Modi's BRICS plan: youth, farmers and women to get support from 21 nations

At the BRICS summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a new roadmap for India's sustainable development and progress. Focusing on ordinary people in BRICS countries, he laid out a broad plan. Modi said clearly that this cooperation should not be limited to governments alone, and that India's youth, farmers and women would get direct support from all 21 countries. Businesses, startups, farmers, workers, researchers, women and youth would also be directly involved.

PM Modi spoke about several portals, networks and modes of cooperation in areas such as MSMEs, startups, agriculture, skilling, social security, urban mobility and clean energy. Modi said, "We want our entrepreneurs, farmers, researchers, women, youth and ordinary citizens to participate actively in this." According to India, the expanded BRICS group accounts for 49.5 percent of the world's population and 40 percent of global GDP.

At the summit, Modi raised several points, but stressed one in particular: that this platform should not remain merely a bridge for cooperation between governments. He called for greater participation from entrepreneurs, farmers, researchers, women, youth and ordinary citizens, and said cooperation needed to be expanded through institutions and networks that can work across member countries.

Modi referred to the BRICS MSME Cooperation Portal, created to connect small businesses in member countries with finance, information and new markets. According to information available on PIB, the platform will connect MSMEs with technology centres, financial institutions, trade associations, training institutes and policymakers. BRICS has also created an incubator network linking national nodal agencies, selected incubators and startups of member countries, aimed at giving eligible startups access to incubators and experts outside their own country.

Modi also stressed increasing the use of technology in farming through the "BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture". The initiative aims to bring artificial intelligence, geo-spatial technology and digital public infrastructure to farming, agro-forestry, fisheries and aquaculture. BRICS countries have also created a network of "centres of excellence" focused on agro-ecology and regenerative farming. Modi said these centres would work to combine traditional farming knowledge with modern scientific methods to improve resilience to climate change and agricultural productivity.

For jobs and social security, Modi mentioned another initiative called "BRICS Connect", a network for BRICS cooperation on capacity building, employability and new skills and technology. This platform covers skilling and employability, social security systems, women's participation in the workforce, and digital public infrastructure. For urban development, Modi also mentioned the "BRICS Urban Mobility Hub", a platform for exchanging ideas and methods on affordable, accessible and sustainable transport for member countries.

In the energy sector, a "Digital Centre of Excellence" for smart grids and energy storage has also been launched as a cooperation platform, through which member countries will be able to share technical knowledge, regulatory frameworks and pilot project experience related to power grids and energy storage. Modi said this initiative could help make clean energy systems more efficient, reliable and accessible.

Modi said that many of the mechanisms and systems he mentioned are already running as networks or platforms, while some are still at the proposal stage. He said he wanted BRICS measures to also be made available to the "Global South", and that initiatives launched under BRICS should eventually extend beyond the group.