BRICS Summit Tests India's Ability to Make Diversity Pay

The BRICS summit in New Delhi is set to take place on September 12-13, and India will be facing a unique challenge. The group, which began as a four-member bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China in 2006, has expanded to include major energy exporters, manufacturing powers, emerging economies, and countries with diverse relationships with Washington and Beijing.

This expansion makes BRICS a more credible voice for the Global South, but also increases the difficulty of reaching consensus. For India, the summit is not about making BRICS an alternative to the Western-led order, but rather about turning its diversity into something useful.

The biggest challenge facing India is its relationship with China. While it wants BRICS to give emerging economies greater influence over global institutions and reduce their vulnerability to Western-dominated financial systems, it has no interest in replacing dependence on the US dollar with dependence on China.

India sees a common BRICS currency as an attractive political slogan but a distant economic prospect. However, there is a more concrete economic prize at stake. The bloc accounts for around 40% of global GDP and half of the world's population. If BRICS members can make national currency settlements easier, connect payment systems, and reduce transaction costs, companies could have alternatives when geopolitical shocks disrupt established routes.