BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South-Africa)

Overview:

What is BRICS:

The acronym BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South-Africa. The BRICS is a group of the world’s five major emerging economies. The BRICS countries represent approximately 42% of the world’s population, 23% of the Gross World Product, and 28% of the world’s land area. All the members of BRICS are also members of G20. Since, 2009, the BRICS countries have met annually at formal summits, and the first summit of BRICS was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009. The BRICS countries are the fastest-growing economies and emerging markets in the world. China is the second big economy in the world after the US and India is the Fifth big economy in the world and both are still the fastest-growing economy. The other two countries Brazil, South Africa are also growing very fast and they are also one of the biggest economies in the world. On the other hand, Russia is facing a lot of economic pressure and sanctions from the western countries due to the Crimea annexation and that is why Russia is not able to grow that fast as other BRICS countries.

There are a number of similarities in BRICS countries such as, they all are developing countries, they have a lot of poor population where they have to work.

Establishment of the BRICS:

The acronym BRICS has been attributed by Jim O'Neill at that time chief economist at Goldman Sachs (An American Multinational Bank) in his publication "Building better global economic BRICs". The group was founded in 2006 with the four-member states Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Initially, the group was known as BRIC. In Dec. 2010, South-Africa became the fifth member of this group, and the group was renamed BRICS, where 'S' stands for South-Africa. In April 2011, at that time President of South-Africa, Jacob Zuma attended the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya, China as a full member.

BRICS Member Countries:

Currently, BRICS comprising five member states, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South-Africa.

Brazil	Russia
India

China

South-Africa

BRICS Countries Objectives:

The main objectives of the BRICS are to cooperate in the field of economic growth and development, education, climate change, people to people contact, and cultural exchange.

Subsidiary bodies of the BRICS:

Currently, there are two financial components of the BRICS that are working.

1. The New Development Bank or BRICS Development Bank (NDB). The New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS countries and Headquartered in Shanghai, China. Learn More

2. The Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The CRA is a framework for providing economic protection to the countries against global liquidity pressures. To learn more about CRA play the video given above.

BRICS Countries Headquarters:

The BRICS doesn't have any permanent headquarters, but the headquarters of the New Development Bank (NDB) is situated in Shanghai, China.

BRICS Summits:

The head of countries represents the states in the meetings of the BRICS. The meeting held annually somewhere in the chair's country. Other than the annual meetings, BRICS foreign ministers' meetings also held each year to review the progress of the previous decisions taken by the BRICS countries.

BRICS and India:

India is an active member of the BRICS and also one of the founding members of the organization. The concept of BRICS bank was initiated by India, and the NDB is already there working for all BRICS countries as well as for other developing countries.

BRICS and NATO:

The BRICS and NATO are two different organizations with different objectives. NATO is a military alliance of European countries and The US whereas the BRICS is a group of 5 developing countries working on the economic and development front.