Yechury (above), Menon

New Delhi, Nov. 17: The global economic crisis appears to have nudged Delhi towards increasing its efforts at a multi-polar world.

The Bric countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — are set to hold a summit to discuss the meltdown. A happy Left wants the grouping to induct South Africa and rename itself Brics.

Bric is not a formal grouping yet: the acronym was coined by Goldman Sachs in 2001 to refer to the world’s emerging economies.

Addressing a seminar on the economic turbulence this evening, CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury stressed that after an Ibsa (India, Brazil and South Africa) meeting on the financial crisis, “it’s time” that Bric, or Brics, too discussed the matter.

Although the proposal for the Bric summit predates the meltdown, the state of the global economy and fears of widespread recession seem to have triggered efforts to hold it early next year.

“A summit among the Bric countries is being discussed. It could take place next year,” foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said. He highlighted the increasing co-operation between India, Russia and China in trilateral formats and the trio’s co-operation with Brazil.

Menon also reaffirmed the need for reforms in global financial institutions to give greater voice to the major developing countries. At the summit, the Bric countries are expected to press for more say in financial institutions.

The issue had figured in discussions between the finance ministers of the Bric countries in Sao Paulo a week before the G20 summit in Washington this month.

The G20, too, has underlined the need for emerging nations to have a greater say in the new economic world order. One decision taken at the G20 summit was to include India, Brazil and China in the board of the Financial Stability Forum — the global policy powerhouse that has been the preserve of the G8.

Before the Sao Paulo discussions, the foreign ministers of the Bric countries had met on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Japan in July.

Leaders from India and Brazil also interact at the annual Ibsa conclave, while the Indian foreign minister and his counterparts from Russia and China hold a trilateral meeting every year.