Dr Samir Saran, Dr Sachin Chaturvedi, Dear friends,
1. In 2021, BRICS turns 15. In human terms, this is young adulthood,
with thoughts shaped and a world view concretised, and with a growing
sense of responsibilities. As such, India’s presidency of BRICS comes
at such an inflection point for this grouping.
2. But the context is important for the global system as well. This is
most tellingly felt in the pandemic that has devastated economies and
societies. The juncture then is pregnant with challenges as well as
opportunities. The role of the BRICS countries, of the ideas,
strategies and policies they contribute, has never been so apparent.
3. The birth of BRICS was an implicit recognition that the post-war
order had peaked. Emerging economies needed to step up to craft a new
developmental framework. Each of us was well placed to do this, to
share our experiences – in some measures or the other – with partner
countries of but not limited to the global South. We intuitively
understood that the dominance moment at the end of the Cold War could
not be sustained. BRICS was a response to the search for diversity; in
many ways, it was an accurate anticipation of multipolarity.
4. So, let us therefore remember that counter-dominance instinct and
principled commitment to multipolarity in all forms – political and
economic, academic and institutional, social and cultural – is written
into the DNA of BRICS. It was in this spirit of independence and
complementarity that India co-founded BRICS. We are confident that this
sentiment will continue to define not just BRICS but the larger
template for coming decades of the 21st century. BRICS is a statement
of global rebalancing that underlines its essential diversity and
pluralism.
5. Now, India’s presidency of BRICS is underpinned by four pillars –
reform of the multilateral system; counter-terrorism cooperation;
technological and digital solutions for Sustainable Development Goals;
and enhancing P2P (people to people) cooperation. These pillars may
seem abstract or even perennial, but each one of them actually has an
explicit, real-world meaning.
6. An updating and recalibration of the post-World War II multilateral
architecture cannot be postponed any further. The pandemic and the
normative breakdown in its wake have rudely reminded us that
institutions built to tackle problems of the 1940s desperately need to
be upgraded and made fit-for-purpose for our century.
7. An expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council is
a necessary ingredient. But by itself it is not sufficient.
Multilateral institutions have been disadvantaged by structural
inertia, competitive gridlocks, uneven resourcing and skewed
navigation. The proliferation of new and smaller platforms, including
of plurilateral and regional groups, is therefore a response to such
felt gaps. BRICS itself was actually among the earliest in this regard.
Too often, we obsess with one or the other response; more effort and
action is actually required to fill the gaps.
8. Terrorism thrives in some of these gaps. Its nursery lies in
conflict-ridden spaces made fertile for radicalisation by malign
players, including states. The transition in Afghanistan that we are
seeing today and the warfare that has yet again been forced upon its
people has sharpened this challenge. Left unattended, its edge will be
deeply felt not just in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood but well beyond. We
are therefore all stakeholders in the quest for a clear, coordinated
and undifferentiated response to terrorism. In the 21st century,
legitimacy cannot be derived from mass violence, brutal intimidation or
covert agendas. Representation, inclusion, peace and stability are
inextricably linked.
9. Emerging technologies, most strikingly digital technology and the
energies of the Internet, are a force multiplier in any avenue of human
endeavour. As we have learnt to our cost, these can also become an
instrument for sources of extremism and motivated misinformation. For
us in India, digital tools have proved invaluable in pushing back the
pandemic. In the year-and-a-half of living and coping with the
Covid-19, they have accelerated contact tracing, vaccine delivery,
online and mobile-based diagnosis; and targeted delivery of welfare.
India’s 800/400 accomplishment i.e. food rations for 800 million people
and cash transfers to 400 million – has been streamlined by
digitally-enabled technology. The surge in online education has also
been noteworthy.
10. Many of these empirical experiences will stay with us beyond the
pandemic. For example, the catalytic implications of technology in the
realisation of SDGs are there for us to recognise. The pandemic has
demanded a price in terms of economic growth and has challenged SDG
timelines. Technology could help us now recover ground and time. India
is optimistic on this score, and ready to share what it has harnessed,
innovated and learnt in these last years.
11. Finally, we come to our people – the principal and most essential
stakeholders of BRICS, and in fact of our larger developmental
enterprise. The past years has made more of us alive to the limitations
of an economic model that posits efficiency and pricing as antithetical
to people and community or indeed to livelihoods and sustainability.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a human-centric globalisation
was not just a recognition of pandemic-induced distortions, but in fact
of broader inequities. Welfare and well-being of people, families and
communities cannot be divorced from the global reset and resilience
that is occurring in the long tail of Covid-19.
12. A case in point is the imbalance between the emphasis on IPR in the
pharmaceutical industry and the meeting of public health goals. Left
untouched, the current practices will only delay the elimination of the
pandemic by several years. This is simply not acceptable. But beyond
health is a larger economic lesson for the world from the pandemic. The
creation of more reliable and resilient supply chains is vital to
infuse greater confidence in the global economy and in fact to de-risk
it from future pandemics. The global South is particularly vulnerable
in that regard. Investments must diversify to provide a certain
assurance of sustainability – for livelihoods, for families and
communities, and of course for the natural environment.
13. During the course of the year, on the road to this BRICS Academic
Forum, scholars from universities and think tanks have deliberated on
such issues – specifically on global health, the future of work,
climate change, global economic recovery, green energy, trade, and
digital public goods, and women-led economic growth. This conference
represents the culmination of a rich and substantial intellectual
exercise. I look forward to policy prescriptions that can make BRICS
more effective and our world more secure. Those two aspirations are
symbiotic. A world at peace with itself – across domains – will add to
BRICS capacities. And enhanced BRICS capabilities will contribute
surely to global well-being.
So I thank you once again, and I convey all the best for the rest of
the Forum.
New Delhi
August 03, 2021
