Top officials of several Indian Universities have converged at Beijing to attend the BRICS University President Forum 2015 that began a three- day meeting. The Forum, jointly organised by Beijing Normal University and Beijing Municipal Commission of Education from October 17-19, 2015 strives to build an exchange platform among academia, political sphere and business community, leading to in-depth research on major challenges confronted by the BRICS countries and the world at large.

Representatives from 12 Indian universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University, Vishwa Bharti University, University of Educational Planning and Administration, Delhi University and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi are participating in the Forum.

Did You Know?

• BRICS is acronym of group of five major emerging national economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• It was earlier known as BRIC. BRIC countries held their first meet on June 16, 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
• The group was renamed BRICS to reflect the now-five-nation membership, with an “S” for South Africa appended to the acronym.
• On 11 May 2015, K. V. Kamath was appointed as President of the New Development Bank (NDB).
• As of 2015, the five BRICS countries represent over 3 billion people, or 42% of the world population.
• The VIII BRICS Summit will be hosted in 2016 by India. Location – New Delhi.