BRICS Pivot: PM Modi Warns Against 'Weaponisation' of Technology, Unveils Tech and Agri Initiatives

NEW DELHI — On the final day of the 18th BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a stark warning against the “weaponisation” of technology and access to critical minerals [September 13, 2026]. Addressing the 11-member grouping, Modi highlighted a suite of newly launched BRICS initiatives engineered to secure global supply chains and protect emerging economies from geopolitical shocks, future pandemics, and climate disasters.

As the expanded alliance enters its third decade, the Prime Minister emphasized that the international community expects concrete results, rather than "merely ideas and commitments." He noted that the trust of the Global South in BRICS has expanded significantly because "their voices are heard, their experiences are respected, and solutions are developed not for them, but together with them."

The New BRICS Digital & Financial Ecosystem

To translate this cooperation into tangible economic outcomes, Prime Minister Modi outlined several key infrastructure and start-up frameworks:

• BRICS Startup Innovation Fund: A newly proposed financial vehicle designed to fund, incubate, and scale up innovative solutions across developing markets.
• BRICS Incubator Network: A dedicated system designed to directly link start-ups and business incubators across all member nations.
• BRICS MSME Cooperation Portal: A digital bridge built to connect small and medium enterprises with cross-border knowledge networks, funding options, and untapped consumer markets.
• BRICS Urban Mobility Hub: A collaborative platform established to enable municipal bodies and major cities within the bloc to seamlessly share best practices on transit and infrastructure.

BRICS Economic & Technology Architecture
┌───────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Initiative                    │ Core Functional Objective              │
├───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Startup Innovation Fund       │ Capital injection for scalable tech    │
│ BRICS CONNECT                 │ Skill mobility & women's workforce map │
│ Network on Digital Agriculture│ AI & Digital Public Infrastructure     │
│ MSME Cooperation Portal       │ Global market access for small firms   │
└───────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘

Digital Agriculture and Labor Mobility

A central piece of India's contribution to the summit is the deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Modi announced that the BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture will directly connect Artificial Intelligence (AI), geospatial mapping, and open DPI frameworks to the immediate, real-world operational needs of smallholder farmers to boost yield resilience.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister highlighted BRICS CONNECT, a comprehensive human capital initiative focused on expanding vocational skills, enhancing employability, increasing women's participation in the formal workforce, providing robust social security safety nets, and accelerating institutional capacity building across the member states.

Remembering Acharya Vinoba Bhave: The Legacy of India’s National Teacher and First Individual Satyagrahi

• Prime Minister Pays Homage: The Prime Minister of India paid rich tributes to the eminent freedom fighter, philosopher, and social reformer Acharya Vinoba Bhave on his birth anniversary (Jayanti) [September 11].
• Early Life and Origins: Born as Vinayak Narahari Bhave (11 September 1895 – 15 November 1982) in Gagode village in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, he grew up to become a celebrated philosopher, educationist, scholar, and social activist.
• Spiritual Roots and Vow: Deeply influenced by his mother’s spiritual devotion and his father’s scientific outlook, he developed an insatiable passion for reading during his studies in Baroda and took an early vow of lifelong celibacy (Brahmacharya).
• The Search for Truth: In March 1916, he walked away from formal college education, burned his certificates, and headed to Varanasi in search of spiritual truth.
• Meeting the Mahatma: Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy, he met him in Ahmedabad on June 7, 1916. Gandhi lovingly bestowed the name ‘Vinoba’ upon him—honouring him in the lineage of Maharashtra’s great saints Jnanoba and Tukoba—and revered him as his spiritual successor (Maanas Putra).
• Champion of Sarvodaya: He dedicated his life to Gandhi’s constructive programmes, becoming a staunch advocate of non-violence, land reforms, and Sarvodaya (the welfare of all), which later earned him the moniker National Teacher of India.
• Constructive Work at Wardha: In 1921, he took charge of the Wardha branch of the Satyagraha Ashram, where he later founded the Gram Seva Mandal (1934) and pioneered vital initiatives in village sanitation, Khadi spinning, and basic education (Nai Talim).
• Freedom Struggle and Imprisonment: He was at the forefront of national agitations, actively participating in the Nagpur Flag Satyagraha (1923), the Salt Satyagraha, and various civil disobedience drives, enduring multiple terms in prison.
• The First Individual Satyagrahi (1940): In a historic move, Mahatma Gandhi handpicked Vinoba Bhave as the very first Satyagrahi to launch the Individual Civil Disobedience Movement against British involvement in World War II (with Jawaharlal Nehru chosen as the second).
• Public Introduction by Gandhi: To introduce his low-profile disciple to the wider public during the 1940 movement, Gandhi penned a famous, formal introductory essay titled Who is Vinoba?.

