Need to support businesses to tide over impact of COVID-19: India at BRICS

As the world reels under economic distress triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, India on Tuesday emphasised on the need to provide support to businesses to tide over the crisis and ensure that livelihoods are not lost.

At a video conference of the foreign ministers of BRICS, a bloc of five leading nations, External Affairs Minster S Jaishankar said the influential grouping has an important role to play in shaping the global economic and political architecture.

The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) represents over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world population and has a combined GDP of USD 16.6 trillion.

In his remarks, Jaishankar noted that the pandemic and the subsequent challenge highlighted the need for reform of the multilateral systems.

All the BRICS member nations are reeling under the pandemic.

Jaishankar emphasised that the pandemic is not only posing a great risk to the health and well-being of humanity but is also severely impacting global economy and output by disruption of global trade and supply chains, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

"Economic activity across sectors has been negatively impacted leading to loss of jobs and livelihoods. He emphasised that we need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs, to tide over the crisis and ensure livelihoods are not lost," the MEA said in a release.

It said the minister pointed out that the efficacy of traditional medicine systems to strengthen immunity should be recognised and that BRICS should support these efforts.