TIMES NOW to track India’s BRICS moment with special coverage

MUMBAI: Times Now is stepping up its coverage of the 18th BRICS Summit with ‘BRICS Dialogues’, a special initiative examining India’s growing role in the emerging global order.

Scheduled in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September, the initiative will track the build-up to the summit, developments on the ground and wider debates around BRICS, its expanding membership and the growing influence of the Global South.

Ahead of the summit, TIMES NOW has featured conversations with diplomats, policymakers, economists, strategic affairs experts and global voices including former Tibet PM-in-exile Lobsang Sangay, former G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, Indian Trade Promotion Organisation chairman and former diplomat Jawed Ashraf, economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, AlphaGeo founder and CEO Parag Khanna, and former BRICS Sherpa T.S. Tirumurti.

Exclusive interviews with Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari and former Indian ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale are also set to air.

Speaking to Zakka Jacob, Martin Wolf discussed the relevance of BRICS, India-China relations, US-China ties and the conflicts shaping global geopolitics. He highlighted the grouping’s role as a platform where India and China can engage within a wider multilateral framework, helping ease some bilateral tensions.

Wolf also discussed the ongoing US-Iran conflict and its potential impact on global oil supplies and prices, warning that prolonged disruption could significantly reduce inventories and push crude prices towards historical highs.

Economist and author Jeffrey D. Sachs questioned the framing of India as having a strategic partnership with the US, arguing that Asia is becoming the centre of global economic growth and that closer India-China ties could benefit the region.

Sachs positioned BRICS as part of a move towards a multipolar and non-hegemonic global system, while arguing for a world order based on multilateralism and the UN Charter. He also linked the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine to what he described as US geopolitical expansion.

AlphaGeo founder and CEO Parag Khanna said BRICS should focus on its economic role rather than attempting to address every geopolitical conflict.

He argued that members should deepen cooperation in areas such as energy, infrastructure, critical minerals and trade, while strengthening institutions such as the New Development Bank.

Khanna also called for greater efforts to reduce dependence on the US dollar and strengthen economic resilience against external shocks.

Under the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, BRICS Dialogues will bring together Union ministers, policymakers, diplomats, economists, business leaders and global thought leaders to examine India’s evolving role in BRICS and the wider global power shift.

TIMES NOW said its coverage will focus on the choices facing India as traditional alliances are tested and new centres of economic and geopolitical influence emerge.

The channel will combine interviews, on-ground reporting and analysis across the summit, with its newsroom focusing on putting developments in politics, diplomacy, international affairs and economics into context.

Through sustained coverage before and during the summit, TIMES NOW aims to place India’s BRICS moment at the centre of the national conversation around the next global order.