Overview
- A majority of BRICS national standards bodies signed a memorandum of understanding at the Bengaluru meeting, with remaining members pledging to sign after completing domestic approval processes.
- The agreement creates a formal cooperation mechanism to share information, exchange best practices, provide technical collaboration and build capacity among national standards bodies.
- A dedicated workshop on artificial intelligence brought experts from India, Russia, China and Brazil together to discuss standards for safe, trustworthy and accountable AI systems.
- India, using its 2026 BRICS chairship and the Bureau of Indian Standards, is driving the push to harmonize rules to reduce compliance costs for exporters and raise BIS’s role in international standard-setting.
- Coordinated BRICS standards could affect sectors from electronics and electric vehicles to medical devices and clean energy, and the pact is meant to strengthen the bloc’s voice at bodies such as ISO and IEC.