In this episode of Editorial, HW News Managing Editor Sujit Nair speaks on the BRICS Summit in New Delhi. Mr. Nair asks a pertinent question: grandeur aside, what tangible gains have such summits achieved for the common Indian?
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[00:00:00] Such events should happen, more of such events should happen but then this should translate into something. It should not just be reduced to photographs and photo ops and you know great venue and fantastic event management and all that. It should not be reduced to just that. After that function is over nobody bothers to sit down and say okay all this happened what did India get in return.
[00:00:29] Namaskar! Welcome to another episode of editorial. The BRICS annual summit 2026 happening in New Delhi. Lots of leaders, prime ministers, presidents all of them there in Delhi and a lot of people are very excited about it. Everybody is praising the prime minister, the government for such a big show happening in Delhi and a lot of people like I told you are excited about it. In fact,
[00:00:58] Mr. Shashita Roon contradicting his own party man Mr. P. Chidambaram had said that you know it's a great achievement for India, it's a great pride for India that all these people are coming in and all of that. So yeah, I mean there is a lot of buzz, a lot of fanfare, a lot of excitement about the BRICS summit in Delhi 2026. All that is right.
[00:01:22] Honestly speaking, BRICS happening in Delhi is a good thing. International guests, prime ministers, presidents, like I said coming into Delhi, engaging with India, very good thing. India hosting such an important summit, very very good thing.
[00:01:39] See all this is very good. And we should all be proud about it. And criticizing is not really the best thing to do because that's being cynical. So no, we should be very proud about it. But you see the problem with us Indians is that we are satisfied with very little. We don't ask questions. We are satisfied.
[00:01:59] And if somebody says, this person is coming and he came and he went and we are all, we all clap. See, lovely, this big person came to India. We don't bother to ask if he came to India, but what did Indians get? You see, our prime minister goes to another foreign country. He possibly that prime minister or that president goes and touches his feet and all that. We are very excited. But have we bothered to ask?
[00:02:25] What did we get in return? Did Indian, a common Indian get anything out of this? Because the last time I saw in Sindur, Operation Sindur, no country supported us with all this fanfare. No country actually went out and supported us.
[00:02:42] China supported Pakistan, if I am not mistaken. But that being said, all that is thing of the past. Let us keep it there. Like I said, let's not be cynical. Let's not criticize everything. Let's not question everything. But let us look at BRICS as it is today.
[00:02:58] My problem is when you hold such an event like we had G20 2024. These kind of events are very good. We spend a lot of money. We spend a lot of public time. You utilize a lot of public infrastructure. All of that we do. And we host these kind of functions, which is very good. But end of the day, after that function is over, nobody bothers to sit down and say, okay, all this happened. What did India get in return?
[00:03:24] Did it increase our trade? Did it increase our investment? Did it increase employment? Did it increase technology transfers? Did it increase cooperation? Did it increase our security? Are more countries now going to come forward to be part of us, to support us if we have an eventuality like Sindur in the future?
[00:03:45] Do we ask these questions? Don't you think those questions are important? Don't you think that we should be asking these questions? That's the point I'm trying to make. Now, as always, let us get into some figures. Let's take some BRIC countries and let's look at our trade with these BRIC countries.
[00:04:03] Let's start with China. China, we are in deficit. You know how much? We are in deficit of minus $112.16 billion USD. That is our deficit with China. Russia, we are trading in deficit. You know what is the deficit? $50 billion. United Arab Emirates, even there, we are in deficit. $26.53 billion.
[00:04:25] Saudi Arabia, we are in deficit. $20 billion. Indonesia, we are in deficit. $15.80 billion. Brazil, we are in deficit. $1.03 billion. South Africa, we are in deficit. $0.15 billion. Egypt, we are in positive. There, we are in surplus. $1.27 billion. That is the surplus.
[00:04:48] Ethiopia, we are in surplus. $0.19 billion. This is our standing. In totality, with all these countries, we are in deficit of $226.10 billion. $226.10 billion. We are in deficit when we trade with these companies. What does that mean? We buy more from them, give them money and we sell less to them.
[00:05:13] This is the idea. We trade, but they benefit. We don't. That is the current situation. Did we bother to, or do we bother to ask our government, our administrators, that all this is very good, photo ops are all very good, but is it therefore helping our trade? Because if it helps our trade, it will help our employment. It will help our youth. If it helps our trade, it will help our infrastructure.
[00:05:42] If it helps our trade, it will help a common Indian to have a better lifestyle, to eat better, to drink better. It will help. Do we ask these, our administrator, what all this happened? But what is this? How does this trade thing kind of even out? Did we bother to ask, or do we bother to ask? And unfortunately, whenever somebody bothers to ask, or somebody says something, you are termed as, you know, you are anti-national, or you are cynical, or every day you are criticizing.
[00:06:11] You see, the idea is not criticizing. Good that Bricsar is happening in Delhi. Very good. Happy. Very happy. But end of the day, is that actually, shouldn't we be also asking, how is it translating into the company? I'll give you an example. You see, in corporates, in corporates, if you have a great launch event for your brand, you maximum are kind of, on passing, somebody will say, hey, good, here, your launch event was good.
[00:06:39] That is all you get. Finally, when you go, end of the day, to the board with your numbers, with your profit and loss statement, that is how you are judged. That is when you are judged. Your board will ask you, event, okay? Boss, end of the day, that is symbolism. That is feel good. That is pride for the company, good event and all that. That is very good.
[00:07:02] End of the day, what is your balance sheet? Your promotions, your increments, your everything comes with that balance sheet that you produce. And you say that, listen, you know what, this is what the benefit I'm doing for the company. This is what I'm doing in rupee and up, I say. This is what I'm doing in brand. That's when it happens. That's when you get your pat on your back. So, end of the day, isn't that the same way? We should be judging our country. We should be judging our administrators. We should be judging our ministers.
[00:07:32] Except for saying that, oh, he hugged. Oh, what a hug. So beautifully hugged. And you know, I've seen some television channels. You know, the prime minister had to put his hand out to reach out and then the president was bought into the... My God, what are we talking about? How is that going to help? And if it is not going to help, why do I want to know about all this? Why do I want to get a running commentary of all this?
[00:07:56] So, somewhere down the line, I conclude by saying, great, good, happy. Such events should happen. More of such events should happen. But then this should translate into something. It should not just be reduced to photographs and photo ops and, you know, great venue and fantastic event management.
[00:08:14] And all that. It should not be reduced to just that. It should translate to something. There has to be, after every major meeting, there has to be a press conference, which of course we don't see normally. But whoever, if the prime minister himself cannot give press conference, he can only attend meetings with big people. If he can ask, appoint somebody to do that press conference, to tell the people of this country that, listen, this event happened.
[00:08:39] And because of this event, seven of these actions took place. This is how it affected trade. This is how it affected cooperation. This is how it affected security. This is how it affected defense. This is how it affected our technology. So on and so forth. Then we are happy. Then we are happy. Then as common people, as low lying common people who doesn't even have the right to ask questions, we are happy. At least something the government is doing for us.
[00:09:05] Isn't that fair? Isn't it a fair ask? So my submission is very simple. My submission is, end of the day, stomach, hunger, need is as important as pride. I'm not saying it is pride is less important. I'm saying it's as important. We should be proud. We should make our country proud. Our country should make us proud. This is very important. But so is hunger. So these are not mutually exclusive.
[00:09:33] Your events like this should lead to trade benefits. Your events like this should lead to benefiting a common Indian. Then these events makes a lot of sense. It gives us pride. And it also gives us results. That's the point I'm trying to make till I see you next time. That's tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.