BRICS 2026

Recently, India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar formally launched the BRICS 2026 Presidency logo, theme and official website in New Delhi.

• India officially assumed the BRICS presidency from Brazil on January 1, 2026, marking its fourth term in this role. India had previously held the Chairship in 2012, 2016, and 2021.

India’s Key Priorities for BRICS 2026

• Resilience: India plans to strengthen cooperation in critical areas like agriculture, health, disaster risk reduction, energy, and supply chains.
• Innovation: India will focus on leveraging the role of startups, MSMEs, and emerging technologies in addressing development challenges.
• Cooperation and Sustainability: India will emphasize climate action, clean energy, and sustainable development, while ensuring that these efforts are fair and sensitive to national circumstances.

BRICS India 2026 Logo, Theme  and Website

• Logo: 
  • The BRICS 2026 logo is inspired by the lotus flower, India’s national symbol, with the central portion depicting the Namaste gesture, representing respect and unity. 
  • The logo reflects the unity of BRICS members, with petals symbolizing the five founding members – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• Theme: The theme for India’s presidency emphasizes strengthening capacities, promoting innovation, and ensuring sustainable development across BRICS countries.
  • The official tagline for India’s presidency is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
• Digital Platform: The newly launched BRICS India 2026 website will serve as a common digital platform, offering transparency and engaging stakeholders by providing information on meetings, initiatives, and outcomes throughout India’s Chairship.

Significance of India’s BRICS Presidency

• Continuity with Reform Agenda: India aims to continue its reform agenda by prioritizing key issues such as AI governance, climate finance, health cooperation, and sustainable development.
• Voice of the Global South: India’s leadership strengthens BRICS as a platform that advocates for inclusive growth, equitable global governance, and development-centric multilateralism. 
  • This positions India as a strong voice for the Global South, ensuring that the concerns and priorities of emerging economies are addressed on the global stage.
• Strategic Balancing Role: India is uniquely positioned to play a strategic balancing role within BRICS, helping to bridge the diverse and often conflicting interests of its members. 
  • This is especially important in a time of global geopolitical polarization, where India can mediate and foster cooperation despite differing political and economic interests.
• Promotion of Digital Public Infrastructure India plans to promote digital public infrastructure (Eg. UPI)  as a scalable development model for the Global South.
  • This initiative focuses on leveraging technology to foster development in emerging economies.

About BRICS

• Genesis: The term BRIC was coined by British economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to represent the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• Evolution: 
  • 2006: The first meeting of BRICS took place at the Ministers of Foreign Affairs level, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
  • 2009: The first BRICS Summit of Heads of State was held in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
  • 2010: The group expanded to BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa in 2010, adding a fifth member
  • 2023: The Johannesburg Summit led to the second expansion of BRICS, admitting six new members
• Aim: The primary aim of BRICS is to reform global governance and offer alternatives to the Western-dominated institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and UNSC
• BRICS remains an informal coordination mechanism, with the presidency rotating among its members annually. 
• Pillars of Cooperation: According to the BRICS Terms of Reference, the BRICS partnership is based on three pillars of cooperation:
  • Political and Security Cooperation
  • Economic and Financial Cooperation
  • People-to-People (P2P) or Civil Society
• Members: 
  • Initial Members (BRICS): Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
  • New Members (BRICS+): Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • BRICS Partner Countries: At the Kazan Summit in 2024, BRICS introduced a new category called BRICS Partner Countries.
    • Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Cuba, Vietnam, Uganda, and Uzbekistan
  • Interest in BRICS Membership and Partnership: Throughout 2024, over 30 countries expressed interest in joining BRICS, either as members or partners.
• Other Engagement Modalities:
  • BRICS “Outreach”: Launched by South Africa in 2013, BRICS Outreach involves meetings between BRICS member countries and nations from the geographic region of the country currently holding the rotating BRICS presidency.
  • BRICS “Plus”: Initiated by China in 2017, BRICS Plus refers to meetings between BRICS member countries and invited non-regional countries (countries not from the geographic region of the current BRICS presidency).

BRICS Data

• Global Economic Share: With the inclusion of six new members in 2024, BRICS’ share of global GDP (in PPP, at current rates) increased to approximately 39% in 2023
• Economic Growth Projections: In 2024, the IMF projected positive economic growth for all BRICS countries, with growth rates ranging from 1.1% to 6.1%.
• International Trade: BRICS countries account for 24% of total global trade
• Demographic: BRICS represents 48.5% of the world’s population
• Geographic Coverage: Approximately 36% of the world’s total territorial area.
• Resource Control:
• • It holds 72% of the globe’s reserves of rare earth minerals.
  • BRICS accounts for 43.6% of global oil production.
  • BRICS nations produce 36% of the world’s natural gas.
  • They are responsible for 78.2% of global mineral coal production.

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Key Initiatives of BRICS

• New Development Bank (NDB): The NDB was founded at the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014
  • The primary aim of the NDB is to mobilize resources for financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects in developing countries.
  • Capital and Financing: The authorized capital of the NDB stands at $100 billion, with paid-in capital of $52.7 billion.
  • NDB Governance:
    • The NDB is headquartered in Shanghai and has offices in São Paulo and Gujarat, India.
    • It is governed by a Board of Governors, which is composed of the ministries of finance from each member country.
  • Rotating Presidency: The NDB operates with a rotating presidency, held periodically by a representative from one of the BRICS countries.
  • Each country is also responsible for nominating four vice presidents.
  • NDB Membership:
    • The NDB was initially founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
    • Between 2021 and 2023, the bank’s membership expanded to include Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt.
    • Uruguay and Algeria are currently in the process of joining the NDB.
    • Joining BRICS does not automatically guarantee membership in the NDB.
• Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA): It was also founded at the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014.
  • The CRA is a $100 billion emergency reserve fund, designed to provide financial support to BRICS members facing balance of payments crises.
  • The CRA is fully operational and available at any time through the initiative of any member.
• BRICS Pay: It  is a proposed system to facilitate payments between BRICS countries using local currencies, potentially bypassing traditional global payment systems like SWIFT

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