BRICS Was Just An Acronym. India Was There When It Became Much More
This article traces the evolution of BRICS from a Goldman Sachs economic acronym to a geopolitical bloc that challenges Western-led financial institutions. It highlights India's pragmatic approach to the group, viewing it as a flexible tool for infrastructure funding and economic cooperation rather than a rigid political alliance.
Why it matters
Understanding the shifting nature of BRICS is vital for analyzing the changing dynamics of global economic governance and India's foreign policy strategy.
India takes the BRICS chair in 2026 and hosts the bloc's 18th summit. Seventeen years after the group first met, it's a completely different animal. So, for that matter, is India.Start at the beginning, and BRICS wasn't even a real thing. It was a label a banker invented. In 2001, Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill grouped Brazil, Russia, India and China under the acronym "BRIC", betting these four economies would end up running the growth numbers for decades. That's it - no summit, no secretariat, just a research note. It took until 2009 for the idea to grow legs, when Russia hosted the first actual BRIC summit. India was in the room.The timing tells you a lot. The 2008 financial crash had just wrecked confidence in the old, Western-run economic order.
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