The Aakhya Weekly #171 | India’s BRICS Presidency: Between Superpowers and Partners
In Focus: Charting a Pragmatic, Interests-led BRICS Presidency
India’s 2026 BRICS presidency comes at a time when the grouping is larger, more heterogeneous and geopolitically consequential than ever before. The expansion of BRICS over the last two years, which has brought in countries with varied regional priorities, economic models, and strategic outlooks, has created both an opportunity and a test. The opportunity: to convert the club’s enlarged footprint into a pragmatic platform for trade diversification, supply-chain resilience and cooperative capacity building in technology and finance.
The test is to reconcile competing visions within the grouping, manage frictions with the United States and other partners, and ensure that India’s own strategic autonomy and economic modernisation agenda are not compromised. India’s posture across its presidency is likely to be shaped by three imperatives. This concerns operationalising BRICS for practical economic cooperation, then, protecting space for India’s partnerships outside BRICS (notably with the U.S. and Quad partners), and finally, using the platform to accelerate India’s domestic goals in technology, manufacturing and standards. The deeper aim is not geopolitical bloc-building for its own sake but to make BRICS useful: delivery-oriented, rules-light where appropriate, and capable of generating tangible cooperation in trade, finance, tech and development.
Recalibrating Cooperation
India’s presidency is most likely to prioritise instrumentally useful items where consensus is attainable. For instance, supply-chain diversification in critical minerals, semiconductors, packaging and OSAT cooperation, advanced packaging, and standards for resilient logistics could be prioritised. Similarly, with respect to finance and digital initiatives, deeper connectivity among BRICS development banks and people-to-people cooperation to boost skilling for AI, digital public goods, and capacity building takes precedence. These are areas where India can both lead and benefit. India’s burgeoning domestic market, emerging fabrication/OSAT footprint, digital public infrastructure and large talent pool offer clear comparative advantages. India’s efforts will likely focus on pilotable and replicable initiatives. This includes joint R&D nodes, design-to-manufacture roadmaps with like-minded BRICS partners, and cooperation on sustainable technologies for energy and agriculture.
Crucially, India will aim to avoid allowing BRICS to harden into an ideological counter-pole to Western institutions, despite current geopolitical uncertainties. Rather than framing the presidency as a geopolitical pivot, New Delhi is expected to push a transactional, problem-solving agenda that produces deliverables (financing windows, pilot manufacturing linkages, shared standards) rather than a confrontational posture. Domestic priorities such as creating jobs, manufacturing depth, access to critical minerals, and research partnerships will be the measuring stick for success.
Managing External Pressure: Balancing Washington and Beijing
India’s presidency comes amid intensified U.S. focus on trade, national security controls and “friend-shoring,” and a China that is simultaneously a major economic partner and strategic competitor. India’s central dilemma is familiar, i.e., to maintain and deepen strategic partnerships with the U.S. and partners while engaging robustly with BRICS members, where that advances India’s economic and technological goals. This requires tactical diplomacy, as India attempts to push BRICS forward on economic cooperation that does not contravene India’s broader strategic choices, while preserving room to align with Western norms on supply-chain security and technology transfer where necessary.
In practice, it means that India will advocate for BRICS initiatives that complement India’s bilateral and plurilateral partnerships. For instance, BRICS dialogues on supply-chain resilience and component manufacturing can be aligned with India’s domestic semiconductor strategy and its PLI schemes, helping attract complementary investment rather than competing head-on with U.S. export controls or standards. Similarly, in technology governance, India can champion interoperability, shared testbeds and capacity building for AI safety, digital public goods, etc., without endorsing an exclusive tech ecosystem that isolates partners. The diplomacy is subtly hedged as it entails engaging partners like China and Russia on areas of mutual economic interest, while retaining policy autonomy and Western cooperation options, along with other diversification strategies.
One of India’s foreign policy strategies to address this involves undergoing a strategic reorientation toward Latin America, leveraging the Global South narrative highlighted during its 2023 G20 presidency and the Voice of Global South Summits to build sustained, strategic, and diversified relationships. This outreach to Brazil, Argentina, and other countries aims to advance India’s South-South cooperation goals, promoting inclusive growth, sustainable development, and shaping a more balanced multipolar world amidst global uncertainties. With Brazil, India’s partnership is cemented by strategic convergence in multilateral initiatives such as BRICS, IBSA, and the G20, collaboration in defence, with plans to expand the scope of the India-Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). Collectively, these multifaceted ties, anchored in mutual growth and technological collaboration, underscore India’s aspiration to shape effective multilateralism in an inclusive multipolar world order.
