The five major emerging national economies known as the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—have gained on the world stage. For BRICS watchers, and anyone interested in the future of India’s burgeoning economy, twenty-two scholars have developed one of the most comprehensive volumes to date on India: Shaping the Emerging World.

India faces a defining period. Its status as a global power is not only recognized but increasingly institutionalized, even as geopolitical shifts create both opportunities and challenges. India experienced rapid growth through participation in the existing multilateral order—now its development strategy makes it dependent on this order. With critical interests in almost every major multilateral regime and vital stakes in several emerging ones, India has no choice but to influence the evolving multilateral order if it is to sustain its own interests.

If India seeks to affect the multilateral order, how will it do so? In the past, it had little choice but to be content with rule taking—adhering to existing international norms and institutions. Will it now focus on rule breaking—challenging the present order primarily for effect and seeking greater accommodation in existing global institutions? Or will it focus on rule shaping—contributing in partnership with others to shape emerging norms and regimes, particularly on energy, food, climate, oceans, and cyber security? And how much do India’s troubled neighborhood, complex domestic politics and limited capacity inhibit its rule-shaping ability?

Despite limitations, India increasingly has the ideas, people, and tools to shape the global order, in the words of Jawaharal Nehru, “not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.” Will India keep its “tryst with destiny” and emerge as one of the shapers of the emerging international order? This volume seeks to answer that question.

Fast Facts on India

• The majority of Indians derive their income directly or indirectly from farming, even though agriculture makes up less than a fifth of India’s economy

• Only 72 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water

• India is the world's largest democracy

• By 2050 India will need to support more than 18 percent of the global population on just 2.4 percent of the world’s land

• India has emerged as the largest nontraditional donor to Afghanistan and has already extended aid to the tune of $1.6 billion

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What's Inside

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17. From Pluralism to Multilateralism? G-20, IBSA, BRICS, and BASIC
Christophe Jaffrelot and Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu

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Praise for Shaping the Emerging World