Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday, June 11, 2026, announced the commencement of the 13th BRICS Urbanisation Forum, a high-level gathering of policymakers, urban experts and stakeholders from across BRICS member nations convened to deliberate on people-centric, resilient and sustainable urban development.

Context

The forum is being held under India's 2026 BRICS Chairship, with the theme 'Cities for People: BRICS Cooperation for Inclusive and Resilient Urban Futures'. Khattar, who holds the portfolio of Housing and Urban Affairs in addition to Power, described the forum as 'a vital platform to exchange best practices, foster innovation and strengthen cooperation in shaping the cities of tomorrow.'

The event brings together urban planners, city administrators and government representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and the grouping's newer member states. Its focus on inclusive and resilient urban futures reflects the shared pressures of rapid urbanisation facing all BRICS economies.

Policy Backdrop

The BRICS Urbanisation Forum is a recurring thematic platform that has steadily grown in scope as the grouping expanded its agenda beyond macroeconomic coordination. The BRICS New Development Bank, established in 2014, has been a key financing vehicle for infrastructure and sustainable urban projects across member states, providing institutional muscle to the forum's deliberations.

India's domestic urban policy record lends added weight to its role as host. The Smart Cities Mission, launched in 2015, has positioned India as a practitioner of technology-driven urban development — a model that Indian officials have consistently highlighted in multilateral settings. The 2021 BRICS Summit, also hosted by India, similarly foregrounded people-centric development as a core cooperative priority.

India's 2026 chairship continues a pattern of using BRICS thematic forums to showcase domestic programmes while advancing South-South knowledge exchange, particularly as the grouping navigates its post-2024 membership expansion and a broader institutional identity shift.

Stakeholders and Impact

Urban planners and city administrators from across BRICS nations stand to benefit most directly from the forum's proceedings. The platform is designed to surface replicable models — whether in affordable housing, climate-resilient infrastructure or digital urban governance — that member states can adapt to their own contexts.

For India, the forum is also an opportunity to project its urban development credentials on a multilateral stage at a moment when cities such as Pune, Surat and Indore have drawn international attention for smart-city and sanitation initiatives. The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, which Khattar heads, is the nodal body coordinating India's participation.

What's Next

Observers will watch for any joint statements, urban development frameworks or cooperative deliverables that emerge from the forum and feed into the broader BRICS 2026 Summit agenda. Ministerial-level follow-up meetings and working-group outcomes will be the clearest indicator of whether the forum's deliberations translate into concrete South-South urban cooperation commitments.