India BRICS: Sahney Pushes Local Currency, Supply Chain Fixes — SkimNews
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- Vikramjit Singh Sahney told Rajya Sabha that the 11-member BRICS bloc represents nearly half the world's population and must function as a South-South cooperation platform ahead of India's 18th BRICS Summit.
- Sahney flagged severe supply chain disruptions from conflicts in West Asia and the Red Sea, saying soaring freight and fertilizer costs are hitting economies worldwide and demanding an intra-BRICS response.
- Sahney called for harmonizing standards and eliminating non-tariff barriers among BRICS members to unlock intra-bloc trade and reduce exposure to the external shocks he identified.
- Sahney advocated local-currency settlements across BRICS to ease foreign-exchange pressure on member economies and proposed frameworks for youth skill mobility across the bloc.
- Sahney argued artificial intelligence could accelerate advances in agriculture, healthcare, and education across emerging markets if deployed through BRICS cooperation.
Why it matters: With India hosting the summit and Western headlines focused on Putin-Xi photo-ops, Sahney's agenda quietly sets the substantive test: whether BRICS can convert its demographic weight (nearly half of global population, per his figures) into operational trade tools like local-currency settlement and non-tariff barrier removal that would reduce members' exposure to the West Asia and Red Sea freight shock he flagged.
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