Updated on September 11, 2026, 9:20 PM: World leaders have begun arriving in New Delhi ahead of tomorrow’s formal opening. Russian President Vladimir Putin landed for a three-day visit — his first in-person BRICS participation outside Russia since the war in Ukraine began in 2022. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also attending, his first trip to India in seven years, and will hold a bilateral meeting with PM Modi. Modi also met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, while Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim has landed in Delhi.
Ahead of the leaders’ summit, the BRICS Business Forum opened at Bharat Mandapam, bringing together ministers, business leaders and startups from across the 11-member bloc.
EAM S. Jaishankar told delegates that India brings “a large and growing market, expanding manufacturing capabilities, deeper pools of talent, digital experience and a dynamic innovation and entrepreneurial base.” Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and BRICS Business Council Chair Jai Shroff also addressed the forum, tying India’s four chairship priorities — Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability — directly to business interests.
The 18th BRICS Summit, to be held on September 12–13, 2026 in New Delhi, puts artificial intelligence governance, cross-border digital payments, and a proposed startup innovation fund at the center of its agenda for the first time. This clearly signals that the bloc’s 11 members now treat technology policy as core diplomatic business, not a side conversation.
Why this BRICS summit is different
Every BRICS summit has technology on the agenda somewhere. This edition is different because India, holding the chairship for a record fourth time, built the entire year around it.
The 2026 theme — “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” — isn’t just a slogan stapled onto a communiqué. It’s the product of roughly 400 working-level meetings held across nearly 30 Indian cities over the past year, feeding proposals on AI, digital payments, startups, and infrastructure directly into the leaders’ summit at Bharat Mandapam.
That groundwork matters for anyone covering this beat: the real story isn’t the two days of leader-level photo-ops. It’s whether a year of technical negotiation between 11 governments with very different digital philosophies — India, China, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia — can produce anything more binding than shared language.
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The five tech storylines to watch
1. A proposed BRICS startup innovation fund
India is pushing for BRICS to formally become a technology partnership, with three asks:
– A shared startup innovation fund
– An incubator network spanning member states
– A shared research repository for early-stage science and technology work.
2. AI governance moves from sidebar to centerpiece
For the first time, AI governance sits alongside digital public infrastructure as a top-tier BRICS agenda item. The unresolved question underneath it: who writes the rules for the emerging digital economy when the bloc includes both open-data advocates and states that prioritize digital sovereignty.
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3. Cross-border digital payments and CBDC interoperability
India continues to push for interoperability between BRICS members’ payment systems and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The explicit framing from New Delhi: this is about making cross-border transactions faster and cheaper, not building a single BRICS currency to rival the dollar.
4. Ethical AI, smart cities, and urban tech
Working groups held earlier in India’s chairship year covered the ethical use of AI, disaster-risk reduction technology, resilient housing, inclusive smart cities, and a joint push toward future-ready digital transport systems. These threads are less headline-grabbing but represent where a lot of the actual technical alignment work has already happened — worth mining if you want an under-covered angle.
5. Following up on India’s AI Impact Summit
In February, the India-AI Impact Summit became the first global AI summit ever hosted in the global south, drawing more than 100 invited countries and leaders from twenty nations. BRICS 2026 reads as India cashing in that momentum on a larger, more geopolitically loaded stage. This is a natural through-line if you’re tracking India’s AI diplomacy across the year.
FAQ: BRICS Summit 2026 technology agenda
When and where is the BRICS Summit 2026?
The 18th BRICS Summit takes place September 12–13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India.
What is India’s BRICS 2026 theme?
“Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” — India’s fourth time chairing BRICS, after 2012, 2016, and 2021.
What tech proposals is India pushing at BRICS 2026?
A startup innovation fund, a cross-BRICS incubator network, a shared research repository, AI governance cooperation, and interoperable digital payment/CBDC systems.
Will BRICS create a single digital currency?
No. India has explicitly framed the payments push as interoperability between existing national systems, not a unified BRICS currency.
Who are the current BRICS members in 2026?
Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia — 11 full members.
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