18th BRICS Academic Forum begins in Lucknow as part of India’s BRICS Presidency

The 18th BRICS Academic Forum, inaugurated in Lucknow on Monday as part of India's BRICS Presidency for the 2024-2025 cycle, represents a critical intellectual pillar supporting one of the world's most consequential multilateral groupings. To understand its significance, we must first appreciate the evolution of BRICS itself — from a Goldman Sachs investment thesis coined by Jim O'Neill in 2001 (originally BRIC, with South Africa joining in 2010) to a formal intergovernmental organization representing 45% of the world's population, 28% of global GDP, and 16% of global trade. India's current presidency, which began in January 2024, operates under the overarching theme of "Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security," and this academic forum serves as the Track II diplomacy channel where scholars from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and the newly inducted members (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia) generate evidence-based policy recommendations for the leaders' summit. The choice of Lucknow as venue is symbolically rich — Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, embodies the demographic dividend and developmental challenges that BRICS collectively seeks to address. The organizers — Observer Research Foundation (ORF), one of Asia's leading think tanks; Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), an autonomous policy research institute under the Ministry of External Affairs; and University of Lucknow — represent the ideal triad of independent scholarship, government-aligned research, and academic rigor. The forum's specific theme, "Building Resilient and Inclusive Global Value Chains," directly responds to the post-COVID fragmentation of supply chains, the weaponization of economic interdependence, and the Global South's demand for fairer terms of trade. This aligns with India's long-standing advocacy for reform of multilateral institutions — a position rooted in Article 51 of the Constitution, which directs the State to "promote international peace and security" and "foster respect for international law and treaty obligations." For India, this presidency comes at a strategic inflection point. As the world's fifth-largest economy targeting $5 trillion GDP, India leverages BRICS to advance its developmental priorities: reform of the UN Security Council (where India seeks permanent membership), restructuring of Bretton Woods institutions (IMF, World Bank) to reflect contemporary economic realities, and championing the Global South's agenda on climate finance, technology transfer, and debt sustainability. The academic forum's deliberations on digital public infrastructure (DPI) — exemplified by India's UPI, Aadhaar, and CoWIN platforms — showcase a replicable model for financial inclusion and governance efficiency. Moreover, the expansion of BRICS in 2023 (Johannesburg Summit) to include five new members transforms the grouping into a more representative voice of the Global South, though it also introduces complexities in consensus-building given divergent geopolitical alignments among members. Constitutionally, India's engagement with BRICS operates under the executive's treaty-making power (Article 73 read with Article 253), while parliamentary oversight occurs through the Committee on External Affairs. The forum's outputs — policy briefs, joint statements, and research papers — feed into the Sherpa and Sous-Sherpa tracks that negotiate the final leaders' declaration. Looking ahead, the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia (October 2024) will test the grouping's cohesion on contentious issues: de-dollarization initiatives (local currency trade settlements, BRICS Pay), the New Development Bank's (NDB) lending priorities, and institutionalizing the expanded membership. For India, the academic forum's emphasis on "inclusive" value chains resonates with its domestic policy framework — Atmanirbhar Bharat, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, and the National Logistics Policy — creating a virtuous loop between international advocacy and domestic implementation. As aspirants prepare for competitive exams, they should track how BRICS evolves from a dialogue forum to an action-oriented platform, and how India navigates its simultaneous commitments to BRICS, Quad, G20, and the Indo-Pacific construct — a diplomatic balancing act that defines its emerging great power trajectory.