Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that to make BRICS a future-ready organization, there is a need to make the respective societies also future-ready.

He said, technology will play an important role in this. Speaking at the open plenary session of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg today, Mr Modi said, in around two decades, BRICS has undertaken a long and magnificent journey and in this journey, the grouping made numerous achievements. He called on all BRICS countries to support the inclusion of the African Union in the G20.

The Prime Minister said, to give a new path to the BRICS agenda, India had put forth suggestions on issues such as railway research network, close cooperation between MSMEs, online BRICS databases, and start-up firms.

Mr Modi expressed happiness that a lot of progress was made on these issues. He also announced India's support for the expansion of BRICS. He also proposed cooperation with the BRICS Space exploration consortium that will focus on space research and weather monitoring.