India’s Growing Global Influence in BRICS

✍️ Kailash Chandra

 

The 18th BRICS Summit, held in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026, was not merely a formal meeting of heads of state and government. Under India's presidency, this summit served as a prominent example of India's rising diplomatic footprint and its capacity to champion the aspirations of the Global South within an evolving world order. As the global architecture shifts from unipolar and bipolar dynamics toward multipolarity, India leveraged the BRICS platform not just to register its diplomatic presence, but to anchor the priorities of developing nations at the center of global discourse.

 

Under India’s presidency, resilience, innovation, cooperation, and sustainable development formed the primary foundation. The agenda intertwined extensive collaboration across terrorism, trade, local currency settlements, digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, healthcare, Industry 4.0, and reforms in multilateral financial institutions. This reflected a concerted effort to transform BRICS from a purely political bloc into a practical engine for international development and cooperation.

 

The success of any international presidency is never measured solely by the volume of meetings. True success lies in the presiding nation's ability to steer the group's trajectory and priorities. Throughout its presidency, India organized over 400 meetings and engagement programs across 30 cities, creating deep institutional, technological, economic, and civic links with BRICS initiatives. A key diplomatic milestone was India’s deliberate positioning of BRICS not as an anti-Western front, but as a solution-oriented cooperative platform. This aligns with the foundational principle of Indian foreign policy: avoiding permanent alignment with any single power bloc while collaborating across major powers, anchored strictly in national interest.

 

For India, terrorism is not a routine diplomatic talking point, but an existential national security concern. In the wake of terror incidents such as Pahalgam, international cooperation against terrorism, its terror-financing networks, safe havens, and cross-border infrastructure has become even more imperative. India has consistently maintained that terrorism cannot be segregated into "good" or "bad" categories. The fight against terrorism must extend beyond perfunctory political condemnations, demanding coordinated operations against terror funding, illicit digital networks, arms and narcotics trafficking, recruitment, and radicalization. Translating consensus within BRICS into concrete security cooperation represents a vital diplomatic imperative for India.

 

The expansion of BRICS is not merely a process of admitting new members; it signals the rising economic and political weight of developing countries. India has long championed greater representation for the developing world in institutions like the UN Security Council, IMF, World Bank, and WTO. India's credibility across the Global South rests not merely on its demographic or economic scale, but on its tangible development experience. Through democratic governance alongside large-scale development, digital public infrastructure, financial inclusion, affordable pharmaceuticals, space technology, and digital governance, India has built models from which other developing nations can draw. Leading the Global South is thus both an opportunity and a responsibility for India—one reinforced not by rhetoric, but through the delivery of practical solutions.

 

Viewing BRICS solely as an anti-Western alliance is a strategic miscalculation. India concurrently holds membership in BRICS, plays an active role in the Quad, drives substantial agendas in the G20, participates in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and maintains enduring strategic ties with Russia—all while progressively deepening its strategic and economic partnerships with the United States and Europe. This is strategic autonomy in action. India does not seek to substitute one power bloc for another; rather, its objective is to fortify its economic, technological, military, and diplomatic capacity to engage every major power center strictly on terms that advance its national interest.

 

While deliberations on local currencies and interlinked payment systems within BRICS are critical, interpreting them as the imminent demise of the dollar-based financial system is inaccurate. BRICS has neither introduced a common currency nor declared an abrupt abandonment of the dollar. The realistic goal is creating viable alternatives in international trade. If member nations expand local currency usage in bilateral commerce, integrate payment rails, and reduce transaction friction, dollar dependency can be tempered in specific sectors. However, for India, this is effective only if local currency mechanisms are matched by export competitiveness. Altering payment mechanics alone will not eliminate trade deficits; India must simultaneously elevate both the volume and value of its exports.

