ABSTRACT
The incongruence among the BRICS member states has been a point of reference for many critics of the BRICS idea and its significance beyond a talking shop. India has historically associated itself with the non-aligned movement as an alternate vision during the Cold War period. Its interest in BRICS has to be seen in the light of its foreign policy, which mostly has been remarkably uniform over the years. Brazil was a vociferous protagonist of the BRICS grouping under the regimes of Lula and Dilma Rouseff. It was supported by the general upward trend of economic growth and poverty eradication measures, which brought about substantial changes in the lives of the poor in this vast Latin American country. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate-induced and other natural disasters, a realisation has dawned that the ill effects of globalisation and transnational spill overs cannot be simply addressed by the conventional multilateral institutions alone.
