BRICS has emerged as a promising club of emerging economies with a substantial contribution to the global trade and economy (Iqbal et al., 2015). According to the latest statistics, the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of BRICS countries in 2019 was US$ 21,154,265 million which is 53% of the total GDP of G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA) and it is expected to go up in the coming years (UNCTAD, 2021). The annual average of the GDP growth for BRICS in 2019 was 2.78% (Brazil 1%, China 6.1%, India 5.3%, Russia 1.3%, South Africa 0.19%) while for the G7 countries it was 1.17% (UNCTAD, 2021a). The trade balance expressed in terms of GDP for BRICS was 2.2% in 2019 while for the G7 countries it was (-) 0.42%, again suggesting a significant contribution of BRICS in the International Trade (UNCTAD, 2021b). This shows the potential of BRICS to outpace G7 countries in certain indicators. There can be no better time for publishing on BRICS studies when a Covid19 affected world is looking towards BRICS for more than one reason. BRICS cooperation in a multitude of domains (Luckhurst, 2013), from healthcare to the digital payments system, has made it a hot cake in multilateral cooperation studies (Zhongxiu and Qingxin, 2020). There can be no denial about the potential economic might of BRICS economies, and as studies suggest it will continue to bolster (Nayyar, 2020). Published literature suggests the case for BRICS as an emerging block (Iqbal and Rahman, 2016; Iqbal and de Araújo, 2015), though there are studies questioning the existence of a block (Beausang, 2012). The absence of a ratified agreement does not indicate the absence of a block. The cooperation among BRICS is proving to serve the purpose of a block without creating a complex legal structure. Cooperation in the emerging areas among BRICS countries is also taking its own pace such as Trade (Rahman, 2016; Rahman et al., 2020), Climate Change (Rahman and Turay, 2018), Sustainable Development Goals, Smart Cities, Industrialization 4.0 et cetera. Considering the increasing significance of BRICS countries in the Global Economy and its competitiveness (Loo and Iqbal, 2019), there was a need to deliberate on BRICS as an emerging block. The special issue in hand is the outcome of such deliberations, having a variety of articles focusing on different dimensions of BRICS issues and cooperation.
