BRICS for UPSC Civil Services Examination

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

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