BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The grouping was originally known as "BRIC" before the inclusion of South Africa in 2010. With the possible exception of Russia, the BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialized countries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs; all five are G-20 members. As of 2013, the five BRICS countries represent almost 3 billion people, with a combined nominal GDP of US$14.8 trillion, and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves. Presently, South Africa holds the chair of the BRICS group. The BRICS have received both praise and criticism from numerous quarters.
The BRICS countries include more than 40% of the world’s population and occupy over a quarter of the worlds land area. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are a powerful economic force. The acronym was coined by Jim O’Neill a Goldman Sachs employee in a 2001 paper entitled “Building Better Global Economic BRICs”. The acronym has come into widespread use as a symbol of the shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies to the developing nations.
Political dialogue between the BRIC countries began in New York in September 2006, with a meeting of the BRIC foreign ministers. The BRIC countries met for their first official summit on 16 June 2009, in Russia, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, all attending. The core focus of the summit was related to improving the