Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked BRICS nations to build a cross-border corridor for startups. His pitch: let India be the bridge that connects young companies to markets across the bloc. Speaking at the leaders’ session of the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi on September 11, he urged the grouping to help 100 BRICS startups every year scale into other member markets.
What PM Modi asked for
Addressing the council, PM Modi put three specific asks on the table. A report to identify the top ten trade barriers among BRICS countries and remove them. Support for 100 BRICS startups each year to expand into other member markets. And 1,000 new partnerships between businesses across the five nations.
“As BRICS enters its third decade, I would urge the BRICS Business Council to consider, can you prepare a report on removing the top 10 trade barriers among BRICS countries? Can we support 100 BRICS startups every year to scale into other BRICS markets? Can we develop 1,000 new partnerships among our businesses?” he said.
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India’s pitch rests on its startup numbers
India is home to 2 lakh startups and 120 unicorns. That scale is central to the pitch. New Delhi is positioning BRICS as a technology corridor where startups find new markets and businesses form partnerships. The corridor is also meant to cut regulatory friction. For a founder in Bengaluru or Delhi, entering Brazil or South Africa today means dealing with separate rules, payment rails and paperwork in each market.
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The New Delhi Declaration
The pitch came as the New Delhi Declaration was unanimously adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit. The declaration backed the safe, ethical and human centred use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. That gives the startup push policy cover from all member nations.
Why it matters
Indian startups have long looked west for capital and markets. A corridor inside BRICS would open a different route. These are countries where price points, distribution and customer behaviour look far more like India than Silicon Valley does. The idea is easy to announce and slow to build, because it needs governments to agree on data, payments and compliance. If even the trade barrier report arrives on time, that would be more progress than most such corridors manage in their first few years.