India’s Bold Pitch at BRICS: Time to Build a Borderless Startup Revolution?

In a world that’s rapidly pivoting toward innovation-led growth, the startup ecosystem has emerged as a powerful equalizer — enabling emerging economies to leapfrog developmental gaps and rewrite their futures. And now, India is placing startups at the heart of international cooperation.

At the recently held 9th BRICS Industry Ministers’ Meeting in Brasília, India didn’t just participate — it led with vision. With a clear call to deepen cooperation among BRICS nations in the startup sector, India underscored the urgent need to create a more integrated, inclusive, and innovation-driven startup landscape across borders. But this wasn’t just another diplomatic statement.

India backed its intent with action — officially launching the BRICS Startup Knowledge Hub on January 31, 2025. A first-of-its-kind platform under the BRICS Start-Up Forum, the Knowledge Hub aims to become the cornerstone of startup synergy among member nations. The initiative promises to foster collaboration, exchange policy insights, and encourage co-creation in the fields of technology, innovation, and enterprise-building.

Startups: The New Language of Diplomacy

The high-level meeting, hosted at the iconic Itamaraty Palace in Brazil under Brazil’s chairship, brought together industry ministers from the original BRICS members — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — as well as six newly inducted nations: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Under the theme “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance”, the gathering reflected a significant shift — global economic conversations are no longer just about trade tariffs and geopolitical alliances. Startups, digital ecosystems, and technological cooperation are increasingly taking center stage.

India’s intervention during the meeting echoed this evolution. It called on all member countries to come together to create a borderless environment for startups, where knowledge flows freely, innovations are shared, and entrepreneurs can build with global ambition — right from their local soil.

Inside the BRICS Startup Knowledge Hub: What It Means

The newly launched BRICS Startup Knowledge Hub is more than just a symbolic gesture. It’s designed to function as a collaborative digital platform — a go-to repository for:

• Policy frameworks and best practices from each country,

• Case studies and success stories from member nations’ startup journeys,

• Collaborative tools for matchmaking between entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and policymakers,

• And most importantly, a mechanism to facilitate co-innovation in sectors like healthtech, agritech, fintech, edtech, and sustainability.

For India, which boasts one of the world’s largest and most dynamic startup ecosystems, this is an opportunity to take a leadership role — not just by exporting talent or unicorns, but by helping build a global culture of innovation from the Global South.

India’s Digital Rise and MSME Powerhouse

India’s pitch for deeper startup cooperation isn’t without substance. Over the past decade, the country has transformed itself into a digital behemoth. As shared during the meeting, India’s internet user base soared from just over 251 million in 2014 to a staggering 954.4 million by March 2024 — a jump that positions India as the largest digitally connected democracy in the world.

At the heart of this transformation lies the Digital India mission, which has brought broadband to the grassroots, enabled digital payments at the paan shop, and created platforms like UPI, ONDC, and Aadhaar that are now global case studies.

In parallel, India’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector — the bedrock of the Indian economy — is rewriting growth stories every day. With over 5.93 crore registered units employing more than 25 crore people, this sector has contributed a massive 45.73% of India’s total exports in 2023–24.

This dual engine of growth — digital infrastructure + grassroots entrepreneurship — gives India both the credibility and capability to spearhead the next phase of BRICS-level startup integration.

A Unified Future, Rooted in Collaboration

The Joint Declaration adopted during the BRICS Industry Ministers’ Meeting was a reiteration of shared commitment: to build a more resilient and fair global economic order, to embrace inclusive governance, and to harness the power of digital technologies for sustainable development.

India concluded its address with a powerful invocation of its cultural ethos, urging the bloc to be guided by the principles of:

• Sahyog (Collaboration)

• Samanjasya (Harmony)

• Samagrata (Inclusiveness)

• Sarvasammati (Consensus)

These values aren’t just philosophical ideals — they’re now central to how India wants to shape its global startup diplomacy.

Can BRICS Startups Build Together?

With over 40% of the world’s population and nearly a third of global GDP, the BRICS+ nations hold unmatched potential. Yet their startup ecosystems have largely grown in silos. India's push for cross-border cooperation could be the catalyst to unlock a new era of collaborative innovation, especially in areas like clean energy, climate tech, digital public infrastructure, and healthcare.

As geopolitical alignments shift and traditional power blocs are redefined, startups could become the new bridges of diplomacy. India has thrown the first stone in building that bridge. Whether the rest of BRICS will walk together on this path remains to be seen.

But one thing is certain — the startup story is no longer just national. It’s becoming global. And India, through platforms like the BRICS Startup Knowledge Hub, is determined to lead from the front.