Preface

Sustained academic activities have always preceded the BRICS Leaders’ Summits. The output from these activities have provided the conceptual and intellectual material for the leaders to ponder over and adopt suitably in policy formulations. The BRICS Academic Forum (BAF) is a regular feature in the BRICS calendar of events, and the ideas generated here are forwarded to the leaders in the form of recommendations.

In 2021, with India as the BRICS chair, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Research and Information Systems for the Developing Countries (RIS) have coordinated all academic activities leading up to the BRICS Summit. Considering that the BRICS agenda has expanded considerably in the last decade, there was need for more conversations. To maximise the academic interactions, ORF and RIS decided to extend the activity beyond the formal BAF. A series of virtual dialogues involving scholars and experts from the five member-countries were conducted over three months on topics of critical importance to the BRICS:

●  Future of Multilateralism
●  Digital Health Solutions
●  Traditional Medicine
●  SDGs and Strengthening the Means of Implementation
●  Future of Work: Towards a Women-led Growth Framework
●  International Security
●  New Framework for Cooperation on Technology and Innovation
●  Designing an inclusive Global Economic Recovery
●  Reviving Trade and Investment for Recovery

The Road to BRICS Academic Forum is the outcome of the endeavour and summarises the ideas and views expressed at these dialogues. Many of the ideas and concepts from these rapporteurs’ notes will be reflected in the Recommendations of the Academic Forum to the Leaders.

Further, it is our sincere hope that this publication will also be a valuable source for researchers working on themes related to the BRICS.

We wholeheartedly thank our BRICS Think Tank Council (BTTC) partners for identifying and deputing the most appropriate scholars and experts to participate in the dialogues. We are also extremely grateful to the scholars for their time and participating in the dialogues and for their valuable ideas. We also owe our gratitude to the rapporteurs for meticulously collating all the important points discussed in the dialogues through their reports.

Read the full report here

• International Affairs
• Indian Foreign Policy
• Economic Diplomacy
• Developing and Emerging Economies
• Africa
• China
• India
• Russia and Eurasia
• Economic Diplomacy
• Economics and Finance
• International Affairs
• STRATEGIC STUDIES

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