Why in news?

India’s Minister for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh, who chaired the 9th BRICS Science & Technology Ministers meet held on November 26, 2021, has called for working towards rightful place for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in the Global Innovation Index and this, he said, can be achieved through further strengthening the cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

About BRICS

Member countries:

• BRICS is an acronym for 5 emerging economies of the world viz. – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC” (or “the BRICs”) before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

Term coined by:

• The term BRIC was coined by Jim O’ Neil, the then chairman of Goldman Sachs in 2001.

First BRIC Summit:

• The first BRIC summit took place in the year 2009 in Yekaterinburg (Russia).

Significance:

• The BRICS have a combined area of 39,746,220 km2 (15,346,101.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 3.21 billion, or about 26.656% of the world land surface and 41.53% of the world population.
• Four out of five members are among the world’s ten largest countries by population and by area, except for South Africa, the twenty-fourth in both.