India's 2026 BRICS presidency has made a substantive contribution to the development agenda of the Global South, successfully pushing for the concerns of developing nations to be treated as central — rather than peripheral — to global governance, according to a new report. The assessment underscores how New Delhi has leveraged its chairmanship to bring concrete, experience-backed proposals to the bloc's table.

Digital Public Infrastructure as a Model

A standout contribution from India's presidency has been its promotion of digital public infrastructure (DPI) as a development tool. Over the past decade, India has built a digital ecosystem — anchored by Aadhaar, UPI, and the broader India Stack — that has transformed how millions of citizens access payments, banking, and public services.

UPI, which originated as a domestic payment infrastructure, has since become a global reference point for accessible and interoperable digital finance. Its international footprint now spans countries including France, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and the UAE. According to the report, India's experience offers developing nations a working model of how digital public systems can be built around everyday economic activity rather than institutional prestige. As the report observes, 'The initiative is significant because it moves the conversation from technology as a marker of national prestige to technology as a means of expanding economic participation.'

Development Finance and the NDB's Role

Finance is another arena where India's BRICS engagement carries wider significance for the developing world. The core challenge for many low- and middle-income countries, the report notes, is not merely a shortage of investment — it is the prohibitive cost of accessing it and the structural difficulty of securing funds for projects without immediate commercial returns.

The New Development Bank (NDB), established by BRICS in 2015 and headquartered in Shanghai, was designed to address precisely this gap. Unlike the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — the traditional Bretton Woods institutions — the NDB's founding members committed equal initial capital, giving the institution a more equitable voting structure.

India has been among the NDB's principal beneficiaries. Financing from the bank has supported projects such as the Madhya Pradesh Major District Roads Project, approved to improve road connectivity and transport infrastructure — illustrating how the bank's mandate extends beyond financial reform rhetoric to ground-level development needs.

MSMEs, Local Currency and Expanding Access

India's presidency has also pushed for a BRICS financial agenda that goes beyond large, state-backed infrastructure. According to the report, 'India's emphasis on MSMEs, investment cooperation and local-currency financing is relevant here. Small businesses are often more exposed to credit constraints and currency volatility than large corporations. Easier access to finance could make a difference to employment, entrepreneurship and local economic activity.'

This framing seeks to broaden the bloc's financial architecture so that smaller economic actors — not just sovereign borrowers — can benefit, potentially creating wider employment and income opportunities in the developing world.

Broader Agenda: Health, Agriculture and Sustainability

Beyond finance and digital infrastructure, India's BRICS presidency has sought to place health, agriculture, sustainability, and innovation on the bloc's agenda — areas the report identifies as closely tied to societal resilience across the Global South. The multi-pronged approach signals an effort to make the BRICS platform relevant to a wider spectrum of development challenges rather than limiting it to macroeconomic or geopolitical concerns.

As India's presidency draws to a close, the question of whether these contributions translate into durable institutional shifts — particularly in development finance and digital cooperation — will define the long-term legacy of its 2026 chairmanship.