India's Journey From "Least Attractive" To One Of Most Reliable BRICS Members

As India gears up to host the 11-member BRICS summit this weekend, it is worth looking at New Delhi's evolving global image from a nation that once demanded a seat at the table to one that is actively commanding the narrative and shaping the global order with indigenous solutions. Once labelled the 'least attractive' BRICS member, India has come a long way since it hosted the grouping's first meeting in 2012. 

The contrast is reflected in how, after 14 years, the gathering in India is being viewed as a counterweight to Western-led groups such as the Group of Seven industrialised nations -- the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK—and advocates for a more multipolar world order.

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Economic Crisis That Shaped The Narrative

In 2012, during India's first chairship, the world was reeling from the Eurozone debt crisis, and concerns reflected the economic mood of the period. Slowing growth, high inflation, and a weak rupee had cast doubts over India's relative performance among major emerging economies. 

Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs, who had coined the BRIC formulation, described New Delhi at the time as the "least attractive" BRIC economy in valuation terms. The debate extended to whether Indonesia should replace India as the "I" in BRIC and whether India was the weakest link in the grouping. 

The same year, Standard & Poor's warned that India could become the first BRIC country to lose its investment-grade sovereign rating, a remarkable indicator of how negatively India's economic trajectory was being viewed at the time. 

India's economy had also slowed sharply, with growth in 2012-13 falling to a sub-5 per cent growth rate with double-digit inflation.

The larger narrative in the global media was that India was no longer being seen as a rising pillar of BRICS, but as its weak link, as an economy struggling to justify its place among the world's leading emerging powers.

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Emergence As a Global Powerhouse

Cut to 2026, India is viewed as one of the grouping's strongest growth engines and an important source of economic and strategic weight. At a time when the biggest economies are dealing with the shock of wars in Europe and the Middle East, India recorded 7.8 per cent real GDP growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026-27. India's sovereign-risk narrative has also reversed. 

In 2012, S&P warned that India risked becoming the first BRIC economy to lose investment-grade status. In September 2026, the Japan Credit Rating Agency upgraded India's sovereign rating from BBB+ to A- with a stable outlook, specifically pointing to India's resilient economic growth, improving fiscal quality, stronger financial system, and robust external position.

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Timing Of The Meeting

India is hosting the 2026 BRICS Summit at a moment when its long-standing approach of strategic autonomy itself carries greater international relevance. Chatham House has noted that a world increasingly shaped by US-China rivalry and geopolitical fragmentation has made India's approach to strategic hedging and middle-power diplomacy very consequential.  

From Russian President Vladimir Putin to Chinese President Xi Jinping, from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the convergence of major leaders in New Delhi is itself a statement of India's growing diplomatic heft and convening power.