The BRICS summit in New Delhi (September 12-13, 2026) will be a landmark one for a couple of reasons. First, it takes place against the backdrop of geopolitical turbulence unleashed by a combination of forces: raging wars and conflicts, a breakdown in global governance and the changing nature of global alliances. Second, the BRICS now has 11 prominent members (and about 10 of them who are partner countries) and its collective economic output (in purchasing power parity) outstrips that of the G-7, making it the one of the largest and most important transcontinental grouping outside of the West. Last but not the least, technological forces such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing are being weaponised with both great powers trying to win the battle for tech supremacy.India’s BRICS momentIndia must be credited with thorough preparation for this summit. In many ways, India has followed the successful template established when it hosted the G-20 Summit in New Delhi in 2023. In a similar vein, around 350 meetings were conducted by India in cities across the country, with as many as 22 held at the ministerial level. India has announced that it will focus on “building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability”, thus giving a new twist to the BRICS acronym. In doing so, India is seeking to refocus and recalibrate the BRICS agenda.BRICS has traditionally comprised three pillars: political and security; finance and the economy; and, finally, culture and people-to-people exchanges. While all three pillars are important and, indeed, interlinked to an extent, it is the view of this writer that the agenda pursued by India relates more to the second and third pillars than to the first. The leaders will largely decide what to do with the big geopolitical issues of our times. However, substantive outcomes seem assured, given the outcome of the meetings chaired by India so far. Hence, this writer’s sentiment is that, no matter what happens at the summit level, BRICS will have much to show in terms of cooperation across various areas. Quite simply put, BRICS is now too big to either ignore or fail.Building resilience, driving innovationWhen it comes to resilience, the work done by BRICS under India’s stewardship has been stellar. This includes the launch of the BRICS Digital Centre of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage, the adoption of the BRICS Logistics Supply Chain Cooperation Framework, and the establishment of the Centres of Excellence on Agro-Ecology and Regenerative Agriculture, to name just a few initiatives. Once operationalised, these initiatives will provide the ballast needed for BRICS countries to become truly resilient.On innovation, India has tried to push the envelope within BRICS. Proposals such as a start-up innovation fund, an incubator network, a digital public infrastructure repository, a science and research repository, and the action plan of the BRICS Working Group on research infrastructures and mega science projects will be beneficial to all BRICS members, particularly since they are not all at the same level of development when it comes to scientific research.On cooperation, the BRICS leaders will hopefully endorse recommendations pertaining to, but not limited to, revitalising the multilateral trading system; welcoming the network of centres of excellence on mental wellness; establishing the BRICS urbanisation forum; enhancing the digital capacity of women; and, more broadly, intensifying cooperation in areas such as education, youth skilling, and the BRICS Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Cooperation Portal. All of these initiatives provide concrete benefits to the man (or woman) in the street in BRICS countries.It is particularly comforting to note that “sustainability” is very much part of the Indian agenda. The Brazilians made it the centrepiece of their BRICS agenda last year, and India seeks to build on where its Brazilian friends left off. There are specific areas of cooperation under this rubric: combating desertification; developing guidelines for disaster management and forest-fire preparedness; the BRICS forum on sustainable aviation fuels; and advancing climate resilience through people-centric and community-based adaptation. The last of these is critical, since international fora tend to focus almost exclusively on mitigation.The central tenet of the Indian agenda, as may be seen from above, is to create a collaborative platform that enables the sharing of knowledge and best practices, facilitates joint research, and promotes capacity building. If this is not a people-centric, humanity-first approach, then what is?Keeping BRICS on courseBRICS is here to stay and will, slowly but steadily, help its members achieve two central objectives: enhance their strategic options and drive geopolitics towards a truly multipolar world. These are, of course, organising principles of India’s foreign policy. In a world characterised by geopolitical uncertainty, other countries, too, see enormous value in adopting a foreign policy based on these principles. If there is one caveat for the BRICS grouping, it is this: it must avoid getting caught in geopolitical currents that are not necessarily of its making and certainly not of any strategic value for its members. All eyes may be on leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as it should be. But the bigger picture remains that of the BRICS grouping living up to its full potential. The Delhi Summit ought to make concrete progress towards that end.Mohan Kumar is a former Indian Ambassador to France and currently Dean/Professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University. The views expressed are personal