‘Forget BRICS, look towards the US and Europe’: Surjit Bhalla questions how the bloc has benefitted India
Surjit Bhalla said China and Russia, two of the biggest partners, also carry two rather massive unanswered questions – the Russia-Ukraine war and Beijing’s silence on the origin of the COVID virus and its expansive mercantilism.
- Sep 11, 2026,
- Updated Sep 11, 2026 1:25 PM IST
BRICS Summit 2026: India must discard BRICS and look Westward – towards Europe and towards the US, argued economist Surjit Bhalla, chairperson, Technical Expert Group for the first official Household Income Survey for India. He said his arguments are not just against how India has benefitted from the BRICS bloc, but also what the grouping has become.
“It’s a good time to ask: In 17 years of summits, what has membership bought India,” asked Bhalla in an opinion piece for The Indian Express at a time the BRICS leaders have descended in the national capital to attend the BRICS Summit 2026.
He argued that the US takes a fifth of our goods exports and over half of our software exports, sends 28 per cent of our remittances, holds $390 billion of Indian securities, and has put around $100 billion of direct investments in India.
In comparison, China has invested $2.5 billion in India and had a record $112 billion deficit in 2025-26, while Russia sold $47 billion of oil to India and bought only $4.9 billion of everything. Bhalla said we must not forget that China also throttled our rare earth magnets and pulled Foxconn’s engineers from our iPhone plats.
Set against this, what should India do, he asked. “Forget BRICS. Our future is as a global partner of the West – Europe and the US. And note, and remember, who gains if India does not sign a trade deal with America,” he wrote in the piece.
He also said China and Russia, two of the biggest partners, also carry two rather massive unanswered questions – the Russia-Ukraine war and Beijing’s silence on the origin of the COVID virus and its expansive mercantilism.
THE GORDIAN KNOT
Bhalla, in his piece, pointed out that in the Rio declaration of July 2025, China and Russia called for Brazil and India to play a greater role in the UN and the Security Council. But it is now the familiar trot, he argued. China and Russia are still calling for a greater role for Brazil and India, not the candidature.
He argued that India has pledged about $40 billion for all the members of the New Development Bank, the multilateral development bank established by the BRICS nations, and committed “a further $18 billion to the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the 2014 answer to the IMF”. No member has drawn a dollar in the 11 years, he said.
“A decade’s cost: Capital tied up in a bank that does not lend at scale, and an insurance premium nobody has claimed,” wrote Bhalla.
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He said mercantilism has exploded and there has been no correction to the undervalued currency. “An overvalued currency corrects itself, because deficits must be financed; an undervalued one need never correct. BRICS has never asked that question of China, and will not ask it at a summit India chairs. We are not in that room to be heard. We are there as window dressing,” he wrote.
The World Bank’s income threshold from July 2026 is $14,375. Russia’s income per head was $15,330 in 2024, Brazil $9,930, South Africa $6,110, and China, at $13,660, but India is at only $2,550.
“India is at $2,550, and to be viksit by 2047 must raise income per head by about 10 per cent a year in dollars; over 11 years we have managed 4.9 per cent. The countries that have done what we are attempting — Korea, Poland, Vietnam climbing now — are not in the room,” he said.
BRICS Summit 2026: India must discard BRICS and look Westward – towards Europe and towards the US, argued economist Surjit Bhalla, chairperson, Technical Expert Group for the first official Household Income Survey for India. He said his arguments are not just against how India has benefitted from the BRICS bloc, but also what the grouping has become.
“It’s a good time to ask: In 17 years of summits, what has membership bought India,” asked Bhalla in an opinion piece for The Indian Express at a time the BRICS leaders have descended in the national capital to attend the BRICS Summit 2026.
He argued that the US takes a fifth of our goods exports and over half of our software exports, sends 28 per cent of our remittances, holds $390 billion of Indian securities, and has put around $100 billion of direct investments in India.
In comparison, China has invested $2.5 billion in India and had a record $112 billion deficit in 2025-26, while Russia sold $47 billion of oil to India and bought only $4.9 billion of everything. Bhalla said we must not forget that China also throttled our rare earth magnets and pulled Foxconn’s engineers from our iPhone plats.
Set against this, what should India do, he asked. “Forget BRICS. Our future is as a global partner of the West – Europe and the US. And note, and remember, who gains if India does not sign a trade deal with America,” he wrote in the piece.
He also said China and Russia, two of the biggest partners, also carry two rather massive unanswered questions – the Russia-Ukraine war and Beijing’s silence on the origin of the COVID virus and its expansive mercantilism.
THE GORDIAN KNOT
Bhalla, in his piece, pointed out that in the Rio declaration of July 2025, China and Russia called for Brazil and India to play a greater role in the UN and the Security Council. But it is now the familiar trot, he argued. China and Russia are still calling for a greater role for Brazil and India, not the candidature.
He argued that India has pledged about $40 billion for all the members of the New Development Bank, the multilateral development bank established by the BRICS nations, and committed “a further $18 billion to the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the 2014 answer to the IMF”. No member has drawn a dollar in the 11 years, he said.
“A decade’s cost: Capital tied up in a bank that does not lend at scale, and an insurance premium nobody has claimed,” wrote Bhalla.
MUST READ | BRICS Summit 2026: Where the global leaders and officials are staying
He said mercantilism has exploded and there has been no correction to the undervalued currency. “An overvalued currency corrects itself, because deficits must be financed; an undervalued one need never correct. BRICS has never asked that question of China, and will not ask it at a summit India chairs. We are not in that room to be heard. We are there as window dressing,” he wrote.
The World Bank’s income threshold from July 2026 is $14,375. Russia’s income per head was $15,330 in 2024, Brazil $9,930, South Africa $6,110, and China, at $13,660, but India is at only $2,550.
“India is at $2,550, and to be viksit by 2047 must raise income per head by about 10 per cent a year in dollars; over 11 years we have managed 4.9 per cent. The countries that have done what we are attempting — Korea, Poland, Vietnam climbing now — are not in the room,” he said.