Which of the following countries are members of BRICS? 1. India 2. Indonesia 3. Iran 4. Egypt 5. Ethiopia Select the correct answer:
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1, 3, 4 and 5
- (d)1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Correct — D, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
India is a founder. The four BRIC economies began meeting as a bloc in 2006 and held their first leaders' summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009; South Africa's admission at the end of 2010 turned BRIC into BRICS.
The other four names on the list arrived later. Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran took up membership with effect from 1 January 2024, and Indonesia became the first South-East Asian full member on 6 January 2025.
Each of the five named countries is therefore in, so the answer takes the whole list, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Carry away the habit rather than the roll: a membership list is only true as of a date, so fix the grouping's latest accession before you start counting.
- (a)1 and 2 only — India and Indonesia are both members, so the pair is not absurd. But stopping at two skips the round that took effect on 1 January 2024 and brought Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia into the grouping.
This pair does answer a different question cleanly — which of these five belong to the G20 as member countries in their own right. Egypt and Ethiopia sit in the G20 through the African Union, admitted to that forum in 2023, rather than as member countries.
Iran is not on the G20 roster at all, neither individually nor through a member bloc.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Indonesia and Iran are members, but the option drops India, which has been in the grouping since the BRIC meetings began and long before any later entrant. Dropping a founder is the whole error here.
The pair is right for a narrower question — which of these five BRICS members belong neither to the original BRIC group nor to the African Union. Egypt and Ethiopia are African Union states, and India is a founder.
- (c)1, 3, 4 and 5 — This keeps India, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia and drops Indonesia. That is the sharpest wrong option, because it is not a random subset: it is exactly the subset of the five countries named in the stem that were members through 2024.
It is the right answer to this same stem asked during 2024, before Indonesia's accession. Indonesia's full membership dates from 6 January 2025, and the official key marks the full list, so the paper counts Indonesia in.
BRICS is a grouping of large emerging economies that works by consensus rather than by treaty. It has no charter and no permanent secretariat; the chair rotates annually, and the chair hosts the leaders' summit.
The name comes from the BRIC acronym used for Brazil, Russia, India and China in a 2001 Goldman Sachs paper by Jim O'Neill. The four turned the label into a real bloc from 2006, meeting as foreign ministers and then as leaders.
The grouping has built two institutions of its own, the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, both agreed at the Fortaleza summit in 2014.
The membership roll is the part of BRICS that has moved. The Johannesburg summit of 2023 issued invitations, the expansion took effect on 1 January 2024, and Indonesia followed in January 2025.
The Kazan summit announced a partner-country tier on 24 October 2024, effective from 1 January 2025. A state can therefore appear in BRICS meetings and documents without being a member, and treating 'associated with BRICS' as 'member of BRICS' is where a count goes wrong.
For an aspirant this sits beside the wider map of groupings India belongs to — G20, SCO, IBSA, QUAD — where the same discipline applies: hold the roll, and hold the date it is true for.
- The four BRIC countries began meeting as a bloc in 2006 and held their first leaders' summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.
- South Africa was admitted at the end of 2010 and took part in its first summit in 2011, making the acronym BRICS.
- Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates took up BRICS membership with effect from 1 January 2024.
- Saudi Arabia was invited in that same round but has not publicly confirmed that it accepted, and its status is reported as unsettled.
- Indonesia became the first South-East Asian full member of BRICS on 6 January 2025.
- The 16th BRICS summit was held at Kazan, Russia, in October 2024 under Russia's chairship.
- The theme of that Kazan summit was 'Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security'.
- The Kazan summit announced a partner-country category on 24 October 2024, a status distinct from full membership, which took effect from 1 January 2025.
- Nigeria is associated with BRICS as a partner country rather than as a full member.
- The New Development Bank was agreed at the Fortaleza summit in 2014, with its headquarters at Shanghai and its first regional office at Johannesburg.
- The Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a currency-swap safety net of US$100 billion, was signed alongside the bank at Fortaleza.
