At the 2014 BRICS Summit held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil, the heads of the member states signed an agreement establishing a New Development Bank (NDB) that will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The NDB is designed to represent all five member nations: it is headquartered in Shanghai, the first President is from India, the first regional office is in Johannesburg, the inaugural Chairman of the Board of Governors, from Russia, and the first Chairman of the Board of Directors, from Brazil.

To aggregate diverse and informed perspectives on both strategic and operational aspects of the bank’s functioning, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) organised an intra-BRICS Experts Workshop on 18-19 June 2015 in New Delhi. The workshop was convened as part of India’s knowledge support to the Russian Presidency of BRICS.

The suggestions outlined by this policy brief are based on the most relevant inputs shared during the workshop. Many of the suggestions are also potential areas for further research.