BRICS 2026: India’s HealthTech Pathways Open New Leadership Possibilities — Will China Take the New Delhi Declaration Forward?

BRICS 2026 concludes with a bigger question for India’s HealthTech journey:

Can the capabilities India has demonstrated at population scale become solutions and partnerships for the wider world?

India entered this summit with more than a large healthcare market.

It brought one of the world’s largest and most diverse healthcare ecosystems — one where digital health, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, MedTech and AI-enabled solutions are being tested across complex, high-volume and highly varied healthcare settings.

The BRICS agenda has now created several pathways to take that experience further.

The BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for Mass Infectious Diseases, cooperation on AI and digital tools for health, the BRICS Vaccine R&D Centre, the Compendium on Digital Health Architecture for Continuum of Care, and the BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Mental Health, coordinated by NIMHANS, are examples of institutional mechanisms emerging from this cooperation. 

India’s own HealthTech offerings add another dimension.

From AI-enabled cervical cancer screening and maternal-fetal monitoring to digital public infrastructure, diagnostics, MedTech, pharmaceuticals and emerging healthcare technologies, India increasingly has solutions that can be adapted to different healthcare environments.

This is where the New Delhi Declaration becomes important.

If BRICS is to become an “ecosystem of solutions”, as Prime Minister Modi described it, the next test is implementation: clinical validation, research collaboration, technology partnerships, regulatory cooperation, investment and deployment.

And the opportunity should go beyond BRICS.

For developing countries, India can offer case studies in affordable and scalable healthcare innovation.

For developed countries, India offers something equally valuable: scale, diversity and a real-world environment in which technologies, healthcare models and solutions can be tested, adapted and scaled.

This should create a stronger invitation to the US, Europe, Japan and other advanced HealthTech ecosystems:

Come to India. Co-develop here. Test here. Invest here. Research here. Build partnerships here. And take what works to other markets.

India’s ambition is therefore not be to become a HealthTech leader by closing itself off.

It is to become a HealthTech connector and co-creator — connecting Indian scale and innovation with global technology, research and capital.

China now takes over the BRICS chairship.

The expectation should be that China takes the New Delhi Declaration forward as an implementation agenda — particularly its health, AI, digital and innovation commitments — rather than allowing BRICS to become primarily a platform for debates over de-dollarisation.

That expectation is consistent with the summit’s own emphasis on moving from frameworks to tangible outcomes. China has also proposed deeper AI cooperation, including a BRICS AI initiative, giving the next chairship an opportunity to connect technology cooperation with the broader commitments made in New Delhi.

India has demonstrated scale. BRICS has created frameworks. The next step is to connect them with the world.

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