At a recent BRICS forum, member countries discussed strategies to expand overseas markets, strengthen trade with Africa and Asia, and boost women’s participation in the economy, amid calls for reforms to secure sustainable growth.
At a BRICS forum on Thursday, speakers made the case that India’s next phase of growth will depend on pushing more businesses into overseas markets, widening trade ties across the developing world and giving women entrepreneurs a far stronger role in the economy. India Today reported that the discussion centred on the internationalisation of Indian business, with panelists pointing to opportunities in Africa, China and Russia, as well as the need to turn India’s large domestic market and export base into a more deliberate growth strategy.
That view fits broader analysis of the BRICS economies. The World Economic Forum has described India as one of the group’s more resilient members because its economy is less dependent on exports than some peers and is supported heavily by services. That resilience, however, does not remove the pressure to deepen manufacturing, widen market access and improve the conditions that allow firms to scale beyond India’s borders.
Trade and investment with South Africa featured prominently in the forum, with speakers citing possible cooperation in manufacturing, defence and nuclear energy. Research from the Observer Research Foundation has previously argued that BRICS can still be a useful platform for trade and investment, particularly in building links with Africa and reopening older commercial routes through newer channels. Yet analysts have also warned that the bloc’s internal differences can limit how much members can achieve together, especially where strategic interests do not align.
Women’s economic participation was another major theme. India Today said the panel highlighted the potential of more than 1.9 billion women across BRICS nations and called for stronger support systems, including better access to credit guarantees and more resilient institutions. A BRICS women’s empowerment toolkit published last year also found that limited financing and lower entrepreneurship rates remain persistent barriers across member states, underlining how much untapped growth still sits within the gender gap.
The forum ended with a practical message: opportunity alone is not enough. According to the discussion, stronger courts, faster dispute resolution, easier business procedures, capability-building and social infrastructure are needed if BRICS countries want to convert trade ambitions into durable gains. That argument echoes wider research on the bloc, which suggests that sustainable development will depend not just on bigger markets, but on better institutions, more balanced growth and policies that help firms and households withstand economic and climate shocks.
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