- India has proposed that a digital online exhibition on a shared theme be hosted by the BRICS countries at the end of 2021.
- Union Minister of Culture and Tourism made the suggestion while virtually attending the 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting.
- Delegates from the Culture Ministries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa participated in the meeting.
- During the meeting, discussion was held on the impact of the epidemiological situation on the cultural sphere in the BRICS countries and review of the possible implementation of joint cultural online projects within BRICS.
- India proposed opening the ‘BRICS Corner’ under the auspices of BRICS Alliance of Libraries which is proposed to be inaugurated during India’s BRICS Presidency in 2021.
- The Corner will disseminate information related to the history and culture of the BRICS countries.
- The corner will display books, periodicals and other e-resources gifted by the BRICS countries, viz, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
- The National Gallery of Modern Arts, New Delhi will host the already planned BRICS Joint Exhibition titled ‘Bonding Regions & Imagining Cultural Synergies’ under the auspices of the BRICS Alliance of Art Museums and Galleries.
- The exhibition is scheduled to be organized in 2021 coinciding with the BRICS event that India would be hosting in 2021.
- The exhibition aims to present around 100 works of art from the five prestigious institutions under the BRICS Alliance.
- BRICS is the acronym coined for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC” (or “the BRICs”), before the induction of South Africa in 2010.
- About 27% of the world land surface and 41% of the world population. Four out of five members are among world’s ten largest countries by population and by area, except for South Africa, the twenty-fourth in both.
- The term “BRIC” is believed to be coined in 2001 by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O’Neill, in his publication Building Better Global Economic BRICs.
- But, it was actually coined by Roopa Purushothaman who was a Research Assistant in the original report.
- The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings.
- A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.
