Discuss the significance of sectoral (non-economic) ministerial tracks, such as Youth and Sports, in strengthening BRICS as a multilateral platform.

BRICS began as an economic and financial grouping, but its annual chairship calendar today runs dozens of sectoral ministerial tracks. India's BRICS Chairship 2026, themed "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability", illustrated this when it hosted the Youth and Sports Ministers' Meetings at Visakhapatnam on 22–23 August 2026 [1]. Such tracks are not ceremonial add-ons; they broaden the grouping's base.

Widening BRICS from an economic bloc to a comprehensive platform

• Summit declarations already span health, terrorism, trade and governance reform, as in the Rio de Janeiro Declaration [2]; sectoral tracks supply the year-round machinery beneath them.
• India's 2021 chairship similarly produced firsts like the BRICS Digital Health Summit and a Counter-Terrorism Action Plan, showing sectoral work generating durable deliverables [3].

People-centric legitimacy and soft power

• Youth and sports engage citizens directly, giving a leaders-level grouping visible social content and a "humanity-first" framing [1].
• Hosting in Visakhapatnam rather than Delhi spreads diplomatic visibility across India's federal units.
• Sports diplomacy complements domestic reform such as the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 [4], letting India project standards it is itself adopting.

Cohesion within an expanded membership

• With eleven members after enlargement, low-controversy sectoral cooperation builds habits of consensus where hard security or currency questions divide members [1].
• Outcome documents like the Youth Cooperation Framework create continuity across rotating chairships [1].

Limitations

• Declarations are non-binding, lack dedicated financing, and risk becoming symbolic without follow-up mechanisms.

Sectoral tracks thus convert BRICS from a periodic summit into a continuous, multi-layered platform whose legitimacy rests on people, not merely on GDP shares. Their promise will be realised if declarations are matched with institutional follow-up — implementation review, exchange programmes and measurable targets. Anchored in India's people-centric chairship vision and aligned with SDG commitments on youth and well-being, these tracks can make BRICS a credible voice of the Global South.