 

India's digital public infrastructure has emerged as one of its most formidable global assets. Digital identification frameworks, instant payments, financial inclusion architectures, and digital governance models have proven how technology can be deployed for societal scale. The opportunity for India lies not simply in exporting standalone software, but in sharing its comprehensive digital governance blueprint. The integrated ecosystem spanning digital identity, banking, telecommunications, payments, regulation, governance, and citizen engagement serves as an actionable framework for the developing world.

 

Future global dominance will not hinge on conventional military might alone. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, healthcare, semiconductors, space, energy, and Industry 4.0 are becoming the foundational pillars of national power. India set the right precedent by prioritizing AI within BRICS cooperation. The imperative is an AI paradigm that is inclusive, safe, trustworthy, and human-centric. If the dividends of AI remain concentrated within a few advanced economies and tech conglomerates, digital asymmetry will morph into systemic economic inequality. In healthcare, India's expertise in low-cost pharmaceuticals, vaccine manufacturing, medical training, and large-scale public health delivery offers high-impact avenues for collaboration across developing countries. Similarly, partnerships spanning Industry 4.0, skills development, MSMEs, startups, and innovation can unlock new economic frontiers. India's core challenge is transitioning from being primarily a major consumer market into a high-tier producer of deep tech and high-value-added goods.

 

The trajectory of BRICS will inevitably be shaped by India-China relations. Border disputes, trade deficits, and strategic frictions are structural realities that cannot be ignored. However, diplomacy does not require denying divergences; it requires managing frictions while pursuing convergence where shared interests exist. Constructive engagement on border stability, trade access, supply chains, and connectivity serves India's strategic calculations, provided engagement does not slide into strategic dependency. Where competition is necessary, India must compete; where cooperation is viable, it must cooperate; and where national security is at stake, it must remain unyielding.

 

India's defense, energy, technical, and strategic partnerships with Russia remain vital. Concurrently, the United States and Europe serve as indispensable partners for trade, capital investment, high technology, and geopolitical collaboration. India's task is never to pit one partnership against another, but to balance every vector in alignment with national priorities. The same pragmatic balance applies to West Asia, where energy security, the Indian diaspora, trade corridors, maritime sea lines of communication, and regional stability directly intersect with Indian core interests. Rather than taking sides in external conflicts, India acts as a force for peace and stability, without compromising its sovereign interests.

 

The New Delhi BRICS Summit notably elevated India's diplomatic posture, yet its ultimate verdict will be rendered not on the diplomatic stage, but across the domestic economy. Trade imbalances with China, significant import dependencies on Russia, and reliance on external sources across strategic sectors underline the need to upgrade trade composition, not merely its volume. BRICS unlocks access to emerging markets, alternative settlement rails, technological synergy, foreign capital, and broader economic horizons across the Global South. Realizing these dividends requires structural reinforcement of domestic manufacturing, applied research, technical skilling, logistics, quality control, export financing, and domestic value addition. India's greatest triumph in BRICS will be converting diplomatic capital into factories, advanced laboratories, enterprise startups, exports, and sustainable employment.

 

The New Delhi Summit sent an unmistakable signal: India refuses to be a passive bystander in a transitioning global order—it intends to actively shape it. A firm stand on counter-terrorism, vocal leadership for the Global South, push for multilateral reform, local currency trade facilitation, digital public infrastructure, AI governance, public health resilience, Industry 4.0, and strategic autonomy collectively illustrate India's cohesive diplomatic doctrine.

 

Moving forward, India must ensure declarations yield quantifiable outcomes. Diplomatic influence must translate into commercial opportunities, commercial opportunities into sovereign technological capabilities, and technological capabilities into resilient Indian exports and job creation. This conversion cycle is what will provide enduring substance to India’s strategic autonomy.

 

BRICS is neither a death knell for the US dollar, nor an obituary for the Western order, nor a nascent military pact. It is a pragmatic vehicle navigating the alternatives, calibrations, and realignments of an evolving world. For India, the mandate is clear: cooperate broadly, compete where required, sustain diplomatic dialogue, stand resolute on national security, and place India's national interest above all

 else in every major decision.