Brics turns 25: How a Goldman Sachs acronym became a global power bloc

The 18th Brics Summit is set to take place in New Delhi on September 12-13, bringing together leaders of the expanded grouping at a time when wars, trade tensions and a shifting global order are testing its ability to act as a united bloc.India is hosting the summit as the current Brics chair, with the grouping now comprising 11 members and 10 partner countries.Under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” New Delhi has placed greater focus on cooperation across economic and financial issues, technology, energy, development and global governance.The scale of that transformation becomes clearer when traced back to the origins of Brics, a term coined 25 years ago by a Goldman Sachs economist to describe four emerging economies that he believed would become major drivers of global growth.From a Wall Street acronym to a global groupingTwenty-five years ago, Brics did not exist as a political grouping.…