PM to visit Brazil next week for BRICS Summit

News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Brazil from Nov 13-14 to attend an annual summit of BRICS.

Facts:

About BRICS

• BRICS is the acronym coined for an association of five major emerging national economies that have similar economic development. The five countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Brazil is the current chair of BRICS
• Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC”. The acronym was first used in 2001 by economist Jim O’Neill.
• In 2010, South Africa was officially admitted as a BRIC nation following an invitation from China and the other BRIC nations, making the current acronym BRICS.

BRICS Summits

• Since 2009 BRIC countries has held annual BRICS Leaders’ Summits.
• Discussions focus on spheres of political and socioeconomic coordination, in which member countries have identified business opportunities, economic complementarities and areas of cooperation.
• The theme for upcoming 2019 BRICS Summit is ‘Economic Growth for an Innovative Future’.
• At the 2019 BRICS Summit, i-BRICS — Innovation BRICS Network, will be launched. It will include networking of research institutes like science parks, incubators and accelerators. Further, The BRICS leaders will also agree to establish the Women Business Alliance.