Examine India's evolving institutional capacity for mega-event security management, comparing the G20 Summit (2023) and BRICS Summit (2026) experiences.

Mega-event security in India has moved from ad hoc VIP protection to a rehearsed, repeatable template. The G20 Summit (2023) and the 18th BRICS Summit at New Delhi on 12–13 September 2026 [1] together show a maturing capacity, though its institutionalisation remains incomplete.

G20 2023: building the template

• Apex political ownership: a G20 Coordination Committee chaired by the Principal Secretary to the PM reviewed security and logistics, and a Multi-Agency Control Room was set up at Bharat Mandapam to synchronise agencies [3].
• Layered deployment: Delhi Police anchored airport security, carcade management, venue and delegate-hotel protection, drawing on CAPFs, the NSG and the Armed Forces [4].
• Cost of the method: security was purchased through disruption — blanket airspace curbs and large-scale flight cancellations at IGI Airport.

BRICS 2026: refinement over reinvention

• Institutional learning: the same template was reapplied rather than rebuilt — stakeholder departments were jointly directed on traffic, security, civic upkeep and emergency medical readiness, with carcade rehearsals and traffic diversions tested days in advance [2].
• Civil–military sharing: about 35 special aircraft were absorbed by using the IAF's Palam technical area alongside IGI, with Noida International, Hindon and Safdarjung airports taking parking load — dispersal instead of shutdown.
• Calibrated regulation: the DGCA, as the civil aviation regulator [5], curbed non-scheduled flights, drones and flying-training operations while scheduled commercial services continued — proportionate restriction replacing closure.

Persisting gaps

• Capacity is Delhi-centric and coordination-committee driven; there is no standing statutory authority for mega-event security, so learning rests on transferred SOPs and individual officers.
• Sustained diversion of police and central forces, and residual public inconvenience, remain unaddressed.

India's trajectory from G20 to BRICS is thus one of genuine consolidation: the same architecture, applied with finer calibration and lower civic cost. Converting this experiential learning into a permanent national mega-event security framework — with codified SOPs, pre-designated agency roles and capacity beyond the capital — would let India host global gatherings with security and citizen convenience reinforcing, not trading off against, each other.