Tag Archives: brics

The QR Code That Changed India-III

Part III: From the Tea Stall to the World The story of UPI would be incomplete if it ended with the QR code at the neighbourhood shop. What began as an attempt to make domestic payments simpler has now acquired a larger significance. India is increasingly exploring whether the architecture that transformed payments at homeContinue reading “The QR Code That Changed India-III”

The QR Code That Changed India-II

Part II: The Price of Free There is a curious paradox about UPI. The more successful it has become, the easier it is to forget that it costs money to run. For the user, a UPI payment is almost completely frictionless. We scan a QR code, enter an amount, authenticate the transaction and the moneyContinue reading “The QR Code That Changed India-II”

BRICS: The Delhi Moment

The New Delhi BRICS Summit could hardly have come at a more difficult moment. The world is fractured by wars, trade tensions, sanctions and strategic rivalries. Even multilateral forums that were once accustomed to producing carefully negotiated statements are increasingly finding consensus difficult. Against this backdrop, the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration by allContinue reading “BRICS: The Delhi Moment”

Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-II

Part II: What Can Bring Them Together If geopolitics is the fault line running through BRICS, what can hold it together? The answer may lie not in trying to resolve the world’s political differences, but in finding areas where countries with very different interests can still work together. This is where India’s opportunity begins. WhatContinue reading “Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-II”

Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-I

Part I: The Geopolitical Trap BRICS returns to Delhi at a moment when the world seems unusually divided. But before asking what India can do with the grouping, it is worth asking what BRICS has achieved so far—and whether its original economic promise has been overtaken by geopolitics. A Summit at a Difficult Moment NewContinue reading “Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-I”