As India prepares to host the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, words of support and encouragement are coming from different directions. Under the theme – ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability ’, India has articulated a distinctive vision for BRICS.
This vision translates into a need for concrete cooperation in trade, cross-border payments, supply chains, technology and artificial intelligence, energy, development finance and governance reform in the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.
This entails correcting historical asymmetries to address contemporary developmental inequalities. Thus, developmental multilateralism beckons that India not merely redistribute representation within global institutions but also mobilise finance, technology and institutional capacity for inclusive and sustainable development. Increasingly, India’s role becomes attuned to being a provider and architect of development solutions.
So far, India has held more than 350 meetings across several cities and under various forums, which highlighted the need for dialogue on important issues like health, technology, supply chains and women’s health. India’s approach has been to support capacity-building and development in partner countries, participate actively in institutions, build coalitions and shape global rules and standards and thereby, give greater voice to the less developed.
Indian strategic experts and leaders believe that India’s domestic transformation and global engagement are mutually reinforcing. India has underscored the importance of efforts to facilitate low-cost, expeditious and safe cross-border payments among BRICS countries and other nations, which can support greater trade and investment flows.
One of the most important achievements during the current presidency has been the Joint statement with full consensus on two key deliverables under the vision of ‘Women-Led Development’. Sharing best practices on women’s empowerment and working together on women’s digital inclusion and capacity building to facilitate skill development.
India has resolved to strengthen MSME resilience and make them more productive, competitive, specialised and innovative, boost global solar photovoltaics capacity and acknowledged the development of sustainable and resilient industry-related transport and logistics systems and industrial supply chains through responsibly integrated and technology-backed infrastructure planning for economic development.
India’s choice
This year, India has carried forward the BRICS expansion agenda, with more countries likely to join the group in the coming years, especially from Africa. But India is also facing a big challenge – that of choosing to stick its neck out for the greater good or shying away from this responsibility.
Currently, the new global order seems to be at an inflection point and no single country can manage this transition to a new multipolarity singularly. As has been oft-quoted, the BRICS does not seek to replace the UN-led multilateral system; it seeks to make the system more representative, effective and responsive. The fundamental criticism is that institutions created in 1945 do not adequately reflect the distribution of political, economic and demographic power in 2026. But despite the fact that the BRICS represent dissatisfaction with existing multilateral institutions, it still depends on and operates within the broader multilateral system.
Thus, the emphasis is on fostering multipolarity with representation, rather than simply creating multiple centres of power. The New Development Bank has funded over 100 projects, investing in sustainable development, infrastructure, and social programmes across member states and emerging economies.
Therefore, India has identified a few key elements that have to be non-negotiable in this journey. First, India espouses the revision of the existing order rather than its wholesale replacement. Second, India advocates for complementarity between institutions rather than institutional duplication. Third, and the most significant, greater voice for emerging economies. India is dedicated to building capacity for technology and digital public infrastructure and toward cooperation on climate change. New Delhi organised dialogues on various academic forums, business forums, young diplomats forum, university and youth summits to connect these objectives to real-achievement sagas on the ground.
Also read: India’s defence atmanirbharta needs a dose of realism—and a lot more drones
Technology, growth—and societies
A major emphasis has been on the use of technology to enable these interconnected growth pathways. While technology can enable fast-paced growth, it also simultaneously disrupts labour markets, sovereignty, privacy, social structures, employment and regulatory systems.
By and large, the intent has been to be a ‘bridge-builder’ rather than a ‘bloc-builder’ and promote the belief that progress of one society should not require the deprivation of another. BRICS has brought about quite a transformation in telemedicine, healthcare, traditional medicine, and knowledge production. There is an attempt to form an incubator network to support and strengthen innovation.
India has the opportunity to develop sustainability as a shared climate agenda that connects the UAE Consensus of COP28 with the group’s energy work. A human-centric approach has been devised to accomplish sustained cooperation.
The Chinese representatives in India have assessed the situation very positively and invited the other BRICS countries to join its various initiatives, including the newly launched AI governance institution called WAICO, to be a part of the norm-setting agenda for the future. China has on many occasions invited India to co-lead the South-South cooperation and support each other in their common pursuit of multilateral reform. India this year is also relentlessly working toward adding its own page to the success story.
The BRICS Presidency will return to China next year, and it will utilise this opportunity to highlight its all-encompassing approach to growth and technological advancement, and India hopes to hand over the reins with positive momentum, having displayed its best practices in giving a voice to the aims and ambitions of the emerging economies.
Dr Bhavna Singh is a visiting fellow at CRF. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)