| Summary/Abstract |
The genesis of BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China, predecessor of present-day BRICS) as a multilateral grouping of the four developing or emerging economies can be traced back to September 2006, with the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in a bid to explore measures of economic and political cooperation among the member-States. Officially, the organization came into existence in 2009, and with the inclusion of South Africa as the fifth member in April 2011, BRIC was re-christened BRICS. Till date, the BRICS member-states have held seven Summits and the latest in Ufa, Russia (July 2015) has been a watershed with the entry into force of the New Development Bank/BRICS Bank and the Contingent Reserves Arrangement. The BRICS Bank is heralded as an alternative to the World Bank-International Monetary Fund-led international economic architecture. However, it remains to be testified whether the BRICS Bank can evolve as a pulsating alternative to the WB-IMF-led financial system, though there is no way denying its establishment as a stepping stone for providing a predominantly South-South economic cooperative mechanism.
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