India: 'Least Business-Friendly' Among BRICS Nations

BRICS Economies

In economic terms, “BRIC” is an acronym coined by Jim O’Neill in 2001, referring to the countries Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all believed to be having similar status of newly advanced economic development.

The acronym has ever since come into use as a symbol of the shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies towards the developing world. It is also estimated that the BRIC nations would outshine G7 economies by 2027. Goldman Sachs has argued that by 2050 the four BRIC nations’ combined economies would eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world.

Till recently South Africa was not a part of BRIC economies. Economists at the Reuters 2011 Investment Outlook Summit, held in December 2010, even dismissed the idea of South Africa joining the BRIC nations. However, when the BRIC nations formed a political organization among themselves, they expanded to include South Africa, becoming “BRICS”.