With expansion, BRICS faces a coherence-versus-relevance dilemma. How can India's "ecosystem of solutions" approach help?

BRICS has grown beyond its founding five members. The expanded grouping now includes Egypt, the UAE and Iran [1]. This makes it more relevant as a Global South platform, but less coherent as members' interests pull apart. At the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla cited PM Modi's vision of BRICS as an "ecosystem of solutions" [1]. That approach offers a way to keep both relevance and coherence.

The Dilemma

• Relevance gains
• Wider geographic reach across West Asia and Africa.
• Major energy producers and consumers at one table.

• A louder collective voice for reform of multilateral institutions.

• Coherence losses

• Diverse political systems, from competitive multi-party Parliaments to systems with weak opposition, make joint declarations thin.
• Rivalries inside the group: India–China border tensions, and West Asian members with competing regional stakes.
• Divergent visions: some members want an anti-Western bloc, while India wants a non-Western, not anti-Western platform.
• Consensus decision-making gets slower as membership grows.

How the "Ecosystem of Solutions" Approach Helps

• Outcomes over rhetoric: Birla said success should be judged by the "depth of outcomes", not the breadth of discussions [1]. This moves BRICS away from ideological alignment and towards results every member can accept.
• Issue-based cooperation: members can work together where their interests meet, such as development finance through the New Development Bank, health, climate adaptation and counter-terrorism. They do not need to agree on everything.
• Sharing Indian public goods: Digital Public Infrastructure (e.g., UPI) and low-cost health solutions are models other Global South countries can copy.
• Multi-track depth: India took the chair of the parliamentary track at the 11th Forum in Brasília [2][3]. This track adds democratic, people-to-people legitimacy. Birla also said Parliaments can "ease international tensions" [1].
• Youth and demographic focus: more than 65% of Indians are under 35 [2]. A shared agenda on skills, jobs and technology gives the expanded group a common, forward-looking purpose.

The expanded BRICS can stay relevant without everyone having to think alike. India's approach builds cooperation on measurable, demand-driven solutions instead of bloc politics, so the group's diversity becomes a range of practical partnerships. Pursued with strategic autonomy, this can make BRICS a credible voice for a fairer, multipolar world order, in keeping with India's ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.