten Indian versions of semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy) are in late-stage trials,” notes the report.
“An even bigger prize for India’s drugmakers will be exports to countries where semaglutide’s patents have lapsed. Dr Reddy’s, a local giant, plans to sell a generic Wegovy in 87 countries. Subsidies from the Indian government for local manufacturers of GLP-1 drugs will also help.”
The report also says that while India is “replicating” existing drugs, China is “innovating”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: India’s labour mobility experiment, and inside homecoming of ‘one of the world’s oldest rebels’