INDIA & THE WORLD
BRICS: AGENDA AND
EXPECTATION
LOOKING IN - LOOKING OUT
BY DR RAJ KUMAR SHARMA*
G
lobal order, throughout history, has been dominated
by the rich and powerful countries. However, it
was a bit of anomaly when BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa) was established in 2009, as
it was for the fi rst time in last 200 years that an institution
had been created at the global level without any participation
from the Western countries. With two veto power nations and
three vibrant democracies, BRICS is a unique experiment to
bring politically diverse countries who share a certain degree
of convergence on issues like global political and fi nancial
governance and development. Of late, BRICS seems to be
moving in a strategic direction too as security issues like
terrorism and hotspots like Afghanistan, Iran and Syria are
also being discussed by the grouping.
The economic rise of BRICS countries particularly that
of China and India has made the world take notice of this
grouping. As argued by BRICS members, their geo-economic
rise is not refl ected in geopolitics as global governance is
still dominated by the West. Bretton wood institutions, the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) require
reform to refl ect the true potential of rising economies. They
have become outdated and require an inclusive approach. The
reform process has been too slow, refl ecting reluctance on
the part of developed countries to give equal space to rising
economies. Hence, BRICS has established its own bank, New
Development Bank (NDB) with initial authorized capital of
$100 billion. As per the 2017-2019 operational strategy of
NDB, development of sustainable infrastructure is central to
its philosophy. BRICS has also established BRICS Contingent
Reserve Arrangement (CRA), to respond to any short term
balance of payment crisis among the member economies.
Unlike the World Bank and IMF, the NDB does not attach
strings to fi nancial assistance given by it to needy countries.
The bank is not averse to working with other international
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 27