Delhi turns into fortress for BRICS Summit

New Delhi, Mar 29 (ANI): Security forces have turned New Delhi into a virtual fortress for the fourth BRICS Summit, which comprise the emerging economic powerhouses of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Security personnel were on Thursday seen patrolling across the city maintaining a strict vigil to prevent any untoward incident.

Around 2,000 Delhi Police personnel and the elite National Security Guard commandos are keeping vigil at the Taj Palace Hotel, the venue of the event. Traffic in and around the venue has come to a standstill.

Heads of the BRICS countries, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa will participate in the summit being hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The summit will discuss steps to jointly respond to the common challenges. Some agreements are expected to be signed allowing individual development banks to extend credit to other members and boosting cooperation in the development of the infrastructure.

Over the past years, the BRICS has maintained stable and fast growth on the whole, and has thus become an important locomotive in pushing forward global economic growth

Leaders of the grouping are expected to launch plans for a joint development bank and measures to bring their stock exchanges closer together.

The initiative would allow the countries to pool their resources for infrastructure improvements, and could also be used in the longer term as a vehicle for lending during global financial crises such as the one currently on in Europe.

An initiative to establish a development bank billed as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is likely to be discussed at the summit.

Officials say the initiatives will take time as summit leaders and participants need to sort out details. But these initiatives herald a new level of ambition for a bloc that brings together about half the world's people. The Middle East and energy security will also be discussed.

Institutionalized in September 2006, the BRICS group-evolving from the BRIC term coined by Goldman Sachs in 2001-has emerged as a loose united front to press the rich Western economies, especially the United States, which traditionally dominated global diplomacy.

The addition of South Africa added another continent, making the group seem ever more like a platform to voice the concerns of the developing world. (ANI)