India Hosts BRICS 2026 as Its Global Standing Transforms
India hosts the 2026 BRICS summit, capping a turnaround from its 2012 portrayal as the bloc's least attractive economy to one of its strongest members.
India is hosting the 2026 BRICS summit this weekend, a gathering that highlights how far the country's international standing has shifted since it first chaired the grouping in 2012.
Fourteen years ago, India was widely viewed as the weakest link among the BRICS economies. The Eurozone debt crisis had darkened the global mood, and India was grappling with slowing growth, high inflation and a weak rupee. Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs, who coined the BRIC formulation, described New Delhi at the time as the "least attractive" BRIC economy in valuation terms. Debate even surfaced over whether Indonesia should take India's place in the acronym. In 2012, Standard & Poor's warned that India could become the first BRIC country to lose its investment-grade sovereign rating, while growth in 2012-13 had fallen below 5 per cent amid double-digit inflation.
The picture now is markedly different. India is regarded as one of the grouping's strongest growth engines, recording 7.8 per cent real GDP growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026-27 even as major economies absorb the shock of wars in Europe and the Middle East. Its sovereign-risk narrative has also reversed: in September 2026, the Japan Credit Rating Agency upgraded India's rating from BBB+ to A- with a stable outlook, citing resilient growth, improving fiscal quality, a stronger financial system and a robust external position.
The summit's timing reflects India's emphasis on strategic autonomy. Chatham House has noted that a world shaped increasingly by US-China rivalry and geopolitical fragmentation has made India's approach to strategic hedging and middle-power diplomacy more consequential. The presence of leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in New Delhi underscores India's convening power.
After 14 years, the gathering is being viewed as a counterweight to Western-led forums such as the Group of Seven industrialised nations — the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK — and as an advocate for a more multipolar world order.