The five states named in the stem are members, reached by three different routes and dates; the last row shows the partner tier that sits outside membership.
- A roll memorised from material written during 2024 yields India, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia and lands on option (c); Indonesia's membership dates from 6 January 2025.
- Partner country and full member are separate statuses, so a state named in BRICS documents need not count in a membership tally.
- Saudi Arabia's position has not been publicly confirmed, so a count that turns on it is unsafe.
- The stem asks about membership alone; importing a second test — who is also in the G20, or who joined in the same year — shrinks the set and loses the mark.
- An option that was right at an earlier date is still wrong today, so date the latest accession you can before choosing.
The same fact is set in different frames. One frame lists numbered states and asks which of them belong; another names four states and asks how many are full members, which turns on the member-versus-partner line.
A third frame leaves the roll and moves to a particular summit — its chair, its venue, its theme — or to the grouping's institutions, such as the New Development Bank's capital or its headquarters.
A fourth frame crosses two organisations, asking whether the members of one are also inside another, as with BRICS and the G20.
GEO_GS_2026_Q802026The same fact base — who counts as a full member after the expansion — but set as a count rather than a selection. Its list brings in the United Arab Emirates, a 1 January 2024 entrant, alongside Nigeria, whose link to BRICS is as a partner country, so it turns on the member-versus-partner line that the UKPSC stem never has to touch.
UPSC_2025_GS1_Q972025Shares the decisive fact of this item, Indonesia's full membership. It differs in form and in reach: statements rather than a numbered list, and two of the three statements are about the 16th summit — its chair and venue at Kazan, and its theme — so it needs summit detail on top of the roll.
CDS_GK_2022_I_Q482022Same grouping, a different layer: it asks what BRICS is rather than who is in it, and its keyed description of a five-country bloc of major emerging economies belongs to the period before the expansion. Useful as the 'before' picture against which this item's roll is the 'after'.
CAPF_GAI_2024_Q902024Tests the same competence across two organisations instead of one, asking among other things whether every BRICS country is also in the G20 — a claim the 2024 and 2025 accessions bear on directly. This item only needs the BRICS roll; that one needs the G20 roll as well.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following countries became a full member of BRICS in January 2025?
- (a)Nigeria
- (b)Indonesia
- (c)Saudi Arabia
- (d)Argentina
Answerb — Indonesia became the first South-East Asian full member of BRICS on 6 January 2025.Nigeria's link to BRICS is as a partner country, which is a status below membership. Saudi Arabia was invited in the 2024 round and has not publicly confirmed acceptance. Argentina was invited in that same round and did not take up membership.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following countries: 1. Egypt 2. Ethiopia 3. Iran 4. United Arab Emirates. Which of these took up BRICS membership with effect from 1 January 2024?
- (a)1 and 3 only
- (b)2, 3 and 4 only
- (c)1, 2 and 4 only
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4
Answerd — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates all took up membership from 1 January 2024, and attended their first summit as members at Kazan in October 2024.Options (a), (b) and (c) each leave out one or two of that same round: (a) omits Ethiopia and the UAE, (b) omits Egypt, and (c) omits Iran. Indonesia is not in this list because it joined a year later.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following BRICS members is also a member country of the G20 in its own right?
- (a)Iran
- (b)Egypt
- (c)Ethiopia
- (d)Brazil
Answerd — Brazil is one of the original BRIC economies and sits on the G20's roster of member countries in its own right.Iran is not on that roster. Egypt and Ethiopia are represented in the G20 through the African Union, which was admitted to that forum in 2023, rather than individually — which is exactly the distinction this question tests.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The New Development Bank, agreed at the Sixth BRICS Summit, has its headquarters at:
- (a)Shanghai
- (b)New Delhi
- (c)Johannesburg
- (d)Moscow
Answera — the Fortaleza Declaration of 2014 placed the bank's headquarters at Shanghai.Johannesburg is the tempting pick because the same declaration set the bank's first regional office there, in South Africa. New Delhi and Kazan have hosted BRICS summits, which is a different thing from hosting the bank.