All you need to know about BRICS

The eighth edition of the international BRICS conference is happening in Goa’s Taj Hotel. The leaders from various countries are participating in the summit. BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The 8th BRICS Summit is being held in Goa from Oct 15 to 16.

On the occasion, we are presenting some important facts about BRICS.

# BRICS started in 2008 as a group of four. South Africa was included afterwards.

# The first BRIC meeting was held in Sapporo on the eve of the Toyako-Hokkaido Summit in 2008.

# At the third summit of BRIC, South Africa was invited to join forming the BRICS.

# The five countries include 3.6 billion people which is about half of the population of world.

# All the five countries are among the most populated countries of the world. They all feature in top 25 most populated countries.

# The term BRIC was first used in 2001 by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill.

# The Goa Summit has been organized at a time when three of the major countries – Russia, India and China have many strategic and political priorities to pursue.

# The BRICS summit covers many diverse topics. It has evolved from just having financial-trade context to having issues like global governance, development policies, peace and security, energy and climate change, and social issues.