NDA Sets 2029 Target for Uniform Civil Code Implementation Across 21 States

• 2029 Implementation Timeline Declared: Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be implemented by 2029 across the 21 States currently governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
• Commitment to Immigrant Deportation: Alongside the legislative push for civil uniformity, the Home Minister reiterated the Union government's firm commitment to identifying and deporting every illegal immigrant from the country.
• Defining the Uniform Civil Code: The UCC refers to a single, unified set of secular laws governing deeply personal matters—including marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, and asset succession—for all citizens of India, completely superseding religion-based personal laws.
• Constitutional Mooring under Article 44: The concept of a UCC is explicitly enshrined under Article 44 of the Indian Constitution as a standalone Directive Principle of State Policy (DPSP), which mandates that the State shall endeavour to secure a uniform civil code for citizens throughout the territory of India.
• Non-Enforceable Guiding Principle: Like all other provisions under Part IV of the Constitution, Article 44 functions as a guiding principle for governance and legislative policymaking, rather than a legally enforceable fundamental right in a court of law.
• Historical Constitution Assembly Debates: The inclusion of the UCC in the draft constitution involved intense deliberation among founding leaders:
  • K.M. Munshi: Strongly advocated for a UCC to foster national unity and secularism, noting that even within Hindu communities, fragmented customs needed a uniform, modern overhaul.
  • Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyyar: Argued that a UCC would promote social harmony, highlighting that if communities could peacefully accept a common British-era criminal code, a common civil code was equally logical.
  • Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Positioned the UCC’s inclusion in the Directive Principles as a pragmatic compromise, initially emphasizing its purely optional nature to ease the anxieties of minority communities.
• Successive Judicial Exhortations: The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly triggered the UCC conversation through landmark verdicts over the decades:
  • 1985 (Shah Bano Case): The apex court upheld a divorced Muslim woman's right to maintenance, linking the realization of a UCC directly to national integration.
  • 1995 (Sarla Mudgal Case): The court strongly favoured a UCC while ruling against the practice of converting to Islam solely to bypass bigamy laws, questioning the state's persistent delay in implementation.
  • 2017 (Shayara Bano Case): The judiciary declared the practice of instant triple talaq unconstitutional, reigniting the UCC debate while viewing gender justice as a human rights issue.
• The Union vs. State Jurisdiction Clash: In successive rulings—including Shah Bano (1985), Sarla Mudgal (1995), John Vallamattoom (2003), and ABC v. NCT of Delhi (2015)—the Supreme Court has consistently exhorted the Union Parliament, rather than individual states, to enact a nationwide UCC.
• The Seventh Schedule Matrix: Under India's federal structure, family and succession laws are placed under Entry 5 of List III (Concurrent List) in the Seventh Schedule, granting concurrent legislative powers to both Parliament and state assemblies.
• The Standalone Parliament Prerogative: Despite concurrent powers allowing individual states like Uttarakhand to pass localized civil codes, any uniform law intended to apply uniformly "throughout the territory of India"—as explicitly envisioned under Article 44—must be enacted strictly by the Union Parliament.

From Restraint to 'PRAHAAR': India Institutionalises Proactive Counter-Terrorism Doctrine

• Strategic Doctrine Shift: India has fundamentally transitioned its national security posture from a historically passive policy of defensive restraint to an aggressive, proactive counter-terrorism doctrine.
• Evolution of the Threat Landscape: While state-sponsored cross-border terrorism took root in Jammu & Kashmir in the early 1990s, the nation's first catastrophic modern shock occurred outside the valley with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
• Exposing the Border Return Address: Operating without a codified national counter-terror strategy left security agencies stretched during the 1990s, but the direct, state-backed role of Pakistan was laid bare to the international community following the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 on December 24, 1999.
• Unveiling the 'PRAHAAR' Policy: To formalise its modernized security approach, the Ministry of Home Affairs officially launched ‘PRAHAAR’, the country’s first comprehensive National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy, on February 23, 2026. 
• A Coordinated Institutional Shield: The newly codified PRAHAAR Policy Framework replaces old disjointed crisis-response models with a "prevention-first" architecture driven by synchronized “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approaches. 
• The Four-Fold Modern Security Strategy: To completely insulate the country from mutating, hybrid, and cross-border threats, India's updated security strategy relies on four synchronized pillars:
  1. Ecosystem Elimination: Relentlessly hunting down and permanently dismantling the remaining remnants of active terror networks and safe houses, particularly inside Jammu & Kashmir.
  2. Pre-emptive Cross-LoC Operations: Executing pre-emptive military actions directly against developing threats and terrorist launch pads positioned across the Line of Control (LoC), leveraging a deeply embedded intelligence grid.
  3. Exhaustive National De-radicalisation: Implementing community-collaborative de-radicalisation programmes designed to integrate vulnerable youth into the mainstream while making the prospect of joining extremist outfits prohibitively costly.
  4. Choking Financial Pipelines: Deploying central intelligence agencies to systematically freeze assets, trace crypto wallets, and cut off terror financing in close coordination with international partners and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards.

