Let’s understand everything you need to know about BRICS for UPSC CSE;
Syllabus relevance:
• UPSC Prelims – Current events of national and international importance.
• UPSC Mains – GS 2 (Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.)
About BRICS
• Officially Established in 2006
• First summit in 2009 (Russia)
• Started off primarily with an economic pillar
–> diversified to include security, health, science and technology, culture and civil society
BRICS Members
– Brazil
– Russia
– India
-China
– S. Africa
In 2023, 6 new members are added (will become members from Jan 1, 2024) –
– Argentina
– Egypt
– Ethiopia
– Saudi Arabia
– Iran
– UAE
Significance
• Voice of the developing world – represent almost half the world’s population
• It will include three of the world’s biggest oil producers, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran.
• Acts as a pressure group for reform of multilateralism and reform of global institutions.
BRICS agenda includes discussion on issues such as
• International terrorism
• Climate change
• Food and energy security
• International economic and financial situation
• Reform of the Bretton Woods Institutions
• Trade protectionism and the WTO
Important Initiatives of BRICS
• New Development Bank (NDB) (HQ:
Shanghai, China) – to fund infra projects
• BRICS CRA (Contingent Reserve
Arrangement) – it is a pool of foreign currency reserves for the member countries to draw from, when they face BoP crisis
• Customs agreements – to coordinate and ease trade transport between BRICS countries
• Cooperation on BRICS Remote Sensing
Satellite Constellation.
• Joint payment mechanism – to reduce foreign trade settlements in US dollars
Challenges faced by BRICS
• Lack of a binding ideology
• Bilateral differences (eg Ind-China)
• Diversity in terms of socio-cultural and political systems
•China’s overwhelming presence, which reduces the space for other countries in the grouping