India’s SME Exports To Get A BRICS Fillip

Source: Outlook Business | Original Published At: 2026-09-10 06:09:10 UTC

Key Points

• India will host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.
• The Indian agenda prioritizes greater global market access for small and medium enterprises through BRICS cooperation.
• MSMEs contribute nearly $190 billion to India's exports and account for about 40-45% of merchandise exports, while employing more than 110 million people.
• India's exports to BRICS countries stood at nearly $82 billion in FY26, with services exports around $31.3 billion in CY24.
• Proposed BRICS mechanisms include an MSME internationalisation work plan, institutionalized discussions on MSME finance, the BRICS Incubator Network, and a proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund.
• BRICS finance ministries and central bank representatives met in Jaipur on August 12-13 to discuss financial cooperation, payments, and greater use of local currencies.
• Scaling local-currency settlement would require addressing customer verification, data regulations, capital controls, sanctions compliance, and currency liquidity.