India gears up to host BRICS summit in March

 India has kicked off preparations to host leaders of the five-nation BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping in March with a competition to design a logo for the 2012 summit.

This will be the fourth BRICS summit that will bring together the leaders of the emerging economic powers to discuss a host of global issues.

However, India hosts the BRICS summit for the first time since the first summit was held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in June 2009.

At that time, South Africa was not part of the grouping that was called BRIC, a term coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to denote the four fastest-growing emerging economies of the world.

Pretoria joined the BRIC, changing the nomenclature of the grouping to BRICS, only in April 2011 at the Sanya summit in China.

According to sources, preparations have already begun. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is expected to visit the capitals of BRICS countries in the next two months to invite the leaders of these countries for the New Delhi summit.

The summit will take place against the backdrop of the deepening global financial crisis with the recession in the eurozone stubbornly persisting, darkening the outlook for a  substantial recovery any time soon.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to meet the leaders of China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa for bilateral talks on the margins of the summit.

As an initial step, the external affairs ministry has announced a competition for design of a logo for the BRICS Summit 2012. The competition is open to all all Indians (resident and non-resident Indian citizens, as well as overseas citizens of India and Persons of Indian Origin). The last date for submissions is Jan 7, 2012. 

The logo, says the ministry's explanatory note, should bring out the essence of this grouping of countries, which has received “unprecedented global attention in recent years and now occupies a prominent space in the global political and economic landscape”.

The BRICS summit will be the first major diplomatic event India will be hosting in 2012. New Delhi will also host the first commemorative India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in December next year.