Emergence of BRICS Nations in the

World
Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa

Introduction

BRICS is an association of 5 countries which are

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and
its first summit was held in June 2009. South
Africa joined later in 2010.

BRICS was formed for mainly two reasons, one is

to be an alternative of the world bank and the
IMF and also to challenge the supremacy of USA
and second is to provide self owned and self
managed organisation to run development plans
rather than depending on others.

BRICS Nations and their characteristics

Brazil : Brazil has the seventh largest economy

by nominal GDP in the world, and the seventh
largest by purchasing power parity. The Brazilian
economy is characterised by moderately free
markets and an inward-oriented economy.

Russia : Russia has a high-income mixed

economy with state ownership in strategic areas
of the economy. Market reforms in the 1990s
privatised much of Russian industry and
agriculture, with notable exceptions in the
energy and defense-related sectors.

India : The Economy of India is the seventhlargest in the world by nominal GDP and the
third-largest by purchasing power parity, a
developing economy with approximately 7%
average growth rate for the last two decades.

China : China's socialist market economy[18] is

the world's second largest economy by nominal
GDP,[4][19] and the world's largest economy by
purchasing power parity according to the IMF.
China was the world's fastest-growing major
economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over
30 years.

South Africa : The economy of South Africa is

the second-largest in Africa, behind Nigeria.
South Africa accounts for 24 percent of Africa's
gross domestic product (PPP), and it is ranked as
an upper-middle-income economy by the World
Bank one of only four such countries in Africa.

New Development Bank (NDB) - Shanghai,

China

The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as

the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral
development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa) as an alternative to
the existing American and European-dominated World
Bank and International Monetary Fund. The goal of the
bank is to "mobilise resources for infrastructure and
sustainable development projects in BRICS and other
emerging economies and developing countries". The bank
is headquartered in Shanghai, China. Each participant
country holds an equal number of shares and equal voting
rights, and none of the countries will have veto power.
There will be 1 million shares with a value of USD 100 000
(initially USD 500 000 shares), 20% of which will have to
be directly paid in to the bank in the first 7 years after
entry into force.

Comparing BRICS Nations with the

Developed countries

GDP : Total GDP of the G7 or the most developed nations is

$33.93 trillion and that of the BRICS nations is $15.8 trillion.

HDI : Human Development Index is on the higher side for the

developing countries which goes till 0.938 while for the
developing countries it stays on the average side. India has a
HDI of 0.519.

Population : The total population of the G7 countries is

750.47 mn while that of the BRICS nations is 2.8 bn. These
data further indicates that for the BRICS nations, Per capita is
low and for the G7 countries it is quite high.

Growth Rate : The growth rate is very slow for the

developed countries while for the BRICS nations it is quite
high which attracts investments.

Challenges
In order for the BRICs to be able to seize their full potential in the future they need
to face internal weaknesses and other implications.
One of Brazil's biggest problems is the great deal of political corruption in the
country, as well as being in the middle of the world's greatest socialistic
governments, such as Venezuela and Bolivia.
Along with corruption, Russia's problems lie in its fight against oligarchs,
uncomfortable relations with former Soviet republics and political views and
actions originated from communism that are still in force.
India has confrontations within their country because of their caste system, the
variety of religion, ethnicity and languages. They also have conflicts with Pakistan
and the militancy in Kashmir which disturbs their government from more important
issues.
China's problems involve their suppression of political objectors, insufficient
fundamental freedom and their retention to change their exchange rate and/or let

Conclusion
Comparison between the five countries forming the BRICS show, that their biggest
similarities are the size of their countries, their populations and their economies. These are
the factors that triggered the focus and interest in these countries to begin with, and are the
reason for their growth. There are though as well similarities between them that are not so
positive such as the great corruption which prevails in these countries and lack of free
speech, press and elections. These are things that developed countries do not face such as
the G7 countries which are put in the category of countries with very high human
development whereas the BRICs have either high human development or medium human
development.
Despite this the BRICS economies are growing at great rates and foreign direct investment
is coming into the countries. Their exportation has risen as well and was in 2008 17% of the
world exports.
As has been illustrated in this essay the BRICSs opportunities to grow and become the
largest economies in 2050, is definitely a possibility and the fact that they overcame the
financial crisis also gives evidence that. But they need to aim for less corruption and
improving the economic conditions in order to reach this goal.

THANK YOU!