Managing Internal Fissures
BRICS today is less monolithic and more subject to divergent national interests, whether in foreign policy, approaches to technology governance, or economic openness. India’s skill will be to keep the grouping focused on small-n consensus items while deferring the more contentious geopolitical debates. That means investing energy in institutional mechanisms, namely, working groups, pilot projects, and finance linkages, where buy-in is practical and measurable. On issues where internal disagreement is unavoidable, such as its positions on conflicts involving Russia or differences over global governance reform, New Delhi’s posture will likely emphasise dialogue and coordination rather than public confrontation. India’s credibility as a convener rests on its ability to keep BRICS outcomes actionable and modular vis-à-vis projects that members can opt into and scale at their own pace.
India also confronts a reputational task: to prevent BRICS from becoming a venue where policies at odds with international norms become normalised. This requires India to insist on transparency, project deliverables and norms that safeguard trade, finance and technology cooperation from being weaponised. Within BRICS, India can push for standards, audit practices and governance templates. This could help raise the quality of collaboration and limit the scope for activities that could alienate other partners.
What India Must Deliver
For India, success is inherently pragmatic. Concrete deliverables could include a BRICS working group on critical minerals and recycling partnerships; cooperation in advanced packaging, mechanisms for cooperative R&D and shared testbeds in AI and quantum communications, and improved BRICS financial instruments to support cross-border industrial projects. In this regard, success metrics should therefore be operational. It must measure it based on the number of joint pilot projects launched, investment commitments catalysed, the speed of formalisation of technology exchanges, and measurable improvements in supply-chain resilience for priority sectors.
Beyond immediate pilots, India should utilise its presidency to deepen governance capacities inside BRICS, creating standards for cross-border industrial collaboration, trusted data exchange frameworks for non-sensitive cooperation, and model contractual templates that reduce friction in cross-border projects. If BRICS can deliver a handful of high-value, low-political-friction outcomes next year, it will validate India’s presidency. It could be viewed as an engine of practical South-South cooperation beyond the usual rhetoric.
A Cautious, Confident Playbook
India’s BRICS presidency will be a test of strategic balancing: lead without alienating; deliver without overpromising; and build institutions without creating new divides. The best outcome is a presidency that expands trade and technology collaboration in ways that complement India’s other partnerships, strengthens domestic manufacturing and R&D ecosystems, and leaves BRICS better networked and more delivery-oriented. If New Delhi succeeds in converting political heft into operational outcomes, it will have used the BRICS platform optimally. Ideally, it would position them to advance both national development goals and a more pragmatic, problem-solving global South agenda. That is the kind of presidency that will matter for years to come, amidst the great power competitions of our times and the uncertainties over trade futures and vulnerable supply chains.
Top Stories of the Week
Cabinet Approves ₹25,060 Crore Export Promotion Mission to Boost MSME Competitiveness
The Union Cabinet has approved the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) — a flagship initiative from the Union Budget 2025–26 aimed at strengthening India’s export competitiveness, especially for MSMEs, first-time exporters, and labour-intensive sectors. With an outlay of ₹25,060 crore, the mission establishes a collaborative framework involving the Department of Commerce, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Finance, financial institutions, export promotion councils, and state governments. Built on a digitally driven model, the EPM integrates two key sub-schemes — NIRYAT PROTSAHAN, which expands access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs, and NIRYAT DISHA, which enhances non-financial enablers like compliance, branding, and market readiness.
The EPM seeks to tackle structural barriers that limit exports, such as costly trade finance, high compliance burdens, weak branding, and logistical gaps in interior regions. By addressing these challenges, the mission aims to improve MSME access to finance, enhance certification and standards support, expand market reach and visibility, and boost exports from non-traditional districts and sectors. In doing so, it is expected to generate employment across manufacturing, logistics, and allied services, reinforcing India’s position in global trade.
Shopping Goes Swadeshi with Country of Origin Filters
The Consumer Affairs Ministry has proposed amendments to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, mandating e-commerce platforms to provide searchable and sortable filters based on the ‘Country of Origin’ for packaged goods. The move aims to enhance transparency and empower consumers to make informed choices by easily identifying product origins. The Draft supports the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat and Vocal for Local initiatives by making ‘Made in India’ products more visible and competitive. This measure is expected to ensure a level playing field for domestic manufacturers, promote local alternatives, and strengthen consumer confidence. Additionally, it will aid authorities in efficiently monitoring compliance and verifying product details, marking a major step toward a transparent and consumer-centric e-commerce ecosystem.
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