India’s Doping Crisis: systemic Overhaul Demanded as Banned Substances Threaten Olympic Ambitions

• Embarrassing Global Spotlight: India’s sporting ecosystem faces intense international scrutiny following at least 13 positive doping cases detected in the high-stakes run-up to the recent Commonwealth Games and upcoming Asian Games.
• Topping Global Infraction Charts: Having notoriously led the global doping charts for three consecutive years, India’s latest spate of positive tests spans core disciplines—including athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu, and judo—resulting in direct reductions to India's official event quotas.
• Financial Incentives Driving Malpractice: Lucrative cash rewards and lifetime incentives offered to Asian Games medallists are identified as a primary trigger, driving vulnerable athletes and coaches to adopt illegal shortcuts at the cost of national pride and long-term health.
• Flawed Supply Chains and Global Trade: India has increasingly transformed into a key transit and consumption hub for illegally traded performance-enhancing drugs sourced worldwide. This reality was underscored by the recent arrest and imprisonment of an Indian national in Kenya for operating an illicit drug import ring.
• Institutional Limits of NADA: Established as an autonomous body in 2005 to promote, monitor, and coordinate anti-doping activities, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) remains severely understaffed and financially constrained, despite stepping up intelligence-based raids.
• The Call for Total Independence: Security and sports analysts argue that to enhance its enforcement capabilities across a vast country, NADA must pivot out of direct government administrative control to function as a truly independent regulatory body.
• Enforcing the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025: The federal framework requires the immediate, rigorous implementation of the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025. This law updates the primary 2022 Act to strengthen NADA's legal powers and align India's anti-doping systems with the World Anti-Doping Code and the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport.
• Reversing Budgetary Cuts: With testing protocols becoming more sophisticated and expensive, experts urge the Union government to reverse recent funding reductions and substantially bolster the national sports anti-doping budget allocation.
• WADA’s Global Harmonization Model: NADA operates in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an independent international authority founded in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
• The Universal Charter: WADA functions under an equal funding partnership between governments and the sports movement, utilizing the World Anti-Doping Code and the annually updated WADA Prohibited List to enforce identical, binding standards both in-competition and out-of-competition worldwide.
• Clean Slate Needed for Future Bids: As India positions itself to bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games and sets long-term goals to host the Olympic Games, establishing a zero-tolerance, clean sports culture remains a non-negotiable prerequisite.

The New Delhi Declaration: 18th BRICS Summit Achieves Historic Joint Consensus to Shift Global Power Equations

• A Unified Front in its 20th Year: Defying widespread international skepticism, the 18th BRICS Summit concluded in New Delhi with the unanimous adoption of the landmark New Delhi Declaration, presenting the newly expanded 11-member grouping as a formidable counterweight to unilateral global governance [September 13, 2026].
• Three Parameters of Success: Diplomatic observers have measured the historic success of the Indian Chairship across three key pillars:
  • Highest-Level Participation: Full, uninterrupted attendance from all member states at the absolute highest leadership levels.
  • Intra-BRICS Trade Acceleration: A renewed, actionable commitment to expanding deep economic cooperation and local-currency transactional frameworks.
  • Consensus Amid Global Warfare: The extraordinary achievement of Indian negotiators in forging a unified joint statement during a period of intense global conflict.
• Masterful West Asian Diplomacy: In a major diplomatic breakthrough engineered on the sidelines of the summit, New Delhi successfully facilitated the highest-level bilateral meeting between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the outbreak of the West Asian conflict, showcasing India's unique position as a trusted mediator.
• Demanding UNSC Reform: The New Delhi Declaration issued a powerful, explicit call for the structural reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), officially backing a permanent and expanded role for India and Brazil within the apex global security body.
• Condemning Western Sanctions and Unilateralism: The joint declaration strongly condemned unilateral Western economic sanctions, trade tariffs, and unauthorized wars, choosing instead to protect the economic sovereignty of emerging markets without explicitly naming or criticizing any individual member bloc.
• De-Dollarisation and Local Currency Trade: To insulate emerging economies from Western-dominated financial systems, the member states resolved to drastically scale up intra-BRICS trade and systematically execute cross-border transactions using their own local currencies.
• India as the Global South Balancer: Marking its fourth successful BRICS Chairship, the summit has solidified India's reputation as a critical Global South balancer that maintains frictionless diplomatic access to both sides of an increasingly polarized and divided world.
• Challenging Traditional Power Equations: The 18th Summit will be remembered for demonstrating deep systemic solidarity among nations that harbor domestic differences, but remain entirely aligned in their desire to transition the traditional global order into a multipolar reality driven by emerging economies.