The seventh summit of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is being held at a time when the global situation seems a bit relaxed compared to the year before when the last BRICS summit was held in Brazil. The interim nuclear deal between Iran and the big powers has helped in easing the international situation and in these efforts, the BRICS members, especially Russia, China and India have played important mediatory role. Relations between China and Russia have vastly improved. Indian Prime Minister is also shortly visiting China to expand the areas of economic collaboration. That way, economic collaboration has become the prime focus of the BRICS summit and that helps India since the country is exploring all possibilities for speeding up its activities in the infrastructure sectors, giving special focus on energy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is conversant with the energy issues and he has profound knowledge of the global energy scenario. This is the right time when India should plead for more oil exploration and investment facilities for the Indian companies belonging to both public sector and private sector in Russian Federation. India can also persue India-Russia collaboration in third countries. Indian policy has been to acquire more and more oil assets in overseas and in this venture, there can be collaboration with the leading Russian companies.

Sometime back, talks were there on a Russian proposal for the setting up of a US$ 30 billion oil pipeline from Russia to India via China. Indian petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had discussed the issue at the World Petroleum Congress in Moscow last year with the officials of the Russian oil ministry. This proposal can be processed and followed up at the highest level. Since all the three countries heads will be attending the Ufa summit, this trilateral pipeline issue can be a major area of discussions for bolstering energy security. India is surrounded by countries rich in oil and gas. Russia and the central Asian countries can be a good source for India for bringing oil and gas in view of the locational advantage.

According to an international think tank study, reforms in the Indian energy sector could reduce India’s energy import bill by US$ 40 billion by 2023 and energy imports in a reform scenario could come down to about 4 per cent of the GDP. Energy imports in India can be reduced further by switching from oil to gas and providing conservation. Russia and China are synchronizing their efforts in the oil and gas sector to their mutual advantage. BRICS members can explore the possibility of bringing that synergy. Russia, China and India have to see how Brazil and South Africa can get leverage from the efforts of the three other members in harnessing their collaboration in energy.

For the 2015 BRICS summit, the big advantage is that all the three major members like China, Russia and India are determined to make a success of the summit by strengthening the areas of strategic cooperation. The setting up of the BRICS bank New Development Bank (NDB) and the China led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have opened up big opportunities for the BRICS members to participate in the developmental process of the developing countries of the world including their own. China has assured the members that the Government will facilitate more liberal bilateral economic arrangements and using the newly setup NDB and CRA to provide financial support to BRICS members and other parts of the developing world. China is expected to encourage BRICS members to build more favourable domestic environment to attract foreign capital and technologies. India also can ensure that its high tech companies increase engagement with the BRICS members industry and e-commerce sectors.

India is now advantageously placed to play a major role in the functioning of both the NDB and the AIIB. Indian companies have been doing good work in a number of developing countries, apart from the western countries. The Indian companies have the appropriate technology to suit the requirements of many of the developing countries. Indian Government has to ensure greater participation of the Indian companies in the NDB and the AIIB financed projects in different parts of the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has strong business sense. He has to give a vigorous push to the issue of energy cooperation as also Indian companies increased participation in the NDB and AIIB funded projects during his talks with the Chinese President in Beijing next week as also in Ufa summit in July this year. Strategic cooperation is the buzz word at the BRICS summit and Mr. Modi has to ensure that India gets full advantage from that. (IPA Service)