How can platforms like BRICS STI Ministerial meetings help bridge the technology divide between the Global North and Global South?

The technology divide is not merely a gap in devices, but asymmetry in R&D funding, talent retention and standard-setting power that leaves the Global South a rule-taker in frontier technologies. The 14th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Ministerial Meeting at Chennai (August 2026), which adopted the Chennai Declaration under India's Chairship theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability", illustrates how plurilateral science diplomacy can narrow this gap [1].

Pooling research capacity

• Sustained instruments like the BRICS STI Framework Programme's coordinated calls fund multilateral projects, letting members share costly infrastructure in AI, quantum and advanced materials rather than duplicate it [2].
• Ministerial tracks convert scattered bilateral MoUs into a standing agenda — Senior Officials' Meeting → Ministerial → Declaration — giving continuity beyond summits [1].

Financing innovation

• The divide is largely a capital divide; the New Development Bank, with approvals of about USD 39 billion by end-2024, offers development finance outside Western-dominated channels [3].
• Chennai's explicit focus on innovation financing addresses the missing middle between lab research and commercial scale-up [1].

Transferring proven public-tech models

• India shares scalable, low-cost templates — Digital Public Infrastructure, whose Global DPI Repository and Social Impact Fund were created to help Global South adoption [4], the National Quantum Mission [5], and the BioE3 Policy for biomanufacturing [6].

Shaping norms and talent flows

• Collective voice lets members insist that emerging technology remain accessible, affordable, trusted and sustainable, contesting restrictive export-control and IPR regimes [1].
• Talent mobility and young-scientist exchanges counter brain drain by circulating, not exporting, skilled researchers [1].

Such platforms cannot substitute for domestic gross expenditure on R&D or strong institutions; their value lies in aggregating demand, finance and normative weight. If the Chennai Declaration is followed by measurable joint funding and open-source technology sharing, BRICS STI cooperation can advance SDG 9 and SDG 17, making India's Vishwa Bandhu vision of equitable science a working reality.