BRICS success leans on money and its mundane processes

Source: Hindustan Times | Original Published At: 2026-09-12 00:47:23 UTC

Key Points

• India hosts the BRICS summit in Delhi, alongside iBRICS, a meeting of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices with a combined portfolio of about $1 trillion.
• The iBRICS agenda includes cross-border investment, non-dollar settlement corridors, and interoperability between payment platforms such as India's Unified Payments Interface and Brazil's Pix.
• A Sovereign Capital Compact is expected at iBRICS, though details on funding amounts and target projects have not been disclosed.
• BRICS has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, while partner countries together represent nearly half the world's population and about 40% of global GDP in purchasing power terms.
• India says it is not interested in a common BRICS currency and will continue expanding trade settlement in local currencies, amid U.S. tariff threats.
• The New Development Bank has approved more than 100 projects and disbursed $30-40 billion since 2016, and is moving to increase the local-currency share of its lending.
• The summit's practical outcomes are expected to focus more on payment infrastructure pilots and development finance than on a single major declaration.