Examine India's role in advocating reform of global governance institutions through platforms like BRICS.

Institutions designed in 1945 — the UN Security Council, IMF, World Bank and WTO — no longer mirror today's economic and demographic weight. India's response has been "reformed multilateralism": working within these bodies while building plurilateral leverage through BRICS, consistent with Article 51's mandate to promote international peace and cooperation.

India's reform agenda

• Demands comprehensive reform of global institutions, specifically changes in governance structures, voting rights and leadership positions, with Global South challenges prioritised in policymaking [1].
• Seeks permanent UNSC membership and a functioning WTO dispute-settlement mechanism, arguing that rule-making bodies lack representative legitimacy.
• Frames itself as a voice of the Global South, linking reform to development finance and climate justice rather than to bloc rivalry.

BRICS as the chosen vehicle

• Chairship as agenda-setting: India assumed its fourth BRICS Chairship in 2026 and hosted the 18th Summit at New Delhi (12–13 September 2026), after the 2012, 2016 and 2021 terms [2].
• Documented continuity: the New Delhi Declaration (XIII Summit, 2021) placed reformed multilateralism at the centre of BRICS output [4], a thread India carried into its 2026 deliverables across ministerial tracks [5].
• Institution-building, not only critique: India presses the New Development Bank to lend on demand-driven, long-term-sustainability principles, offering an alternative to Bretton Woods conditionality [1].
• Innovation diplomacy: the BRICS Bharat Innovates Exposition (11–12 September 2026) projected India's deep-tech capability alongside political summitry [3].

Limits of the platform

• BRICS decisions are consensus-based and non-binding; declarations rarely convert into institutional change.
• Asymmetry within the bloc — China's economic weight and the de-dollarisation push — sits uneasily with India's simultaneous Quad engagement.
• Post-2024 expansion widened membership but diluted cohesion.

India's record shows steady normative persuasion rather than decisive reform. Its credibility rests on being a bridge — pressing for representation inside BRICS while keeping the bloc non-adversarial. Sustaining coalitions across G20, IBSA and BRICS, and demonstrating delivery through the NDB, offers the most realistic path to inclusive institutions envisaged by SDG 16.8.